{"id":2361,"date":"2016-10-14T15:18:20","date_gmt":"2016-10-14T19:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordoncollegefootball.com\/?p=2361"},"modified":"2018-01-08T12:08:46","modified_gmt":"2018-01-08T17:08:46","slug":"spartans-vs-wildcats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2016\/10\/14\/spartans-vs-wildcats\/","title":{"rendered":"Preview: Spartans vs. Wildcats"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Michigan State vs. Northwestern Preview<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday, October 15<sup>th<\/sup> at 3:30 EDT the <strong>Michigan State Spartans<\/strong> will take on the <strong>Northwestern Wildcats<\/strong> <strong>at Spartan Stadium<\/strong>.\u00a0 What once looked like an easy win for Sparty has now become a pivotal game for the Spartans.\u00a0 Michigan State is currently riding a three game losing streak, something that has not been too common in recent years, considering the Spartans have won 66 games since 2010. However, to some Spartan fans, they still have the DNA of champions.\u00a0 In order for the Spartans to win, they will need a couple of things to go right for them in some key areas.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Run Sparty, Run<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Michigan State needs to get back to that physical, pounding ground game that they have become known for.\u00a0 In last year\u2019s upset win over the <strong>Ohio State Buckeyes<\/strong>, everyone in the Stadium knew what was going to happen, yet Ohio State could not stop it. The 22 play drive to clinch the Big Ten Championship against the <strong>Iowa Hawkeyes<\/strong> last year was textbook Michigan State ground and pound football. \u00a0In last week\u2019s home loss to the <strong>BYU Cougars<\/strong>, the Spartans only gained 85 yards on 32 carries. Michigan State relies heavily on its ground attack to set up its pass game.\u00a0 Without first establishing the run, the Spartans have struggled to move the ball through the air.\u00a0 Look for the Spartans to try to get <strong>LJ Scott <\/strong>and <strong>Gerald Holmes<\/strong> involved early in the game, to stay ahead of the chains.\u00a0 If the traditional ground game struggles look for the Spartans to get creative and get senior wide receiver <strong>RJ Shelton<\/strong> involved with different variations of the jet sweep.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Quarterback Play<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It is no secret that quarterback play has been inconsistent to say the least.\u00a0 With Michigan State currently in the midst of a three-way quarterback battle, it\u2019s not clear who will come out as the starter.\u00a0 Whoever is named the starter whether its <strong>Tyler O\u2019Connor<\/strong> or <strong>Damion Terry<\/strong>, who came in for O\u2019Connor during the BYU game or the third member of the competition <strong>Brian Lewerke <\/strong>look for them to get easy throws early to try to settle into a rhythm. If Terry is named the starter, look for the Spartans to use his running ability to get him into a rhythm and mix up their traditional run game with a little bit more of a zone read as seen last year against Ohio State. Terry also brings the added dimension of extending plays with his legs and his scramble ability, as seen in this clip from the <strong>Spartan Spring Game<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Damion Terry Touchdown for Team White!\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NzkrmUP82OM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Regardless of whoever is named the starter, do not expect them to go out and win the game with their arm.\u00a0 It is too soon for that, and that just is not the style of play the Spartans would like to play unless they have a soon to be NFL quarterback like <strong>Kirk<\/strong> <strong>Cousins<\/strong> or <strong>Connor Cook<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Get Well, Defense<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Spartan defense has been bitten badly by the injury bug, particularly at linebacker where they have been without <strong>Riley Bullough<\/strong> and <strong>Jon Reschke<\/strong> for an extended period of time. This has caused Sparty to be softer in the run game than they have been in previous years.\u00a0 Last week against BYU the Spartans gave up an uncharacteristic 260 yards on the ground.\u00a0 Hopefully the time off from games as allowed the Spartan linebackers to get healthy.\u00a0 They will need it against Northwestern and <strong>Justin Jackson<\/strong>.\u00a0 Northwestern in currently facing their own quarterback issues, and they love to ride their workhouse running back Justin Jackson to get their offense moving and take as much pressure of their quarterback <strong>Clayton Thorson<\/strong> as possible.\u00a0 If the <strong>Malik McDowell<\/strong> and Spartan defensive line can create havoc in the run game disrupt the Northwestern run game that features several pulling lineman and misdirection, they can hopefully provide the Spartan linebackers with clear lanes to run through to attack Justin Jackson.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Prediction:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Spartans are at home; in a game they must have.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think there is anything else to be said.\u00a0 This Northwestern team, is tough and improving rapidly from where they started the season at.\u00a0 The quarterback play from both teams is a push, but I think Michigan State is the more talented team across the board.\u00a0 I think the Spartans win a low scoring affair 17-10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michigan State vs. Northwestern Preview On Saturday, October 15th at 3:30 EDT the Michigan State Spartans will take on the Northwestern Wildcats at Spartan Stadium.\u00a0 What once looked like an easy win for Sparty has now become a pivotal game for the Spartans.\u00a0 Michigan State is currently riding a three game losing streak, something that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1673,"featured_media":1694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[724,723,524,727,523,420,825,726,725,519],"class_list":["post-2361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bigten","tag-brian-lewerke","tag-damion-terry","tag-gerald-holmes","tag-jon-reschke","tag-lj-scott","tag-michigan-state-spartans","tag-northwestern-wildcats","tag-r-j-shelton","tag-riley-bullough","tag-tyler-oconnor"],"modified_by":"Ben Kerr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1673"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}