Ouch. Opener in East Lansing Goes Poorly

Yeah.  In the end, it ended up that about what you might have expected, but it happened in ways that are discouraging.  In my preview, I counseled guarded optimism for marginal improvement this year, and the first game would seem to indicate that we are a ways from that.

During camp, the defense kept outplaying the offense.  That seemed to indicate the defense was improved--and I think they are--but it also apparently indicated real struggles on the offensive side of the ball.

John Wagner did a poll about how the defense played.  I voted good, which a lot of people did, and a lot of people (more) also voted fair.  I would say it was somewhere between those two ratings.

The thing is, the offense did very little to help.  Much as we had early last year, when the offense is coming off the field quickly and isn't at least moving the ball, it makes the defense work with poor field position and longer possessions with less time to rest.

BG never got the run game going during meaningful time.  James Morgan looked a lot like the guy whose job he took last year, and the WRs looked a lot like the WRs from early last year, with a lot of drops.  I thought the line protected Morgan pretty well, but they didn't open much space up for the running game.

So for the numbers....BG passed 10-31 for 145 yards, which is dismal.  There was a 45-yard pass and a 31 yard pass, leaving 8 completions for 67 yards on the others.  There was one bad pick, for a TD, and one sack that you can't take inside your own 5 that led to a TD.  BG was 24 for 67 running, which is less than 3 yards per carry, and the starting duo was 13 for 26.

More. BG finished with 9 first downs, was 2 of 13 on 3rd down and 0 of 2 on 4th down.  BG's TOP was just less than 22 minutes.

So, the defense might not have been great, but much like last year, the offense did next to nothing to hold up their end of the bargain, scoring only 3 points on the game and spending 2/3 of the game on the sidelines.

On the plus side it was twice as good as last year's Memphis game.

More to come.