Box scores never tell the full story. They can give you a good idea of how teams played and give you an indication as to who might have won the game, but you always need to take them with a grain of salt. The \u201ceye test\u201d has its flaws as well, but you can\u2019t draw reasonable conclusions about Michigan State football<\/a> just from looking at the final box score.<\/p>\n With that being said, let\u2019s dive into the box score from Michigan State’s\u00a031-7 victory over Central Michigan last Friday. Without letting the on-field play impact our conclusions, let\u2019s see what stats stand out to us on both sides of the ball.<\/p>\n Offense<\/strong><\/p>\n A few things stand out to me in the box score on offense, and they aren\u2019t good — 0-for-2 on fourth down is brutal. Fourth-down plays are always huge turning points in any game and failing to convert twice is bad. Regardless of what the play call was, you need to convert especially against an inferior opponent.<\/p>\n The time of possession also scares me a little bit. Like all stats in a box score, time of possession never tells the full story. But losing the time of possession with 25:34 is another reason for concern. Against a team like Central, I\u2019d expect MSU to move the ball on the ground with long, time-consuming drives. This stat indicates that didn\u2019t occur much and could mean bad news come Big Ten play.<\/p>\n Offensive team stats weren\u2019t all worrisome however. Zero turnovers is a huge positive no matter who you\u2019re playing. Crazy plays and unlucky bounces happen all the time, so to avoid a turnover for 60 minutes in the first game of the season is very good.<\/p>\n Defense<\/strong><\/p>\n Two positives stand out to me from a defensive perspective.<\/p>\n First is the efficiency on third and fourth downs. Getting off the field is crucial in every game, especially early in the game when it\u2019s close. Michigan State\u2019s defense held Central to 3-for-16 on third down and 0-for-1 on fourth down. We stand a good chance at winning every game if our defense keeps that up.<\/p>\n On top of that, Michigan State limited Central offensively all night.<\/p>\n The defense only gave up 219 total yards of offense with only 96 of that through the air. For a unit that\u2019s struggled in the secondary the last few years, giving up less than 100 yards in the air is a solid step in the right direction.<\/p>\n On the flip side, 123 rushing yards is more than I\u2019d like to see. Against Big Ten teams I\u2019d be OK with that number, but against Central it isn\u2019t good enough. This game is one Michigan State football needed to dominate in every aspect, and it did not do that with its run defense on Friday.<\/p>\n Offense<\/strong><\/p>\n Running back Nathan Carter<\/a> jumps out to me the most when looking at the box score. Michigan State desperately needs someone to emerge as a legit threat out of the backfield, and Carter\u2019s stats show he could be that guy. Carrying 18 times for 113 yards and a touchdown is no joke. Add in a reception for 21 yards and he had a solid all around game. Carter won\u2019t be able to live up to what Kenneth Walker III<\/a> accomplished, likely no one ever will in our lifetime, but these stats give me hope for his future.<\/p>\n This box score also shows that we have some solid depth at wide receiver. The receiver room had a lot of questions surrounding it after the departures of Jayden Reed,<\/a> Germie Bernard, and Keon Coleman<\/a>, but they put up good numbers as a unit. Nine different Spartans had at least one catch with Jaron Glover<\/a> and Christian Fitzpatrick<\/a> leading the way with three catches each and 75 and 70 yards respectfully. There is, however, one aspect for the wide receivers that concerns me. Nobody broke out as the \u201cgo-to\u201d guy. It would have been nice to see someone catch seven or eight balls and emerge as that \u201cgo-to\u201d guy.<\/p>\n If Michigan State wants to have a great season, someone needs to be the alpha in this group.<\/p>\n Defense\/Special teams<\/strong><\/p>\n Three players all recorded at least eight tackles for the defense this game: Cal Haladay<\/a>, Malik Spencer<\/a>, and Jacoby Windmon<\/a>. It is always nice to see more than one player stand out and rack up tackles for the defense.<\/p>\n Two things stood out to me when looking at the special teams unit. The first being kicker Jonathan Kim<\/a> and the perfect outing he gave MSU — 3-for-3 on extra points and he made his one field goal attempt from 47 yards. After the recent kicking woes for Michigan State football, it was refreshing seeing him step up this game. Tyrell Henry<\/a> also stands out on the special teams box score. He had six punt returns for 55 yards, an average of about 9.0 yards which is pretty solid. He also had one kick return for 26 yards which is exceptional as well. It\u2019s looking like he can grow into a dangerous threat as a return man for MSU.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What does the box score tell us?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":6574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[59,191,189],"class_list":["post-6530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-featured","tag-michigan-state-football","tag-michigan-state-spartans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Team stats<\/h3>\n
Individual stats<\/h3>\n