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Published Nov 24, 2024
Michigan State's defense breaks several droughts despite 'sloppy finish'
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Brendan Moore  •  Spartans Illustrated
Staff Writer
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@bmoorecfb

Michigan State’s defense was in desperate need of a good performance on Friday. Injuries, lack of pressure on the quarterback and minimal forced turnovers have really hurt MSU in recent weeks.

The Spartans took advantage of their opportunities against the last-place Purdue Boilermakers in a 24-17 win. However, the defense was leaky against the pass in the second half. That led to erasing most of the 21-point lead the Spartans had carried into the locker room and made the game tense down the stretch.

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“Yes, it’s nice to get the win because of course our bowl eligibility is on the line, so we really needed this win,” linebacker Jordan Turner said. “But, that’s a sloppy finish. We expect us to finish better, especially when one of our main topics this week was consistency and execution. We got to do it until there’s four zeros on the clock, not just the first half. We’re good, we’re happy we got this win. But, at the same time, we’re disappointed that we finished sloppy like that. We’ll learn, and we’ll get better.”

Despite the 24-3 halftime score, defensive back Nikai Martinez said that a 0-0 mindset was preached at halftime.

“Our whole message at halftime was that the game’s not over,” Martinez said. “There's a lot of football left, so we already had in our mindset 'it’s 0-0.' They made plays, and we had to do what we had to do to be able to finish the game.”

When the game got close in the fourth quarter, Martinez and Turner — as two of the leaders on defense — made it known to the entire team that they needed to find a way to come out winners.

“My mindset was we just got to find a way to come out with this ‘W’ at the end of the game and that was me and JT’s message to the team, offense and defense – we got to finish this game,” Martinez said. “No matter how your body’s feeling or your mind, we have to finish this game.”

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