Michigan State went to Columbus for a date with the the No. 1-ranked team in the College Football Playoff, Ohio State, and left with a 38-3 defeat.
The loss marked the Spartans' seventh defeat in the past eight games, and MSU now sits at 3-7 overall on the 2023 season, including a record of just 1-6 in Big Ten play.
Ohio State jumped out to a 21-0 lead with 14:58 remaining in the second quarter, and led 35-3 by halftime. The Buckeyes pulled back in the second half, but the Spartans never threatened.
Following the blowout loss, Michigan State redshirt freshman Katin Houser and sixth-year senior linebacker Aaron Brule discussed the game, and how the team tried to fight through despite being down big early.
"We've had a few games with some adversity this season," Brule said. "So, I mean, it wasn't really hard for us to keep pushing through hard times and I think we were able to do that for the majority of the game, no matter what was going on. So, I think we handled that pretty well."
As Brule mentioned, the Spartans have been through plenty of adversity both on and off the field this season, so Saturday night against the Buckeyes was nothing new in that regard. However, there remains a large gap in where these two teams currently stand.
Despite the talent advantage that Ohio State has over Michigan State, the Spartans weren't going to back down. The team was prepared to fight, but OSU was simply too powerful for MSU.
All Michigan State can look to do now is watch the film, learn from it and hope to execute better against next week's opponent, Indiana.
"We didn't really come here to quit or lay down to whatever they had to bring to the table," Brule said after the loss to Ohio State. "Even after the game, we still have a 'no quit' mentality. So, I think starting tomorrow, we'll be preparing for Indiana."
Brule finished the game with seven total tackles, including a tackle for loss. Houser finished the game 12-for-24 passing for just 92 yards, with no touchdowns or interceptions.
Houser knows that his performance, and the team's performance as a whole on Saturday, has to better. With that said, he was encouraged with the way the offense was able to move the ball in spurts, particularly early in the game.
"I thought we were moving the ball really well," Houser said when asked what he thought was working well early in the game. "I thought our run game came out tonight and we had some huge runs, offense line was doing really well. I thought we were moving the ball considerably well. We got down I feel like every time down to the 35 (yard line) 40 (yard line), and then sometimes we just hit a wall, whether it was a bad throw by me, bad read by me, or penalty or something like that, just something went wrong at that point. So, I feel like our offense, we were moving the ball pretty well, we've just got to finish those drives."
