Michigan State returns home for the bye week with a 3-3 record after losses to Boston College, Ohio State, and Oregon in consecutive weeks. Coming off a 31-10 loss at No. 6 Oregon on Friday night, Michigan State has a lengthy to-do list for the bye week before resuming play at home against Iowa on October 19.

But can the Spartans get what needs to be fixed taken care of before resuming Big Ten play. Jim Comparoni and Paul Konyndyk discuss in the latest V-Cast.

V-CAST TOPICS

Fixing the Run Game: At the top of Michigan State’s to-do list during the bye week is the run game, which produced an anemic 59 yards and one mop-up time touchdown against Oregon. The Spartans received minimal rushing yardage from the tailback position in the first half, and little in the second half. Aidan Chiles did some things in the run game in the second half, and Kay’Ron Lynch-Adams managed to find the end zone late in the game. For Michigan State to have success in its offense, the Spartans must have a credible rushing threat for play-action passes to be effective.

Michigan State rushing defense takes a hit: Through the first five games of the 2024 season, the Spartan rushing defense was solid. With regard to stopping the run, Michigan State has ranked among the Top 25 in the FBS against the run for much of the season. That will certainly not be the case after Oregon rushed for 215 yards on the ground against the Spartans. Most of the success that the Ducks had running the football against Michigan State came in the first half. In the second half, the Spartans provided more resistance against the run. Whereas the Michigan State run defense struggled at Oregon, the Spartans actually fared pretty well in pass defense as both Charles Brantley and Malik Spencer picked off Oregon QB in the red zone.

Did Aidan Chiles take a step: Aside from a goal-line fumble, sophomore quarterback Aidan Chiles didn’t have a game with any glaring deficiencies. While he did not stack up big numbers in this game, Chiles did make solid decisions and left Oregon without throwing an interception. On a difficult day for the Spartan offense overall, Chiles did close the game with a bit of momentum, engineering the lone touchdown drive for his team before giving way to back-up Tommy Schuster down the stretch in the fourth quarter. One of the things that Chiles did not a nice job of in this game was utilizing tight end Jack Velling, who caught six passes for 53 yard on six targets for Michigan State. Although he has yet to emerge as the red-zone touchdown vulture he was at Oregon State last season, Velling has steadily become a bigger part of the Spartan passing game in recent weeks.

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