Michigan State Football: Takeaways from the 23-6 win over Western Michigan

Spartan football is back, and Jonathan Smith and company started year two off well with a  23-6 win over Western Michigan under the lights in Spartan Stadium.

After a strong first half that saw Michigan State post a 21-0 lead heading into the locker room, a lackluster second half may have sent the Spartans into week two with some question marks as they prepare for a rematch against Boston College. 

Let’s get into some of the takeaways from Friday’s win. 

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Consistency will be key 

Jonathan Smith said it himself following the win. 

“Obviously, kind of a tale of two halves, offensively,” Smith said. “Defensively throughout the night, the effort they played with (was impressive).” 

Michigan State came out strong against Western Michigan, particularly in the offensive trenches. The run blocking was some of the best Spartan fans have seen in years, and led to multiple long runs in the first half and two touchdown runs. 

“Especially in the first half, I thought the O-Line set the tone in the run game,” Jonathan Smith said. “Makhi (Frazier) had a great game, Brandon (Tullis) early with his touchdown run, and you know, the stats show you kind of the physicality and what we want to be able to do in the run game.” 

Smith did note that some of the decline in the second half may have been the result of swapping out offensive linemen and trying different combinations. In addition, the Spartans didn’t really open the playbook up on offense (likely for film purposes because of a big game next week) and that also limited the team in the second half once the Broncos adjusted to what they were seeing. 

That inconsistency, though, is something we saw multiple times in Jonathan Smith’s first season, and especially so to end the season. Michigan State had several promising performances, like a 32-20 win over Iowa, as well as several in-game flashes of their potential. But it seemed like they could never string that success together.  

Against Purdue toward the end of last year, the Spartans had a strong first half and took a 24-3 lead into halftime, but failed to score again and had to hold on for a 24-17 win. 

I don’t think the issues we saw in the second half on Friday were the same as those we saw last season, and I think the flashes the team showed in the first half are enough evidence of improvement from a year ago. However, inconsistency can’t become a theme for Michigan State this year if they hope to get back to a bowl game this year. 

No time to overreact 

With all of that being said about MSU’s inconsistencies on Friday night, I think it’s evident that there’s no need to panic yet, as easy as it may be to do so. 

Following last year’s tight 16-10 week one win over Florida Atlantic, Jonathan Smith called the day after the game “overreaction Saturday.”