Michigan-Michigan State: Same Old Story as Spartans Outslug Wolverines

When Brady Hoke took the Michigan job in January he promised the return of smash-mouth football, which was the Wolverines' trademark for years. With Rich Rodriguez as coach, Michigan was transformed into a finesse team, which would prove to be unsuccessful in the physical Big Ten. On Saturday Hoke learned that bringing toughness back to the Wolverines wouldn't happen overnight.  

For the fourth straight time, Michigan State outfought the Wolverines, 28-14, before more than 77,000 at Spartan Stadium.

The Spartans were physically dominant on both sides of the ball. On defense they eliminated Michigan's running backs after an early score, then punished Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson the remainder of the afternoon.

The game could have been a blow out, but the undisciplined Spartans were called for 13 penalties for 124 yards. The fouls included three late hits and a well-placed punch by the Spartans' William Gholston on Michigan's Taylor Lewan.

The last Michigan State infraction was a WWE-style body slam by Marcus Rush, which effectively ended Robinson's afternoon. 

So instead of Michigan State being well ahead, Michigan found itself driving for the tying score with seven minutes left.

Michigan had reached the Spartan nine with a 4th-and-1, the line up in a rare power-I formation. Robinson faked to his back up the middle, then dropped back for a play-action pass. As was the case all day, no one accounted for cornerback Johnny Adams sprinting toward Robinson from the blind side. In a flash, Robinson was down back at the 19 and the threat was over.

All tolled, the Spartans sacked the two Michigan quarterbacks seven times, Robinson four and Devin Gardner three. 

Coach Hoke was quick to compliment MSU coach Mark Dantonio. "Mark does a very good job and is a good defensive coach," Hoke said at his postgame press conference. "His fingerprints are all over that defense. They overloaded us a little bit and they hit their timing well with snap counts. I think they did things the way you're supposed to."

Michigan's offensive line was no match for Spartans' bigger, stronger, faster defenders. The Wolverines converted on only three of 15 third-down conversions, and two of four fourth-down tries.

In fact, Hoke had the Wolverines punt twice from inside MSU's 40.

Robinson carried the ball on exactly half of Michigan's rushing attempts, gaining a net 42 yards on 18 attempts. Vincent Smith, who helped set up the game's first touchdown with a 26-yard run, finished with just 37 yards on eight carries. Hoke thought the line should share the blame for the shoddy rushing attack. "To get it out of our running backs we have to get more out of our front first" he added. "From an offensive standpoint I think there's some opportunities we missed a little bit but at the same time I don't know how much movement we got consistently at the line of scrimmage.

Robinson's passing numbers certainly weren't Heisman-like either. He completed only nine of 24 for 123 yards, a touchdown and an interception.

The interception was the game clinching pick-six by MSU's Isaiah Lewis.