Saturday, the Odyssey travelled to East Lansing. The locals were hoping that their last 6 nightmares against Ohio State would abate. Rich donors were doing everything in their power to do so as they threw $95 million dollars at Mel Tucker in hopes of an exorcism.
Did the Spartans still have PTSD syndrome after their horrific visit to Columbus in 2021 when the Big 10 title was still in their grasp (a 56-7 beatdown that was not as close as it sounds)? For a fleeting moment, Michigan State had hope. After Ohio State breezed down the field for a 7-0 lead, Sparty faithful had to be thinking, “oh, no, here we go again.” Then C.J. Stroud did the unthinkable. One of the brightest of OSU’s 50 or so superstars, Stroud threw a pass out into the left flat where no Buckeye receiver was in the same zip code. However, Charles Brantley was. Spartan Stadium erupted as Brantley waltzed 32 yards into the end zone. 7-7. Ecstasy!! For Brantley, a compensating gift given that he had the torture duty of often having to cover Marvin Harrison Jr.
The ongoing problem for Sparty: Ohio State still had their 50 superstars after the pick 6. OSU still had an offensive line that gave Stroud ample time to find his talented targets. Harrison Jr. again showed his dad that he might just be better than pops with an insanely great catch in the end zone which rendered the pass interference call against Brantley superfluous.
Nor did MSU’s defensive line hold up against the Buckeyes. Payton Thorne was often running for his life. Thorne did get bailed out on his one TD pass: Jayden Reed made a spectacular catch in the end zone while a Buckeye DB was doing everything but tackling Reed.
Stroud again threw for 6 TD passes against Sparty, the first QB in Big 10 history to do so twice against a conference foe. His snazzy line was 21/26/1/362. Note that he threw for more TDs than incompletions. And all without the incomparable Jackson Smith Njigba.
Mel Tucker’s 3 MSU squads have now been outscored by Ohio State, 157-39. Perhaps recent alarming trends in inflation might explain why $95 million does not seem to buy as much as it used to.
We were bemused by the comments from long-time columnist of MSU football, Graham Couch. Despite being outgained 614-202, a headline in Sunday’s Detroit Free Press: “Score was ugly, but MSU kept dignity.” Hmmmm.
22 days ago, MSU was ranked #11. Now sporting a 2-4 mark, what is the near-term future like in East Lansing? Given that Wisconsin, Michigan, Penn State and Illinois are still on the schedule, that future looks a lot like 4-8.
While mid-Michigan weather will never remind one of Key West, the weather gods seemed to be making an editorial comment. With cold temps, atypical of October 8th, and a brisk wind that drove the Odyssey to cover after half time, was the weather making a strong statement as to MSU’s performance?
Graham Couch had the benefit of covering the game from a warm press box. As the Odyssey is a mere blog, we did expect a rejection for our press box application. Expectations met! Maybe the cold weather affected our judgement. We apologize for not blogging more but we have an imperative job to do which precludes more analysis. We have to find the nearest Webster’s dictionary and look up the definition of “dignity.”