Predictably, after losing 20-3 to Notre Dame Saturday, the biggest concern with the Michigan State football team is the offense. That was the major point of emphasis in the recap of what went wrong from SB Nation's Michigan State blog The Only Colors:
The running game was so-so - 80 yards on 21 carries, a 3.8 average (sacks removed). That was the good news. Andrew Maxwell spent much of the game running for his life, being sacked four times for 30 yards and barely completing half of his passes (23/45 for 187 yards). The offensive line had a terrible night pass-blocking; most of the pass plays were short dump-offs because Maxwell was going to get killed if he waited for a deep route to come open. When the ball did get out, it was often wobbly and Maxwell's intended targets often had trouble hanging on. The offense never seemed to get into any sort of rhythm and took far too long to adjust to the few things that were working.
Michigan State's defense actually performed well — Notre Dame quarterback Everett Golson completed less than 50 percent of his passes and the Irish were just 1-for-12 on third-down conversions. Despite the loss, Michigan State is still among the favorites to win the Big Ten.
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