By Jordan Hansen
It’s been a rough couple weeks for Michigan State.
First, there’s the losing streak. It’s now at four games, three of which have taken place in Spartan Stadium.
East Lansing seems to be a miserable place to be right now.
“It’s hard to win football games; it’s difficult,” Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio said on the weekly Big Ten teleconference. “There’s a very fine line between winning and losing. Nine months ago, we were playing in a Big Ten Championship.
“We’ll remain confident.”
That might be hard. The Spartans will head to Maryland this week to take on a surprisingly tough Terrapin team.
A win there doesn’t seem likely, considering just how awful the team has been. In fact, it doesn’t look like there will be a whole lot more wins on the Spartans, schedule this year. Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State all loom, as do more winnable games against Illinois and Rutgers.
Michigan State is 13th in the Big Ten in scoring and rushing offense and only higher up in the passing offense rankings (third) because of how often the Spartans have had to play from behind.
There’s been some switching around of players on the depth chart, most notably at quarterback, which doesn’t seem to bode real well for the rest of the season.
Perhaps things could get better, but right now, it seems the coaching staff (and by extension, the rest of the team) is grasping for answers.
“There are a lot of different reasons for winning and losing. What you have to do is go back and say, ‘This is where we’re at, we’re in a storm, and if you want to get better, this is what we have to do,’ ” Dantonio said. “That’s what we will do.”
Ohio State notches huge road win
The Buckeyes went to Madison and barely came out ahead of Wisconsin in a game that went into overtime.
Ohio State stopped the Badgers on fourth and goal and moved to 6-0 on the season. It was a tough loss for a Wisconsin team that led for good portions of the game.
“We were down by 10 in a tough environment to a very good team,” Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer said at the teleconference. “J.T. [Barrett] had a lot to do with it.”
Indeed he did.
Barrett went 17-of-29 passing for 226 yards, a touchdown, and an interception. He was also the Buckeyes’ leading rusher, running the ball 21 times on the ground for 92 yards and another two touchdowns.
Nebraska continues streak
The Cornhuskers survived a tough test from Indiana this week to move to 6-0 on the season and all the way up to No. 8 in the AP Poll.
Nebraska quarterback Tommy Armstrong reverted back to some of his bad throwing ways, but still got enough done to win the game. Certainly, there was a bit of bad luck on the Hoosiers’ part, but being undefeated often takes a little luck.
Just ask Iowa last season.
It’s been a good combination of things for Nebraska head coach Mike Riley, who is in his second season as head coach.
“We were fortunate and happy to win in Indiana; it was a good football game,” Riley said during the teleconference. “We’re playing a lot better than we were a year ago, and maybe the biggest reason is the growth of some young players.”
