East Lansing, Mich. - Mel Tucker did not sound like the head coach of a team that is 2-0, nationally ranked and just beat an opponent 52-0.

Nor should he.

Michigan State looked great on the scoreboard and in the final stats of this shutout victory over Akron. But there were plenty of plays in this game when Michigan State played beneath what is becoming the Tucker standard.

In his postgame comments, Tucker saluted the opponent, and credited his team for winning. “It isn’t easy to win football games,” he said. “You see the scores across the country and you can’t take anything for granted.” Hello, Notre Dame, Wisconsin and Texas A&M.

“Our guys, they went out there and played hard,” Tucker said.

And that’s kind of where the compliments ended.

“God knows we have things we need to improve upon,” Tucker said. “We are very realistic in our locker room. We have some things we need to clean up if we expect to be able to go on the road and get anything done.”

Washington is next. With a new head coach and new quarterback in former Indiana slinger Michael Penix, Washington has looked talented and explosive in scoring 45 and 52 points in the past two weeks against Kent State and Portland State. Those opponents haven’t been fearsome. Neither have MSU’s.

MSU’s next game, at Washington, and the one after that, at home, against Minnesota, are going to be difficult.

Extremely difficult, if Michigan State doesn’t sharpen up fast.

“I’m looking forward to grading this film and taking it to the players because they will respond, and they will get ready for Washington,” Tucker said.

He likes the hearts and minds of his players, and the talent and the skill. But execution has been a little bit clunky in MSU’s two victories.

Three main takeaways from this game:

1. Payton Thorne threw two interceptions, and missed open receivers a handful of times.

He wasn’t bad. But he wasn’t as good as Michigan State needs him to be if the Spartans are going to pursue some of their lofty goals.

“I saw him sail (some passes),” Tucker said. “I don’t know why he sailed them. I will just have to get on the film and see what happened and what Jay (Johnson) says and what Payton has to say.

“He was poised throughout the game and continued to work through the game while he was in there.”

Tucker was asked if he senses Thorne putting more pressure on himself than a year ago.

“I haven’t noticed that,” Tucker said. “You would have to ask him and I would have to ask him that specific question. I haven’t seen that from him in practice. I didn’t really see it today.”

Tucker shared the anxiety.

“We are all trying to work through some things to play at a higher level,” he said. “We are a work in progress. The outside expectations really aren’t a factor for us in my mind because we have high standards. It’s a high level of expectation within our organization. Anything less than that standard is unacceptable.”

2. The most troubling area in the opening quarter was the way Akron drove the ball on the Spartans. Akron had gains of 12, 7, 7, 8, 16, 7, 12, 22, 21 and 16 yards in the first quarter. It was messy for Michigan State.

But it was messier for Akron because the Zips fumbled the ball at the end of the 16- and 22-yard gains mentioned above.

Akron’s third possession went like this:

Pass complete for 12 yards.

Pass complete for 22 yards, fumble.

Two plays, 34 yards, Michigan State struggling to stop them. But then, Jacoby Windmon forced a fumble and all was somewhat artificially well.

The Huskies and Gophers aren’t going to be so charitable.

Akron QB D.J. Irons finished 9-of-13 for 123 yards.

He was 8-of-9 for 104 yards in the first quarter.

He surprised Michigan State with three QB draws in Akron’s first 10 snaps for gains of 12, 7 and 7.

“In the first half, there were some things with the quarterback run game and we will have to take a look at some of those things,” Tucker said.

Irons is a capable scrambler. But last week against St. Francis, Akron didn’t utilize him like this on designed keepers.

But with every run, he was opening himself up to blows from the Michigan State defense. And this Spartan defense can bring the wood.

Nick Saban preaches to his players to hit hard, win the physical battles on every play, make the opponent quit.

But the fourth quarter of this game, Akron had pretty much quit. They tried to compete, but they had nothing left. Meanwhile, Michigan State was still slugging hard.

In the category of depth, toughness, physicality and getting an opponent to tap out, Michigan State achieved that in spades. Should they feel proud of that? No. Of the 170 scholarship players on each roster, Michigan State had first pick of the top 85. Michigan State SHOULD be the team punching harder at the end of 60 minutes. Check that box.

But most of the teaching and learning from this game will probably come from the first 15 minutes.

Irons was having success, right up to the point that he got knocked from the game. It kind of reminded me of Drew Stanton’s underdog performance at Michigan in 2004, when John L. Smith sprung that newfangled zone read option stuff on the Wolverines for a quarter and a half, back when no one called it zone read option because it was so new that it didn’t have a name.

Stanton was kind of unstoppable for a quarter and a half. When he went down with an injury the Michigan student section cheered.

Irons’ departure was less ceremonial. But it was disastrous to Akron’s chances. And it also ended class for MSU’s defense.

Michigan State wasn’t flat or unfocused for the outset of this game. They were just plain losing a lot of downs to Akron through the first 20 minutes.

Akron outgained Michigan State 138-93 in the first quarter.

Five minutes into the second quarter, Akron was averaging 7.8 yards per play (157 yards on 20 snaps).

Meanwhile, Michigan State had 130 yards on 26 snaps.

This looked nothing like a 52-0 game in the early stages.

Why am I harping on the negatives? Because that’s what the coaches will do when its time for film study and corrections.

Akron showed the capacity to do hang in this game, were it not for gifting three turnovers to Michigan State on its first six possessions.

Give credit to Michigan State for forcing some turnovers. Kendell Brooks delivered a bangin’ hit in forcing the first fumble at the Michigan State 20-yard line, after Akron had sawed down the field for four first downs on its opening possession.

Brooks had seven tackles and a pass break-up in this game while starting in place of injured Xavier Henderson.

“KB is getting better,” Tucker said. “I’m proud of him being able to go in and get the job done.

“We have confidence in him to go in the game and get the job done and make plays and be physical and knock the ball off of people and play fast. I think as he gains more experience, I think he is going to continue to get better.”

The third turnover? It was a gift. Back-up QB Jeff Undercuffler’s speed option pitch went sloppy and mishandled. Michigan State recovered and soon went up 21-0, and it was pretty much over, with Irons out of the game.

As for Irons, he was 8-of-9 in the first quarter for 104 yards, plus 30 yards rushing.

Michigan State played a lot of spacious zone coverage in the opening quarter. The QB run game caused Michigan State to deploy all secondary eyes on the backfield. Man-to-man usually doesn’t mesh well against the QB run.

Irons does a good job of reading the entire field and making good decisions. He was erratic with his intermediate accuracy last week, but dangerous with deep balls. So it looked like Michigan State was trying to play deep zones, discourage the deep shot, and make Irons prove he could make reads and deliver accurate intermediate throws. He did just that. But it didn’t produce any points because Tucker’s defense took a page out of the Perles playbook and knocked the ball loose with hard hits and strips.

It worked.

And I’m not going to get too bent out of shape about Iron’s 8-of-9 start. It’s not like Michigan State was bringing blitzes and challenging receivers to get open against press man-to-man. Michigan State could have done that, and would have done that as the game wore on, if other cards needed to be played. And in future games, Michigan State will certainly need to be able to tighten up the coverage behind the occasional five-man rush.

That part of MSU’s didn’t get unfurled against Irons in this game. But Michigan State will need all varieties in Seattle next week.

3. The offensive line? Tucker liked most of what it provided in this game. I can see that.

Michigan State rushed for 260 yards. The Spartans dominated the fourth quarter with ground-and-pound body shots. But Thorne wasn’t completely clean in the pocket. And MSU’s ground game didn’t deliver a TKO from the beginning. It was a slow-build blowout.

So now we’re complaining about slow-build blowouts? Things must be good at Michigan State. And they are, for now. But it won’t stay that way against Washington and Minnesota if some of these loose screws don’t get tightened.

The run game stalled on a fourth-and-one failure in the second quarter when Jarek Broussard felt he needed to bounce outside because tight end Tyler Hunt missed a blocking assignment.

After the game, Broussard said he should have cut directly into the pile instead of bouncing outside. Whether or not he would have succeeded with a direct path into the logjam, we’ll never know. But he certainly had a fiery, north-and-south attitude for the rest of the game, spiced with short jukes and jumpcuts, and zero dancing.

He was a quality complement to starter Jalen Berger. Berger rushed for 107 yards (6.3 per carry), and Broussard rushed for 81 (5.4). Their workload was relatively low. Berger had 17 carries and Broussard had 15 attempts.

“I see guys hitting the hole with some velocity,” Tucker said, “and being physical and falling forward on contact, getting yards after contact and fighting for every yard. Those guys are running hard and the line is blocking. Our quarterback is getting us in and out of the correct plays so we can run the ball efficiently.”

Jarrett Horst was back in the starting lineup at left tackle, in place of week one starter Brandon Baldwin. Horst is the more physical of the two. He looked solid.

* Jayden Reed didn’t play in the second half due to an undisclosed injury.

Did Tucker have any information on the injury?

“No, nothing,” Tucker said.

He’ll keep that quiet all the way up to kickoff next Saturday in Seattle.

* Freshman kicker Jack Stone nailed a 43-yard field goal with :01 second left in the first half. That’s exactly what the true freshman needed, in order to get on with his acclimation process to the college game. And it’s exactly what Tucker and Stone’s teammates needed to see from him. That position seems less tenuous today than it did 48 hours ago, thanks to one good, difficult kick.

“I think it was important to go in there and knock one through,” Tucker said. “That was a good looking ball that he kicked. That thing had some distance. That thing looked good coming off of his foot. It was like no doubt.

“In practice this past week, we put the ball in the same spot where he missed the try on Friday (against Western Michigan). We put it in the same spot, same distance, and he made it in practice this week. He can do it. Obviously, we wanted to score a touchdown but we were in a position where we could give him a shot at it.”

In retrospect, it’s good that Michigan State didn’t score a TD on its last possession of the half. That field goal from Stone was more valuable than a sixth touchdown would have been.

* Now Michigan State will prepare for a trip to a potentially resurgent Washington program that might have a little more hometown angst for a Big Ten visitor than would have been the case 12 months ago. Big Ten teams historically have trouble on the West Coast in September. Michigan State hasn’t won out there in several decades (not that Michigan State has played out there very often).

“It’s an intricate travel,” Tucker said. “We are using experts to help us put the protocols in place so that we can help our players.”

The last time we heard him talk like that, Michigan State took on its trip to Miami in 2021 like a National Guard deployment.

It was a pleasant surprise for Michigan State fans when the Spartans beat the Hurricanes down in the South Florida heat.

Now, the vibe has changed. Now, Michigan State is going to be expected by its fans to go 3,000 miles from home and get a win. Tucker accepts

“We are all over it,” he said.

Just like they were all over those fumbles in this game against Akron.

But they’ll need to be all over the blocking, tackling, pass defense, and pass efficiency now that the schedule is headed to a different echelon.