COLUMN: Ohio State cruises past MSU

Ohio State cruises past Michigan state by a score of 52-12 

Ohio State walked into East Lansing short handed, and they were down 23 players due to COVID. You could not tell the boys were down 23 players, though, by the way they played. They played motivated, they played smart football and they were simply the more talented team. There were definitely some negatives for the Spartans but they did have a glimmer of hope for the future.

The Negatives

Where do I begin… well, for starters, Michigan State’s defense couldn’t stop the big play, while Ohio State had several huge plays of 30 plus yards. Michigan State’s defense wasn’t terrible, but they struggled giving up big plays and getting off the field on third down. Michigan State offensively couldn’t sustain a drive, Michigan State got into Ohio State’s side of the field almost the entire second half but turnovers, and penalties killed many drives. The biggest negative of the whole game was an obvious one, the talent gap is huge. The level of competition between Ohio State and Michigan State isn’t surprising but is upsetting. If Michigan State ever wants to be competitive again in the big ten they will need to get more talent, not necessarily Ohio State talent but Michigan state will need to recruit better and begin to develop players better. 

The Positives

Obviously when you lose by 40 points, there aren’t a lot of positives, but there was one bright spot: Peyton Thorne. After quarterback Rocky Lombardi got injured midway through the second quarter redshirt freshman Peyton Thorne came in. Even before the injury people wanted to see Rocky Lombardi benched and they wanted to see what Thorne could bring to the table. The game had already been decided at that point, Ohio State was up by 28 but Michigan state fans wanted to see if Thorne had potential as a future quarterback. He didn’t play perfectly, he turned the ball over twice but he had great moments and he looked pretty good. At one point in the third quarter Thorne was 11/11 with a rushing touchdown. 

Like I said before, Thorne wasn’t amazing but he looked good on his feet, and the offense looked better when he was out there. If he stays at Michigan State as a quarterback, State fans should be excited for the future. 

Michigan State will travel to Penn State next week for the last regular season game of the season at 3:30 p.m. on ESPN.