BLOOMINGTON, IN.– Michigan State football, after suffering an embarrassing homecoming loss to UCLA, faced an extreme challenge against No. 3 Indiana, coming off a win at then top-five-ranked Oregon. The Spartans displayed early effort in the upset bid but were easily overwhelmed by the high-flying Hoosiers, going down 38-13 and dropping their fourth straight.
“We’re always looking to win the game, 100 percent, and so that hasn’t lost our sight in any way,” MSU head coach Jonathan Smith said. “This is a good football team and all of that, but we want to be able to play winning football and haven’t done it the last few weeks.”
The Spartans’ first half on both sides of the ball resembled the past few weeks but the offense started with some life. Junior quarterback Aidan Chiles had his best effort since the USC game and led a hard fought, time consuming drive to kickoff the day. Senior running back Elijah Tau-Toliver had a few bursts up the middle to try and kick start a struggling ground game while sophomore wide receiver Nick Marsh made some timely grabs to keep the drive alive.
“I am genuinely proud of this team and how we came and competed, not proud of how we executed and finished the game but you know at the end of the day we came out here and played as hard as we could,” Chiles said. “We did, it didn’t work out for us but at the end of the day I’m not satisfied but I am appreciative of how we played.”
This includes a nine yard screen on fourth and one, yet only yielding three points on an opening field goal from freshman kicker Martin Connington. The Spartans kept this momentum rolling as Chiles looked calm and had more time to find his weapons. Junior wide receiver Chrishon McCray reemerged in the passing game with a 13-yard grab underneath, setting up a 15-yard Marsh touchdown catch over the middle on the next play.
“I was just playing football, if he [Marsh] was open, get him the ball, I mean the game plan is to get open, go through your read, get somebody the ball,” Chiles said. “It was just a vulnerable spot in their zone defense, you know they came out and played zone and that was just a spot we could attack and we did, we did it well but you know still gotta finish.”
Marsh continued to be the brightest part of the offense with seven catches for 64 yards and MSU’s only touchdown as the Spartans managed to grab a short-lived lead in the second quarter. On the other side of the ball though, MSU’s defense once again struggled with pass rush and throws over the middle. While Chiles had his best day in a few weeks, junior quarterback Fernando Mendoza did nothing but match that performance and then some.
He carved up the Spartans secondary with all day in the backfield and used junior wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr. to do it. Cooper Jr. secured five catches for fifty yards to start the day and routinely set the Hoosiers up in business. He was flanked by seniors E.J. Williams Jr. and Elijah Sarrett, each with a touchdown catch in the first half. Sarrett’s only catch of the half, the 24-yard score on an underneath ball, kept him as the FBS leader in consecutive games with a reception.
While MSU held back the stout IU ground game to 49 total yards in the first half, it eventually broke through behind the legs of senior running back Kaelon Black. He broke past the front seven for a 29-yard burst towards the endzone. Black led all rushers with 64 yards on 10 carries but the Hoosiers broke down the MSU front line by committee, totaling 132 yards. The Spartans only trailed 21-10 into the break and eventual weather delay, but it felt like IU held tight control in the contest.
“That’s a good offense no question, tackling early on I think about the first half, the tackling there. We had opportunities, one on one tackles, they got some athletes,” Smith said. “You talk about margin for error, you know even the alignment whether you’re outside shade to inside shade those things show up against a really good offense and it did.”
The Hoosiers, receiving the second half kickoff, had a chance to put the dagger in MSU’s upset hopes out of the extended half. Four plays later, Cooper Jr. beat two defensive backs up the seam and hauled in a 48-yard bomb for the touchdown. Cooper Jr. became the games receiving standout with 115 yards on eight catches for the game including the long score.
MSU’s next shot with the ball only twisted the knife as the first two drives of the game were once again just a mirage. This drive initially showed promise as wide receiver Omari Kelly had a 16-yard catch to the left sideline to get MSU into Hoosier territory. However, a missed field goal is all the Spartans could muster. The Spartans kept moving the ball, as Chiles finished with 243 yards on 27-33 passing and only punted twice in the second half, but came away with zero meaningful points.
“I think the offense played well, we didn’t execute as good as we should’ve as I said earlier. We didn’t finish in the redzone, we didn’t finish drives,” Chiles said. “But at the end of the day, as a whole we played great.”
The rush game also struggled immensely throughout as IU came away with nine total tackles for loss, led by sophomore linebacker Rolijah Hardy and senior defensive back Louis Moore. Chiles was MSU’s leading rusher with 48 yards by himself, accounting for over half the 74 total yards.
“I thought Aidan was accurate for the most part, I did think some of the underneath passing game was helpful in that pass rush and all that but the run game, that’s a good defensive front,” Smith said. “We gotta get that solved because we do want to be more effective with that. I wish I had a great answer for you right now after the game.”
The missed FG turned the ball over to Mendoza and IU, who made the affair even more lopsided with Sarratt’s second touchdown catch of the day. He came down with a one on one ball to the left endzone corner as Sarratt ended with four catches, two touchdowns, and 70 yards. He capped off IU’s fifth touchdown on its fifth possession of the day.
“They’re a good team, they got a good offense, they got a good quarterback, we knew what we were getting into,” junior defensive lineman Alex VanSumeren said. “This is the Big Ten, this is what we came here to do is to play these type of games, play these type of teams, it’s not like we were physically outmatched or anything like that, it’s just some things we gotta clean up at different positions.”
The Spartans trotted out for a second straight meaningless fourth quarter with the only defensive stop occurring long after the game had been put away. The Hoosiers successfully defended Memorial Stadium and retained the old brass spittoon while MSU continues to spiral and stay winless in conference play.
“That’s the price of admission just to get through the doors, it’s going hard,” VanSumeren said. “We did some good things out there, we got some things we gotta clean up still, but we’ll be back, we’ll watch the tape and correct it, and get back to it.”
MSU has a major upcoming opportunity to change the course of the season or they can further cement its status as Big Ten basement dweller. This chance also has bragging rights and rivalry implications on the line as the Spartans will take on Michigan under lights at home. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. next Saturday with Jacob Maurer and Kyle Keegan on the call. Listen locally at 88.9 FM or streaming at https://impact89fm.org/.
