Michigan State football: Brian Lindgren’s seat should be hot after Purdue win

After a truly disappointing second half a week ago in which Michigan State football saw a 24-16 deficit in the third quarter turn into 38-16 in a hurry, the Spartans knew they had to win fans back with a good showing against Purdue.

Through the first half, it looked like the Spartans had turned the corner. Michigan State built a 24-3 lead and the offense was doing essentially anything it wanted against a 1-9 Purdue team, as expected. And then the second half began. The Spartans’ usually-horrible third quarter was just that, getting outscored 7-0 and then the fourth quarter also turned into a blank on the scoreboard, getting out-scored 7-0 yet again.

Michigan State was able to hang on for a 24-17 win despite Brian Lindgren’s best efforts to lose the game in the second half.

I know, it’s a harsh thing to say, but seeing the offensive coordinator continue to call poor second halves is getting increasingly alarming and honestly, slightly nauseating. Michigan State could play the best first half in years but Lindgren would find a way to make things interesting in the second half by stalling the offense out drive after drive.

Once again, that happened.

The offense got away from what was working in the first half and played a much safer game in the second half at the expense of Aidan Chiles’ confidence. The quarterback had a great first half and then couldn’t seem to get anything going in the final 30 minutes because he wasn’t given an opportunity. The offense wasn’t moving the ball and it only had a handful of first downs in the second half. The time Michigan State made it past midfield in the second half was on a Purdue turnover on downs.

Not ideal.

This team deserves better. It can’t keep getting torched in every third quarter and making zero halftime adjustments. That falls on the offensive coordinator. Scoring zero points in the second half against a team with zero Big Ten wins is unacceptable.

Let’s hope Jonathan Smith isn’t as loyal to his assistants as Mark Dantonio was. We can’t handle another lackluster offense next year.