And frankly, those “inches” are turning into excuses.

This year is much, much different. This team doesn’t have a Le’Veon Bell to rush for more than 1,700 yards and keep their team in football games. Instead, MSU has 46 redshirt or true freshmen on their roster this season. Some players, like receiver Donnie Corley and defensive tackle Raequan Williams, have been impressive. Others are being forced into starting positions or more playing time than expected, and they are struggling.

The year 2012 had a young roster mixed with older leadership that blossomed into eventual Rose Bowl and Big Ten champions. But they never got blown out 30-6 or 31-14 in their home stadium. They also never lost to teams like Indiana.

I could chalk the main factor for MSU’s downfall this year up to injuries, but guys like Shane Jones and Andrew Dowell have been more than serviceable in their replacement of linebackers Jon Reschke and Riley Bullough. Other minor injuries affected some things. Missed defensive assignments. Poor reads from Tyler O’Connor. Wrong routes. Bad protection. 

I’m here to tell you that the correct answer is e.) none of the above. This season’s failures are falling on the shoulders of the coaching staff. And finally, based off the Twitter feed following the BYU loss, fans are beginning to realize it.

The offense is abysmal, and it’s really not all the players’ fault. Yes, sometimes assignments are missed, but the last two losses for MSU have come against defenses who are not top-tier, like the University of Wisconsin.

Here are some statistics: The Spartans rank 102nd in the nation in total offense. 87th and 86th in rushing/passing offense, 112th in scoring offense, 73rd in third-down conversion percentage and 110th in first down offense.

Those kind of stats doesn't translate to not getting the inches –– they translate to blowout losses. 

The defense has been the one bitten by the injury bug. Losing Bullough and Reschke is big not only from a playmaking standpoint but more of a leadership standpoint. Cornerback Darian Hicks missed a game, Williams is out for a while, linebacker Chris Frey sometimes wears a sling to practice.

It’s not the MSU defenses of the past few years, but it has been serviceable (serviceable is my go-to term, like Dantonio’s “inches”) — 38th in total defense, 53rd in scoring defense, 27th in first-down defense.

But, they have their issues: 95th in red-zone defense, only five sacks through five games and a dreadful 105th in third down conversion defense.

Other two-way components have been pretty awful: 94th in turnover margin — that goes both ways, but MSU has only forced seven turnovers — and a highly-uncharacteristic 104th in fewest penalty yards per game.

Once again, those stats translate closer to "miles" than "inches."

Yes, this column is statistically heavy, but the point of this is to get you as a reader to realize that sometimes players are just not as athletically gifted as their previous teammates. Or sometimes players need time to recover or learn the system. And that is up to the coaches to fix.

Obviously you can’t change an offense in a week. But you can change play calling. Even a college student can realize that on third-and-two, late in the first half when you haven’t thrown a single pass since the first drive, you are going to run it up the middle. Stack the box. Tackle for no gain. Punt.

Maybe throw a slant or screen. Pitch it outside when you see a loaded box. It’s up to coaches to teach their quarterback the situations of when to call an audible. Not to pull them in the fourth after they go 7-of-11 with two incompletions as drops.

Last note here, for fans calling for Warner’s head or for Dantonio to take over play calling, Dantonio is a defensive coach. He has been his whole career and the offense wouldn’t improve. Warner has been good the last few years, and it is up for him to take responsibility and start changing up the way he is calling games, because it is clearly not working.