Nobody gave them a chance in August, and no one expected them to play as well as they have this season. But after two straight losses that have tainted an otherwise successful year, the Michigan State football team knows it has a long way to go before seriously thinking about a trip to the Rose Bowl.
Picked by college football experts to finish near the bottom of the Big Ten Conference, the Spartans (4-2 Big Ten, 7-3 overall) surprised the nation by winning seven of their first eight games and staying in contention for the league title before dropping back-to-back games to perennial powerhouses Michigan and Ohio State.
With two games left, including this week's matchup at Wisconsin, the Spartans will try to finish 2003 on a high note by winning nine games after finishing with a 4-8 record last season, their worst in 11 years. But if they are to experience any success in the coming weeks, they will have to fix the shortcomings that have hurt them in their two recent losses-the lack of a consistent running game and a leaky run defense that has kept the unit on the offense on the field for too long.
Although Michigan State ranks fourth in the Big Ten in total offense and third in scoring offense, averaging 383.4 yards and 38 points per game, the Spartans have been formidable without a running game that can take pressure off of senior quarterback Jeff Smoker. Michigan State's inability to run, however, finally caught up with them against the Wolverines and the Buckeyes, as the team was outgained 834-668.
In both games, the Spartans rushed for a measly 41 yards on 33 carries, including an all-time low five yards on 17 attempts in last Saturday's 33-23 loss to Ohio State. After the game, Head Coach John L. Smith admitted that his team will not join the conference's elite if it cannot churn out yards on the ground.
\For us to be the team we want to be, for us to be a championship team, we have to rush the ball, but we weren't going to beat these guys running the ball,"" he told the official Ohio State Web site, in reference to a unit that has rushed for a conference-worst 1,052 yards on 294 attempts. ""You're playing against one of the best defenses in the country out there, they have some good guys out there, and not everything you try is going to work.""
The Spartan run defense, a much maligned aspect of the team last year, ranks a respectable fourth in the Big Ten, allowing 109.3 yards per game, way down from a 213.8-yard average in 2002.
Unfortunately, the unit has slipped in the last two games. After holding opponents to 2.7 yards per carry in their first eight games, both Michigan and Ohio State busted through the Spartan defense to the tune of 382 yards on 104 attempts, a 3.8 yard average. In both games, Michigan State's potent offense was not given a chance to carry the team, as both the Wolverines and Buckeyes kept the Spartan defense on the field far too long. Collectively, Michigan and Ohio State controlled the football for 73 minutes and 34 seconds, while Michigan State maintained possession for only 46:26.
""They did a good job of controlling the ball. I think that might have been part of their game plan, to try and control the ball,"" Smoker told http://www.gomsuspartans.com after losing to the Wolverines 27-20 two weeks ago. ""We can score pretty quickly sometimes when we have the ball and they wanted to keep the ball out of our hands and they did that.""
Smith said that although the past two losses will keep Michigan State from having a say in who books the trip to Pasadena in January, he hopes his team can finish this season playing as well as they did during the first two months of the season
""We have two games left and we have to get back to work to try to make this season even more special than it already is,"" he told the official Ohio State Web site.
Yet, he said if the Spartans want to become a better team in the future, they are going to have more balance on both sides of the ball.
""We can't live on the offense and we can't live on the defense,"" Smith told the Detroit Free Press. ""For us to win games, we have to do it all. We've got to put them all together.\
