That sucked, I hated that.

As bad of a start as can be conceived gave way to something that looked like a dynamic effort from an inspired Michigan State team, but it wasn't nearly enough versus Maryland.

The Spartans ultimately lost to the Terrapins by a final score of 31-9.

When MSU wasn't trying to actively give the game to the Terps, there were elements present of an improved football team. From a schematic perspective, there were a couple of things that stood out on the offensive side of the ball.

The fourth-down run play in the first quarter was a defendable run call, but I fail to understand taking tight end Maliq Carr off the field to run the goal-to-go set before this play.

In the narrow confines of this play, if No. 58, right tackle Spencer Brown, is able to impact a defensive end, the insert tight end, Evan Morris (No. 92), has a much easier block. Instead, Brown gets pushed back three steps, and Morris is unable to tie up his man in space.

If Brown walks his man down the field, the linebacker who winds up making initial contact on running back Nathan Carter (No. 5) runs into his own defensive end's rear, and Morris can seal the edge, allowing Carter to walk in. I hold myself as a longtime Spencer Brown truther, which unfortunately seems to get more and more validated every week.

Also on the offensive side of the ball, the quarterback sneak with a motioning tight end pushing the quarterback made another appearance in short yardage early in the game. Hooray!

Much has been made about the cameos of redshirt freshman quarterback Katin Houser (No. 12) in recent weeks. I don't pretend to have any insight or smoking gun showing why Houser hasn't been starting, or if he's better than Noah Kim (No. 10). All I can say definitively is that Kim won the job out of fall camp, and is substantially more experienced.

I think Houser has palpable talent, but there is much more to being a successful Big Ten quarterback than pure arm talent. As seen above, I don't think he has developed a great feel for pressure, and looks down receivers. This is normal for young quarterbacks, and I don't mean to suggest that Kim is necessarily better in that regard.

What I do think I can say, is that Houser is probably not the silver bullet that would immediately make this team competitive against high level competition. The problems with MSU are multifarious and deep-rooted.

The main story of this game, to me, is the defense.

An idea that I saw percolating on the interwebs was that MSU switched to a more blitzy, physical defense in the second half that stifled Maryland and gave the offense a shot to compete late.

While the defense was, in my view, certainly more aggressive than it has been in the past, I did not feel that this was a phenomena limited to the second half.

Rather, through instances of both good fortune (a blocked field goal at the end of the second quarter) and execution, (a magnificent Angelo Grose interception to end a long Maryland drive), the defense was more effective later in the game. However, the defensive architecture was similar in both halves.

Above, in the first frame, MSU lines up in a 4-2-5 with pretty clear zone tells — cornerbacks in a half turn, with split safeties. This screams quarters (cover-4) all the way.

In the second sequence of the clip, the third-and-2, MSU looks to be in a man-under cover-1 look, with one high safety and man coverage underneath, with the box players activating upon the offensive line showing run.

Cover-1 is the most commonly used third -own defense across the NFL and college football, so it was refreshing to see it used here.

By contrast, the above play is classic quarters coverage, with each player in the secondary (save the nickel back) playing a deep fourth of the field, with the linebackers and nickel back playing underneath hook/curl zones and rallying to the ball. See the difference?

However, the downsides of Cover-1 are apparent below. Simply, you are left with minimal help wherever you are leveraged.