Comments on: Coffee Talk: What’s that? Another football game?

By: witless chum

witless chum — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:27:57 +0000

Oh, and I’d say best case would be something like MSU 34 Georgia 27.

By: witless chum

witless chum — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:26:29 +0000

Pedantism alert:
No ’s’ in Nichol.

I think that your view of the passing game is off. One, with Hoyer’s sometime accuracy problems (I’m not a Hoyter. I hope they all get gout) and the reciever’s dropping balls, it makes sense to try for a 20 yarder rather than a five yarder. Two, with our offense focused on the run, we haven’t had a need for the sort of ball control passing game you’re talking about. Treadwell’s angered me a few times, such as the end of the 2007 Wisconsin game, but I think overall he’s been pretty good. This year, we’ve seemed to do a very good job of getting recievers open down field, but not always a great job of finding them.

I share your hope that we come out passing. It’ll cross the Dawgs up and they’ll have to get their safeties out of the box and let us go to Ringer and beat up that defense.

By: DP99

DP99 — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 18:42:11 +0000

I hope MSU comes out passing too. My sense is they’ve done well enough when forced to pass. My hope is they shoot for passing game that values consistency, shorter gains and all. Sometimes Treadwell seems hell bent on the passing game going for ginormous gains, which are great the 1 time they work and offensively stalling in the other 4 times they don’t.

I’m reserving judgement on Treadwell until after a full year of Keith Nichols, but I kind of wish he had won out on the Miami U job…

By: Zeke

Zeke — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 16:02:34 +0000

Thanks for the comedy maize, Elno Lewis. It seems the typical Wolverine sense of humor is alive and well despite the early end to the season.

This game is a statistical mismatch. There will certainly be some comments regarding the SEC vs. the B10, but this game will be an uphill battle for the Spartans. Offensively, I’m sort of hoping to see a pass-first mentality to keep Georgia off-guard. Defensively, I hope to see some coverage to limit Stafford from firing deep. I sincerely hope I’m wrong about this, but I’d say UGA – 35 MSU – 26.

By: Elno Lewis

Elno Lewis — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 14:59:46 +0000

I think MSU will win 63-0. I heard Dantonio is suiting up for the game and that his herpes is all cleared up now.

By: kj

kj — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 14:37:46 +0000

Dan, I hope you’re right about the teams’ respective pass defenses. My concern with looking at defensive pass efficiency rating (which ranks #5 in the Big Ten) is that it’s based heavily on completion percentage.

MSU ranks #1 in the Big Ten in defensive pass completion percentage at 52.2%. But that number’s skewed down by the 8-34 performance the FAU QB put up in the monsoon game. Take that game out, and the figure jumps up to 54.9% and our defensive pass efficiency rating drops to below average.

By: SpartanDan

SpartanDan — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 04:06:03 +0000

I see two pretty similar teams here, actually: Neither really put up any fight against their two toughest opponents (OSU-PSU and Alabama-Florida; don’t let the 11-point final in the Bama game fool you, Georgia was down a million at the half and only got back in it because Bama let up), both lost another against a solid team (Cal/GT), and won the rest. Honestly, MSU’s two best wins (NW and Iowa) are probably better than any of Georgia’s, although to be fair their losses are a bit more respectable than ours.

Some of the statistical numbers are misleading too; while we’ve given up a lot of pass yards our pass efficiency defense is pretty good (actually significantly better than Georgia’s). Hoyer should have plenty of time when he drops back to pass; MSU doesn’t allow a whole lot of sacks and Georgia doesn’t get many.

I don’t think Georgia will blow us out. They don’t have the defense to manage that, unless Hoyer forgets which team he’s supposed to throw to. Georgia should be favored, maybe in the 7-10 point range. Statistically, Stafford’s been solid for Georgia (better than the “eyeball test” suggests, IMO – watching them play, I would never have guessed the Bulldogs were 15th in pass efficiency), but the big key is the obvious one: slow down Knowshon Moreno. If we can do that, we can win.