Michigan State football defensive snap counts against Nebraska revealed

Michigan State football fell to Nebraska 38-27 last week, dropping to 3-2 on the season. However, in spite of what the box score tells you, the defense made strides of progress last week. Near the end, a mix of bad field position and a few bad plays doomed the defense. However, it looks much more serviceable against the Cornhuskers than the USC Trojans.

How did the snap counts break down? As is the case, starters are italicized. Additionally, snap counts are out of 55. For the USC defensive breakdown, please check out this link.

It is worth noting that the fourth down conversion attempt by Nebraska threw a few players into the defensive PFF grading scale that are not normally there. I have picked out a few manually, like Aveon Grose and Omari Kelly, but there is a margin of error of one for these players’ snap counts.

Defensive Line

Alex VanSumeren: (34) 62%

Grady Kelly: (34) 62%

Jalen Thompson: (27) 49%

Quindarius Dunnigan: (24) 44%

Ben Roberts: (21) 38%

Ru’Quan Buckley: (12) 22%

Jalen Satchell: (4) 7%

Quite a few notes to take from this group. To start, Alex VanSumeren got a sack against Dylan Raiola in a great feat of athleticism. Grady Kelly started over Ben Roberts for the first time this season, with Roberts seeing a reduced role. Jalen Thompson was credited with one sack, as his second sack was ruled a rush due to a fumbled Raiola snap.

Jalen Satchell made his season debut, and Kekai Burnett did not play. Mikeshun Beeler and Derrick Simmons also traveled, but did not play.

EDGE Rusher

Isaac Smith: (27) 49%

David Santiago: (21) 38%

Cam Williams: (12) 22%

Anelu Lafaele: (6) 11%

There was a little bit of separation on Saturday, as Williams saw a reduced role. Lafaele did as well, but that is due to injury. It is very likely that Lafaele’s six snaps on Saturday were the last of his redshirt freshman season.

Santiago got his first sack as a Spartan. Williams batted down a ball. For the life of me, I cannot recall one thing Smith did, outside of start and fail to bring down the ball carrier on a screen, on Saturday.

Michigan State football also showed a “NASCAR” package, with Santiago working as a defensive tackle for a snap or two situationally.

With Lafaele out for at least the foreseeable future, expect the Spartans to reduce down to the other three edge rushers and linebacker Aisea Moa, or add Tyler Gillison to the rotation. Gillison saw snaps against Youngstown State at edge.

Linebackers

Jordan Hall: (55) 100%

Wayne Matthews III: (41) 74.5%

Darius Snow: (18) 33%

Aisea Moa: (14) 25%

Semaj Bridgeman: (4) 7%

Hall played an “iron man” game, and Matthews played a bulk of the snaps after his scary injury against USC. Moa rotated in as a direct replacement of Matthews, as Smith had teased earlier in the week.

Snow recorded a sack, alongside a great fake punt tackle to cause a fourth down stop. Bridgeman saw a few reps as well, with the Spartans short Marcellius Pulliam, who was out injured for the contest.

With Lafaele out, it will be interesting to monitor Moa’s snaps moving forward.

Cornerbacks

Malcolm Bell: (50) 91%

Joshua Eaton: (34) 62%

Aydan West: (26) 47%

Dontavius Nash: (13) 24%

Chance Rucker: (3) 5%

I know, a short list for corners from Saturday’s contest. With normal starting nickel Ade Willie out, Michigan State football rotated in Nash, alongside Armorion Smith at nickel.

Dontavius Nash was back for the Spartans after missing the first four games with a hand injury. He is not 100%, as he had a bulky hand club on for the game. Joe Rossi was complimentary of the ECU transfer with the media earlier this week.

West was called upon over Chance Rucker for the first time this year, which is worth monitoring. His 26 snaps were a career-high through five games. With this being his fifth game, he will not be redshirting.

Additionally, Malcolm Bell saw some snaps in the slot and played well. With a West emergence, this could be seen more if Willie takes longer to recover. The Florida DB has been called a “day-by-day” injury situation.

Joshua Eaton went down from injury multiple times on Saturday, so that is something to monitor upon the release of the injury report. Jeremiah Hughes travelled but did not play on Saturday after serving as Willie’s primary replacement at nickel the last four games.

Safety

Armorion Smith: (54) 98%

Malik Spencer: (53) 96%

Devynn Cromwell: (23) 42%

With Nikai Martinez out, alongside Willie, things shifted dramatically for the defensive backs. Smith started in nickel, and Cromwell got his first Spartan start at safety. Yet again, Justin Denson Jr. remained on the bench. He travelled, so there is some questions to be raised about Cromwell over Denson, based on previous usage.

Spencer had an early sack on a safety blitz, and the defensive back play was stellar. Cromwell was not graded favorably in his tackling grade, via PFF, however.

With injuries to monitor, alongside the hopes of a resounding victory, snap counts will be something to watch next week. Until then.