Michigan State Football: 3 takeaways from weekend loss to Illinois

Michigan State football made the road trip out to Memorial Stadium and Illinois this weekend, where the Spartans faced a resilient Illini team. Unfortunately, the Spartans entered down their top four defensive backs (Charles Brantley, Dillon Tatum, Chance Rucker, and Malik Spencer) against Illini quarterback Luke Altmyer, who was known for taking care of the ball.

At 4-5, this game was crucial for the Spartans to stay in the hunt for bowl eligibility. While a loss would not signal the end for hope, it would make the road a lot tougher.

Unfortunately, the tough road awaits the Spartans.

In a frustrating show of events, the Spartans put together one of their worst performances of the season and lost 38-16.

1. Defense must improve on third down and forcing pressure

After both squads had a touchdown of more than 50 yards to begin the game, the sides settled for incremental games. Unfortunately, the Illini found ways to get the Spartans off the field, and the Spartans could not say the same.

Michigan State football and the defense forced five third downs in the first quarter, and the Illini converted four of them. All of that led to an Illini touchdown drive to reclaim the lead, and the Spartans’ multiple errors kept it that way until late in the second. The Spartans held the Illini to an 0-for-4 mark in the second quarter, but allowed a quarterback sneak for a first on 4th-and-1. That allowed sneak resulted in the third Illini touchdown of the game, making the deficit 21-6.

Thankfully, some Aidan Chiles and Nick Marsh hero-ball let Jonathan Kim knock a field goal in to make the halftime gap 12 points. However, the defense would allow Pat Bryant, the leading Illini receiver and touchdown-getter heading into the game, to break off a career-high 135 receiving yards to cancel out any strides the Spartan offense would make.

For the 22nd through 25th straight quarters, Michigan State football did not record a sack.

Anthony Jones, Khris Bogle, and Maverick Hansen all recorded some pressure, but no one could drag down Altmyer for the first sack since Week 4. The Spartans carry that streak (377:53 of gametime) into Friday’s game against Purdue.

The Spartans did have increased pressure in the second half, and it was arguably the best showing from the MSU front four since September’s Boston College game. The Spartans finished with five QB hits, a season-high for conference play. However, as mentioned above, no one could bring the quarterback down, again.

In the Spartans’ defense, they were missing six of their top eight defensive backs, alongside pass-coverage linebacker Wayne Matthews III and defensive line rotational piece Jalen Satchell. True freshman Jaylen Thompson (the defensive back, not to be confused with edge rusher Jalen Thompson) made his first career start. He nearly had his first career interception, too, but the referees overturned it on review. Justin Denson Jr. also filled in at safety for the second half, and he contributed a tackle on Saturday.

2. Offensive line… help, please

On top of the defensive line failing to generate a pressure, the offensive line for the Spartans had a bad day, to say the least. Aidan Chiles was sacked five times, and that is before you factor in the amount of times Chiles would evade pressure to throw the ball or run. It’s hard to play Michigan State football when the quarterback is trying his best to not eat the turf on every passing down. It was a disheartening scene, as the Illini entered the game with only one player over three sacks on the season through their eight games.

The right side of the line notably struggled, with Ashton Lepo and Brandon Baldwin getting pushed around and into the quarterback on multiple occasions. Tanner Miller did not have a flawless game either, as multiple Spartan dives saw a defensive tackle stuffing the running back before they could get their legs moving. Stanton Ramil and Luke Newman played better than the right side, although the latter’s unnecessary roughness penalty on one of the last-gasp Spartan drives did not help matters anyway. Granted, Chiles proceeded to get sacked on third and fourth down after those plays, so it may all even out. Additionally, TeRah Edwards of Illinois got away with a borderline late and high hit on Chiles, and then the defensive lineman had a flop of the ages when Newman got in Edwards’ face about the hit. I am not as mad about this penalty due to the sacks making 15 yards meaningless, along with it being in defense of a questionable hit on the quarterback.

While nearly every lineman had an abysmal game, the staff did try to switch things around. In the second half, the Spartans tried putting in true freshman Rakeem Johnson. He replaced Lepo, who was struggling to contain the Illini, including allowing a huge hit on Chiles by Gabe Jacas to open the game on third down. Unfortunately, the freshman did not have a very memorable game. While he was not whistled for any penalties, the man Johnson was blocking got in on a few sacks. Johnson has rotated in throughout three games this year, and Saturday was the pivotal fourth game for the freshman. Now, the staff has to decide if playing the Idaho native the rest of the year is worth burning the redshirt or not.

To make things worse, the running game was not gaining much traction, either. Kay’Ron Lynch-Adams and Nate Carter combined for 45 yards on 14 carries. With the Spartans down big in the second half, the coaches went to a pass heavy approach to try to get back into the game. For the second consecutive game, the Spartans had negative yardage for their rushing total in the fourth quarter. The Illini defense had eight tackles for loss on the day.

Michigan State football has to find the mojo they had for the Iowa game. Whether it is giving a young player like Johnson or AJ Dennis a shot, or running six linemen max protect schemes on third-down-and-longs, something must change. Chiles is running for his life and the run game is running in place currently, and that is not a recipe for winning football. The Spartans desperately miss Gavin Broscious and Kristian Phillips, each of whom were lost for the year by game three of the season.

3. Aidan Chiles played his best game of the year

In spite of the line struggles, the Spartans saw notable improvement from one player: Aidan Chiles.

The battered and (sometimes) turnover-prone quarterback was doing his best to will the Spartans to a win. For the second time all season, Chiles was turnover-free on Saturday. Considering his other time was when Chiles only played three quarters and came against FCS competition, this was marked improvement. While not the best defense the Spartans played all year, this Illini unit is definitely in the top half of defenses Chiles will face, and he was smart with the ball.

Chiles had a few risky passes, along with a fumble that was overturned on video review, but it was building blocks. Two of the “riskier” passes that Chiles through saw his receivers (Nick Marsh and Montorie Foster) step up and make a play to come down with the ball, and the overturned fumble came after Chiles’ entire backside had hit the turf. Overall, the quarterback was 23-for-40 for 256 yards with two touchdowns and rushed for 40 yards. On both touchdown passes, Chiles read his progressions before uncorking a ball, finding a wide-open receiver both times.

In addition to his ability through the air, Chiles did a great job picking when to scramble. He had seven runs (alongside his five sacks, to bring the total to 12 rushes) and was the leading rusher for the team. After the near-fumble on his first rush, Chiles protected the ball from defenders on sacks and designated runs alike. Even when he was sacked, the quarterback did a great job at limiting losses on the sack. Quite a few of these plays went for a loss of three or four yards when they could have easily been a 6-10-yard loss if Chiles panicked in the pocket.

Despite the offensive line having one of their worst games of the season, Chiles played composed. His ability to extend the play led to Aziah Johnson’s 52-yard touchdown to begin Spartan scoring, and it kept the Spartans in the game longer than they should have been, frankly.

Additionally, Chiles did a great job at getting his playmakers the ball. After Foster was held catch-less in the first half, he was fed the ball on the opening drive of the second half and got the majority of his 76 yards on that drive alone. Marsh was able to work his way free for 58 yards, as well.

Unfortunately, the one piece that Chiles could not get going was Jack Velling. Through nine games, the 2023’s leading touchdown scorer for tight ends has yet to reach the end zone as a Spartan. Today was much of the same for Velling, as he was held to a single catch for five yards on five targets. Additionally, one of Chiles’ midseason vices returned on Saturday, that being a throwaway intentional grounding. With the rotating door of offensive linemen, Chiles has been fighting for his life, and he picked up his third intentional grounding penalty in the last four games if I am not mistaken. That said, I would rather have Chiles taking a flag than picking himself up off the turf or throwing an interception.

It was progress, and that was something that everyone from the fans to the staff to Chiles himself wanted to see. Unfortunately, in part due to the line play, we are forced to celebrate sacks over turnovers instead of, say, a touchdown.

What’s next?

Michigan State football had a quick flight home and a short week to prepare for the Purdue Boilermakers in the confines of Spartan Stadium. The Boilermakers (1-9) look to limp to the finish, but the Spartans present the most beatable opponent left for purposes of pride for Purdue. On the other hand, the Spartans are now fighting for their life in the race to bowl eligibility. Additionally, Jonathan Smith confirmed that Charles Brantley and Malik Spencer are likely done for the regular season, so the defense will be shorthanded next week. That said, to make a bowl, Michigan State football has the “no excuses allowed” road of winning out. The game kicks off on Friday at 8 p.m. EST on Big Ten Network.