After the Chaos – Montana State

Michigan State 44 – Montana State 3

Box Score:

The trees are starting to change colors, the weather was pleasant….oh yeah, and there was a football game at Spartan Stadium on Saturday.

Over 74,000 witnessed Michigan State throttle the Fighting Bobcats of Montana State, making it the largest home opening attendance since 1990 in a game against Notre Dame, and the largest margin of victory for Coach Dantonio since his arrival as head coach at MSU.  All of those who said that playing a I-AA team would hurt the attendance underestimated the commitment of the Spartan faithful.  The stands were mostly full, save for the upper portion of the Montana State visitor section and a few rows at the top of the student section.

The Spartans started slow, going 3-and-out to start the game with Captain Kirk Cousins at the helm.  But by the midway point of the 1st quarter, Cousins lead the Spartans down the field and threw 29-yard TD pass to B.J. Cunningham.  All in all, MSU scored on eight of their 11 drives in the game for five touchdowns and three field goals.

Game ball goes to: The Spartan Defense.  The D held Montana State to just 3 points, the fewest points by an opponent since MSU shut out Miami (OH) in 1989.

A Spartan’s Profession (Play of the Game): At the Montana State 29-yard line, Cousins threw a 29-yard strike to B.J. Cunningham in the corner of the endzone.  MSU wouldn’t look back as they cruised to a 41-point victory over the Bobcats.  Honorable mention goes to Dan Conroy, who booted a 43 yard field goal with 5:51 left in the game.  From my vantage point, it looked like the kick had the distance, then the ball started to fall and easily looked short.  The ball came down, hit the crossbar, and bounced through the uprights for three points.

It was over when: Okay, it may be a bit of an overstatement to say that the game was over as soon as the Bobcasts boarded the plane in Bozeman to travel to East Lansing.  But it sure didn’t take long for the Spartans to assert their collective will.  We’re going to go with the above throw from Cousins to Cunningham as the play that ended it all.  Not too often we’ll have the play that started it also featured as the play that ended it.  So enjoy it now.

Answering the Questions

Captain Kirk leads the Spartans to Victory (Photo Courtesy: AP)

The Quarterbacks

• Kirk Cousins: 10-17 (58%), 183 yards, 3 TDs, 0 Ints.
• Keith Nichol: 9-18 (50%), 135 yards, 2 TDs, 0 Ints.

If you were looking for significant separation between the quarterbacks on Saturday, you probably didn’t see it.  Statistically, Cousins beat out Nichol, but it wasn’t by much.  Cousins threw for 48 more yards, completed one more pass in one fewer attempt, and threw one more touchdown pass.

Looking at the play on the field, both quarterbacks played well.  Cousins had a slow start in the first drive, but by the second drive had clearly settled in.  Cousins went 3-4 in the next drive  picking up 60 yards through the air and eventually connecting with Blair White for the TD.  Captain Kirk held the reins for the first three drives of the games, going 7-for-11 for 118 yards and 2 TDs.

Nichol took over for the next four drives of the game.  Compared to Cousins first three drives, Nichol went 5-for-11 for 70 yards, also throwing two TDs.  Nichol didn’t get happy feet and tuck the ball to run when the pressure came.  He showed patience and rolled out when necessary, but for the most part stuck it out and made the throws.

Cousins appeared to me to be the more consistent quarterback.  He showed a bit more patience, more poise, the kind of guy that you could rely on through the season.  Probably not a big play guy, but a consistent quarterback.  Nichol, meanwhile, appeared to be the guy you would want to put into the game when you need a spark.  He’s willing to take more risks, make plays with his feet.  We hear he can run some option plays, although we didn’t see that on Saturday.

Either way, don’t expect to have an unequivocal decision on the quarterback situation until after the Notre Dame game.  There’s just too much advantage to letting these guys fight it out and continue to battle.  At this point, we’re making every team we play have to prepare for two guys, and in some ways, two different offenses.  That’s one hell of an advantage.

The Running Backs

How does Michigan State replace Javon Ringer?  After the first game of the season, the answer to that questions appears to be “by committee.”   While there was little separation among the quarterbacks, there was slightly more separation among the running backs.

Javon Ringer averaged 125 yards per game last year.  Against Montana State, Caulton Ray, Larry Caper and Edwin Baker combined for 132 yards on the ground, and the rushing total equaled 181 total yards for the entire team.  Of course the level of competition needs to be taken into account, but the early returns seem to indicate that Michigan State will have solid performance at the running back position.

Caulton Ray showed us why he was named the starter.  While Baker and Caper certainly played well, especially considering it was their first collegiate football game in front of 74,000, and they are true freshman, Ray exhibited the ability to break tackles to get the extra yard.

Offensive Line

Certainly the biggest news coming from the offensive line is the potential loss of center Joel Nitchman. I still haven’t been able to find an update on Nitchman’s status, and we probably won’t get one until Tuesday.  As for the overall line, the performance on Saturday seemed very average.  Now I’ll openly admit that I am not an expert when it comes to breaking down line play, but I felt as though Montana State was able to get a little more pressure on the quarterback than I expected, and Ray wasn’t able to run all over like we might be able to see if the line was playing better.

Other News and Notes

• Glenn Winston, who was reinstated to the football team as preseason camp began, saw playing time on Saturday.  Winston had four carries for 24 yards, and returned a kickoff for 16 yards.
• Last season, the Spartan Marching Band tried playing from the south end zone instead of the east sideline for one game.  After the game, MSU asked the fans to vote on where they liked the band to be playing from.  Apparently they preferred the south end zone, as that was where the band was situated for the game.

Update 9/6/09 8:51 PM: Rexrode says that Joel Nitchman is day-to-day.  Certainly good news that it doesn’t look like the knee injury is serious, but he may not be able to go against Central Michigan.

Related posts:

1. After the Chaos – The Irish Retake the Dome
2. After the Chaos – The Central Michigan Fiasco