For much of the season, Michigan State’s weaknesses have been like listening to a scratched record; no matter how many times you polish it, if it's scratched, it's going to get stuck at the same points over and over again.

Year one under the Jonathan Smith rebuild was always going to have its struggles, yes, but before Saturday’s 24-17 victory over Purdue, there hadn’t been much visible improvement in those “scratches."

Heading into Friday night’s game with a 4-6 record, the Spartans were in desperate need of giving themselves, and the fanbase, reason to believe in this program going into 2025 and beyond.

At times during the season it appeared that significant progress was being made by the team, only for regression and sloppiness to creep back in. This was no different versus the Boilermakers on a cold, wet November night.

The first half of the contest gave Spartan fans plenty of signs that this program has the talent and focus needed in order to reach bowl eligibility and earn three weeks of extra practice and development.

Throughout the season, turnovers, red zone efficiency, and third down futility have plagued Michigan State, costing them wins that would have locked up a bowl berth before the last week of the season.

“I feel like we should have been in this place a long time ago," said Michigan State quarterback Aiden Chiles, when asked after the game about being within one win of bowl eligibility.

Going into the contest vs Purdue, Michigan State had only scored touchdowns on 42% of their red zone trips, ranking near the bottom of the country. However, in the first half, the Spartan offense reached the end zone in their first three trips.
This allowed the Spartans to race out to a 24-3 lead going into the half; seemingly appearing like a rout of the Boilermakers was in order. Much of this was thanks to Michigan State converting on 6 of 7 third-downs. Coming into this game the Spartans were only converting third downs 35% of the time, good for 98th out of 134 FBS teams.

Despite this first half execution, sloppiness and missed opportunities allowed Purdue to climb back into the game; in the second half, MSU failed to convert a single third down - or even reach the red zone - resembling the team that had lost six of their last seven games.

Chiles was frustrated after the game.