Michigan State football: 3 quick thoughts from clutch win at Indiana

Michigan State football went into Bloomington and got revenge for last year’s crushing loss to Indiana. Here are some quick thoughts.

After getting battered and bruised last week in Columbus against Ohio State, Michigan State football came out and looked motivated on Saturday afternoon in Bloomington en route to a 24-21 win.

A last-second field goal was missed by Indiana to give the Spartans the win. This was the perfect ending to the revenge game.

Here are my thoughts on the clutch victory.

1. Katin Houser showed us the good and the bad

While it felt like Katin Houser played a so-so game, he finished with over 250 yards and three touchdowns. This was arguably his best complete game as a Michigan State quarterback and, fortunately, neither of his interceptions really hurt the Spartans. One was basically an arm punt on third-and-long that pinned Indiana deep in its own territory and the other became a fumble that was recovered by MSU.

However, there was more good than bad in this one from Houser.

In fact, he was making some really impressive plays and even had the game-winning touchdown pass with just over a minute left on a scramble and toss to Maliq Carr. He put the ball right on Carr who was hit by a defender, stayed on his feet, and scored the game-winning touchdown. Houser drove the Spartans down the field and threw the game-winning touchdown when everyone counted Michigan State out after Indiana took a 21-17 lead.

The next head coach is going to have a really solid duo of quarterbacks to work with (hopefully).

2. MSU can’t escape the injury bug

Coming into Saturday’s game, Michigan State was already down about two dozen players and that number grew during the game as a number of key players went down to injuries and two were even carted off. We saw Derrick Harmon, Simeon Barrow, and Nathan Carter go down with injuries and while two of them returned, Carter’s looked more serious. Plus, Nick Samac and Brandon Wright were carted off the field with what looked to be serious injuries as well.

This team just can’t escape the injury bug. They need the season to be over.

3. This team has not given up

Down dozens of scholarship players and playing on the road with no bowl berth on the line (barring some crazy scenario), it would have been easy for the Spartans to just mail it in. They showed early on that they wouldn’t be doing that. They scored on their first drive and then took a 14-7 lead into halftime.

It would have been easy to give up after giving up the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter to fall behind 21-17 but Houser led the team down the field for the game-winning score with a minute left.

Michigan State football flexed its talent and picked up a win against a scrappy Indiana team. Credit to Harlon Barnett and the players.