Michigan State is still hitting, still hunting for a breakthrough despite loss at Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa – Harlon Barnett hasn’t run out of faith that Michigan State can still be a good football team. He might be running low on believers on the outside, but there doesn’t appear to be a shortage of them in the Michigan State locker room.
Barnett – Michigan State’s interim coach following the firing of Mel Tucker – was still upbeat, still managing a smile, still task-oriented late Saturday night when discussing the Spartans’ painful 26-16 loss to Iowa.
He was enjoying most of the night, celebrating Cal Haladay’s 42-yard fumble return for a touchdown, and Angelo Grose’s interception early in the second half.
And Jonathan Kim’s 58-yard field goal at the end of the first half.
And all those defensive thuds which contained a respectable Iowa running attack.
“This is the first game since I’ve been in this position where we were leading in a game,” Barnett said. “And it felt good. We were playing well. And we just couldn’t finish it at the end.”
Michigan State out-gained Iowa on the ground 156-61, and held Iowa’s replacement quarterback, Deacon Hill, to 11-of-27 passes for 115 yards.
If you had heard those stats prior to the game, you would have sworn that Michigan State would win. Senior offensive guard J.D. Duplain, who didn’t have a great start to the season, made progress last week against Maryland, and helped the o-line have an even better performance against Iowa.
Duplain’s work, and the work of his o-line mates, combined with pretty good tight end blocking, helped Nathan Carter rush for 108 yards and a 5.4 per-carry average.
“That was a statement in us being able to hold them to 61 yards rushing,” Barnett said. “They want to run the ball.
“A lot of times when you rush for 156 yards, you will win the game … unless you lose the turnover battle.
“I’m proud of our guys up front. Those guys up front played hard. They are out there giving great effort. You don’t see guys loafing around and trying not to hit people.”
Michigan State has lost three straight games, and in terms of raw results on the scoreboard, there would seem to be reason for the team to start doubting itself. But that hasn’t happened yet.
“We feel ourselves getting better as a team each week offensively,” Duplain said. “I feel like we are doing some good things moving the ball, rushing the ball better than we did at the start of the season, against better competition.
“I feel like our defense is playing hard, playing good, and they are putting us in good positions.
“It just comes down to a couple of plays – four or five plays a game – and you never know which plays those are going to be. That’s why you have to play hard every play, every snap. That’s the message we’re preaching – play hard every single snap.”
After Barnett’s postgame speech in the locker room, Duplain stood up and spoke to the team. His belief is still strong.
“I said after the game that I think we have a great football team,” Duplain said. “I think we have a lot of talent. I think we have a great coaching staff. It’s just those five, eight, 10 plays a game that make it. We have to play as hard as we can every snap and fix those things.”
You can debate how “great” Michigan State’s team and talent is. But you can’t fault Duplain’s convictions.
There is little doubt that his resolve will remain strong. But what about the other 80 or 90 players in the locker room. Will they keep showing up to hammer hard in these uncertain football times?
“I feel like this team has bought in,” Duplain said. “We have had some adversity. We have had some unfortunate things happen to us. But everyone shows up ready to go.
“Whoever shows up, they are going to give 100 percent every single day. We have enough players to win.”
IT ONLY TAKES A FEW BREAKDOWNS
Barnett has been calling for better discipline since last week’s 31-9 give-away against Maryland.
The Spartans showed improved disciplined in terms of defensive assignments against Iowa, which isn’t hard to do against the Hawkeyes’ anemic passing game, but it can be somewhat challenging in run defense.
Michigan State mixed in some well-timed exotic blitzes and pressures on third down, ending positively for the Spartans. Discipline was good in that regard.
But a late hit by second-string defensive end Tunmise Adeleye tacked on 15 yards to a 32-yard gain which ignited Iowa’s one and only touchdown drive in the second quarter.
And there were at least three missed tackles on the 13-yard TD pass to tight end Eric All on a “now” route screen which gave Iowa a 10-6 lead.
And there was tight end Jaylan Franklin’s false start prior to a 45-yard field goal attempt that could have given Michigan State a 19-13 lead late in the third quarter. The penalty moved it back to 50 yards, and Jonathan Kim missed it off the right upright.
Then, at the end, after Iowa had tied the game at 16-16, there were the critical false starts by tight end Evan Morris on third-and-three, and by Spencer Brown on third-and-eight. That preceded Cooper DeJean’s 70-yard punt return.
“We just have to play smarter, disciplined football,” Barnett said. ‘We have to be able to do that to win football games. We know that. I applaud the effort. The effort was outstanding.”
What wrong on the punt return? It was another form of discipline. This time Ryan Eckley, who was a huge positive for Michigan State through the first three-and-a-a-half quarters of this game, failed to hit a directional punt in the proper direction.
“We had gunners over, so both of our detached guys were on one side,” Barnett said. “And I don’t think the punt necessarily went to their side like it was trying to do, and he (DeJean) got up the short side of the field.”
He’s a dangerous punt returner, and that error gave him way too much room to work with
“And then you have to make tackles,” Barnett said. “You have to get people on the ground.”
Barnett acknowledged that earlier in the game Eckley hit a 61-yarder which was downed at the 3-yard line, a 52-yarder which was downed at the 10, and a 67-yarder which was downed at the 5.
“He boomed one of those, it was beautiful,” Barnett said. “He changed field position, and then we held them down there.
“We do some good things, and then we go up and down. We have to stay up. We have a good team. It’s about consistency.”
And that gets back to discipline.
“If anybody has any suggestions, I’m posing it to you guys on how we can be more consistent in our discipline and in (reducing) turnovers, and penalties and those type of things,” Barnett said to media after the game, jokingly. Kind of.
“I’m wracking my brain,” he said. “I’m going to make some calls to people I know in different placed around the country and see how you can become more disciplined and more focused to not committing turnovers, and bad penalties and things like that. Once we clean that stuff up, you will see a much better team.
“We helped Iowa beat us tonight.”
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