Michigan State football grades vs Wisconsin: Why are Spartans lifeless?

MADISON, WI – Free Press sports writer Chris Solari grades Michigan State football after the Spartans’ 31-3 loss at Wisconsin on Saturday, Oct. 3, at Camp Randall Stadium.

As the level of competition has gone up, so has the quantity of the Spartans‘ mistakes, across the board. Quarterback Alessio Milivojevic continues to look slow in his decisions, missing open receivers with passes behind, wide, high and low.

Backup Cam Fancher fared little better and got knocked out of the game with an apparent right knee injury after starting the first drive of the second half. His offensive line continues to miss assignments, with left tackle Ben Murawski getting beat off the edge and right guard Nick Sharpe missing an interior block that led to a sack of Milivojevic while he stepping up to avoid the first rusher on MSU’s first drive.

Michigan State shows almost no pulse in blowout loss vs Wisconsin

The Spartans‘ wide receivers struggled to get separation, too, and senior Chrishon McCray had a drop in the fourth quarter on the fifth fourth down the offense failed to convert.

Running backs Jaziun Patterson (62 yards, 18 carries) and Marvis Parrish (36 yards, 11 carries) fared favorably in their first full game replacing Cam Edwards, who is out for the season, and did not have any lost yardage. Tight end Jayden Savoury caught four passes for 26 yards on six targets.

The Spartans neither turned the ball over nor committed a penalty. But they also went a combined 6-for-24 on third- and fourth-down conversion attempts, managed just 235 yards and failed to reach the end zone for the first time after scoring one in each of the past two games against power-conference foes.

Stopping Wisconsin quarterback Colton Joseph was the obvious task coming into Saturday, and MSU’s inability to do so was even more glaring; the Old Dominion transfer amassed 286 of the Badgers‘ 373 total yards with his arm and legs. Joseph exploited the Spartans’ depleted linebacker corps (with senior captain Jordan Hall out) in running for 141 yards on 13 carries, including a 47-yard touchdown in the third quarter as he burst past Cam Stodghill and Brady Pretzlaff and blew through the rest of the secondary. This was after Joseph torched the defense for two first-quarter touchdown passes, but before his 46-yard laser-guided missile in the fourth to an open Malachi Coleman. Along with continued issues in giving up explosive plays, MSU failed to get a sack or generate a turnover for the third straight game and gave up 228 yards rushing.

Liam Boyd remains the Spartans’ best weapon, with his 31-yard field goal in the final seconds of the second quarter providing Saturday’s only points. He is now 9-for-11 on the season, with his only two misses blocks on attempts from 54 and 52 yards. Boyd also added another touchback on his two kickoffs. Punter Rhys Dakin, though he averaged 55.7 yards on his three punts, struggled with placement, with a net average of 42.3 yards after two touchbacks. And MSU’s only penalty in the game was a false start before one of those punts.

Regardless of the energy Pat Fitzgerald brings, the Spartans looked lifeless in producing one of the more putrid all-around performances of the post-Mark Dantonio era (albeit one eerily reminiscent of MSU’s 38-0 routing in its last trip to Madison, during Dantonio’s last season). Going for it five times on fourth down on a day when there was little reason to think his offense could convert might have showed he believes in them, but the results after the first two turnovers on downs should have dictated the decision-making for Fitzgerald and offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan.

Of the five fourth-down failures, four of them were outside the Wisconsin 39-yard line and one was at the 24. As for Joe Rossi’s defense, not having Hall to orchestrate it clearly has been an issue in the two games he has missed. And if the Spartans can’t generate pressure or takeaways, Big Ten opponents ahead are going to continue to do what Nebraska and Wisconsin have done the past two weeks.

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football grades vs Wisconsin: Why are Spartans lifeless?