3 things Michigan State football must do to upset Washington

It’s officially game day. Michigan State football hosts Washington on Saturday night and what does it need to do to pull off the upset?

The day is finally here. Michigan State football plays its first legit opponent of the season with No. 8 Washington coming to town. On Saturday, we will learn a lot about this Michigan State team and how good it really is.

It’s going to be difficult to beat Washington, but if the upset’s going to happen these three things have to happen.

1. Win the turnover battle by at least two

This is an important factor no matter who you’re playing. But when the opponent is as dominant on offense as Washington is, it feels even more important. Washington undoubtedly will be able to move the ball. But can we force a couple of huge turnovers at the right time to kill their drives? That’s the important question.

This also means our offense needs to take care of the ball as well. One turnover won’t end our chances in this game, but I don’t think we can win if we turn the ball over more than once. When upsets occur, more often than not it is because the “weaker” team wins the turnover battle. If Michigan State wants to beat Washington, I think we need to win the turnover battle by at least two.

2. Get off to a fast start offensively

It is no secret that Michigan State has gotten off to a slow start in each of its first two games. MSU has combined to score only seven first-quarter points against its first two opponents. The one first-quarter score came last week against Richmond after a muffed punt, so we even got a little lucky on the one score.

I think Michigan State has to score on their first possession. That eliminates the chance of Washington pulling away fast and gets our crowd into the game even more. Imagine how loud Spartan Stadium will be if we score on our first possession and get a stop on defense. That will have Washington panicking and the Spartans with all the momentum. A fast start offensively needs to happen today.

3. Continue dominance with third-down defense

Did you know MSU has been one of the best teams in the country on third-down defense? Michigan State is the second-best team in the country in third-down defense, holding opponents to 4-of-28 on third downs.

The key to slowing down a high-powered offense like Washington is to keep it off the field. To do this, the defense needs to come up big on third downs to get the Spartan offense the ball as much as possible. It’s unrealistic to expect our defense to do as well as they have been, but if we are going to win this game we need to dominate this stat.

A lot has to go our way to win this game. But these three things are “must haves” if we want to pull off the upset. Keep an eye on these three points throughout the game, and if we do well in all three I feel very confident we’ll come out victorious.