Advertisement
Published Sep 24, 2022
Gophers slam Spartans, 34-7, season heading into destruction?
circle avatar
Jim Comparoni  •  Spartans Illustrated
Publisher
Twitter
@JimComparoni

East Lansing, Mich. - Michigan State’s once-promising season has taken a drastically negative turn.

The Spartans, ranked as high as No. 11 just a week ago, suffered a demoralizing 34-7 loss to Minnesota, Saturday at Spartan Stadium.

Minnesota picked through the Spartan defense with ease, choosing the aerial game for most of the first half against the still-struggling Michigan State pass defense.

Then MSU’s rush defense caved in the second half as the Gophers out-gained Michigan State 510-240.

Michigan State falls to 2-2, 0-1 in the Big Ten and 0-2 against FBS opponents. With three games remaining against Top 15 opponents (Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State), plus a trip to Maryland next week, and Wisconsin still on the schedule, the Spartans will be hard-pressed to reach a .500 record this year if things don’t take an abrupt change.

Minnesota improves to 4-0.

“Really for us, we’ve got to come together and move forward,” said Michigan State quarterback Payton Thorne. “Good teams, teams that are families, they come together and they move forward together. That’s what our plan is.”

It's a sobering situation after last year's storybook 11-2 season, Peach Bowl victory and No. 8 final national ranking. But Michigan State has looked nothing like a Top 50 team, much less a Top 25 team, in the last two weeks.

Minnesota came into the game ranked No. 2 in the nation in rushing offense, and the Spartans tried to stack the box to contain Gophers tailback Mohamed Ibrahim, but Minnesota QB Tanner Morgan dissected the Michigan State back seven for 268 yards on 23-of-26 passing.

Minnesota threw for 207 yards in the first half, marking the second straight week that an opponent broke the 200 yard mark by halftime against Michigan State with Washington having treated the Spartan secondary like a landing strip last week.

Ibrahim rushed for 103 yards on 22 carries (4.7 per attempt).

Minnesota, which has punted only three times this season, never punted against the Spartans. Minnesota's final drive ended with a 22-yard field goal after several merciful, predictable runs into the middle of the line, giving Michigan State a chance to finally slow the Gopher offense at the end of a 10 minute and :37-second drive.

Michigan State committed three turnovers against Minnesota’s defense, which has ranked among the Top 10 in the country in scoring defense and total defense over the last two seasons.

Michigan State QB Payton Thorne was 17 of 24 for 132 yards with two interceptions and a fumble.

Back-up QB Noah Kim relieved Thorne for the final drive and drove Michigan State 75 yards for the Spartans' lone TD, a 27-yard scoring strike to Germie Bernard.

Kim was 6 of 7 for 70 yards on the drive.

MSU’s deepest penetration with Thorne at QB ended at the Minnesota 6-yard line early in the third, but Thorne fumbled inside the 5 while being hit and stripped from behind on a first-and-goal zone read option keeper.

Jarek Broussard led Michigan State in rushing with 23 yards on six carries. Jalen Berger had 13 yards on just four carries. Michigan State had only 10 tailback carries for the game.

More coverage and analysis to come, at SpartanMag.com.

MichiganState
FOOTBALL
Scores / Schedule
footballfootball
22 - 5
Overall Record
13 - 3
Conference Record
Finished
Michigan
62
Michigan
Michigan St.
75
Arrow
Michigan St.
Michigan St.
75
Arrow
Michigan St.
Purdue
66
Purdue
Illinois
65
Illinois
Michigan St.
79
Arrow
Michigan St.
Advertisement