Michigan State Held To Three Points In Wisconsin Rout

The Spartans picked up their third straight loss Saturday, a 31-3 defeat to the Wisconsin Badgers that dropped Michigan State to 2-3. The Badgers, playing in front of a homecoming crowd in Madison, kept the Spartans out of the end zone entirely.

The Good: Jaziun Patterson Was Average In The Starting Role

Michigan State running back Jaziun Patterson took over as the starter after Cam Edwards got injured last week. While Patterson wasn’t explosive, his run game was average. He had 62 rushing yards on 18 carries, averaging 3.4 yards per carry. Backup Marvis Parrish also had a fine game with 36 rushing yards on 11 carries. While the run game wasn’t overly efficient, it was one of the few things the Spartans looked average at.

The Bad: Colton Joseph Left To Run Free

With Spartan linebacker Jordan Hall out, MSU was without its experienced green-dot communicator, per MSU beat reporter Chris Solari. Instead, linebacker Brady Pretzlaff took the responsibility, and the defense suffered. Wisconsin quarterback Colton Joseph used his legs all game, facing almost no challenge. Joseph rushed for 141 yards on 13 carries, averaging 10.8 yards per carry. It set a new season high for Joseph, easily clearing his 46 rushing yards against Eastern Michigan.

Joseph was also comfortable in the passing game, and the Spartan defense did not sack him once. He threw for 145 yards and three touchdowns on nine completions in 20 attempts. His first touchdown pass could’ve been knocked down, but Spartan edge Kenny Soares Jr. had the ball go through his hands, as shown in a Big Ten Network video.

Passing Game Scared To Go Long

The Spartans’ passing offense was terrible against Wisconsin. Michigan State’s two quarterbacks combined for just 108 passing yards, and the play-calling deserves part of the blame. The offense was scared to go for long passes, with the longest pass being a 13-yard reception by Rodney Bullard Jr. The average reception was just 6.8 yards long.

Starting quarterback Alessio Milivojevic continued his struggles, completing 15 of 32 passes for 103 yards. He didn’t have any turnovers, but it was his third straight game without a touchdown. The game got so out of hand that third-string quarterback Kayd Coffman got his first snaps in his college career in the fourth quarter.

Cam Fancher Goes Down

The Spartans’ backup quarterback, Cam Fancher, went down in the third quarter. Fancher has seen action in every game so far this season. His last snap was a 3-yard run in the third quarter, and Coffman handled the fourth. While the severity of Fancher’s injury is unknown, Fitzgerald may have no choice but to leave Milivojevic on the field for every drive for the foreseeable future.

The Intriguing: Fitzgerald Chose Aggression Without Reward

Pat Fitzgerald had talked about caring about production, not feelings, earlier this week, and against Wisconsin Fitzgerald tried to get extra offensive production by going for it on fourth downs. Instead of sparking the offense, the effort failed. The Spartans went for it on fourth down six times and succeeded only once. The successful conversion came on the first fourth-down attempt, a fourth-and-1 at the Wisconsin 46 during the team’s first drive. Michigan State finished the afternoon with 235 total yards to Wisconsin’s 373.

Pat Fitzgerald and the Spartans will travel back to East Lansing to see if they can start to salvage this season. Michigan State hosts Illinois and former Spartan quarterback Katin Houser next Saturday.