The MSU special teams have had its problems this season, and it continued Saturday against Illinois.
A blocked punt, a mishandled extra point snap and another missed field goal all led to a long day for Spartans kickers - sophomore punter Brandon Fields and senior place-kicker Dave Rayner.
At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Fields seemed to take his time catching the ball before trying to punt it. At least that is what MSU head coach John L. Smith thought.
"It looked like he was out for a Sunday stroll and the only thing was that his girlfriend wasn't with him," Smith said after the game.
After looking at game film, Smith semi-revised what he saw.
"What we had to do there - we had to take (senior tight end Matt) Walters out and put a sub in," Smith said. "Consequently, we didn't get it protected. Still, that backup has to be able to get that done."
Regardless of who made what mistakes, Smith stresses good special teams play and said MSU can't give up points in that aspect.
"We have to do a better job with the special teams," Smith said. "We can't give up seven like that."
Fields also had trouble after MSU's second touchdown, when he could not hang onto the extra point. He then tried to run the ball into the end zone for two points, but was hit by an Illinois player and fumbled the football. Another Fighting Illini player picked up the ball and ran it 91 yards for two points.
MSU's struggles in the kicking game didn't stop there, as Rayner missed a 35-yard field goal in the second quarter, wide right. The miss was Rayner's fifth of the season.
Great Scott
Over the last two weeks, sophomore wide receiver Jerramy Scott has emerged as one of the team's better wide receivers, according to the numbers.
At Iowa, he caught seven balls for 50 yards and followed that up with four catches for 45 yards against Illinois. For the season, he has 19 catches for 200 yards, both ranking him second on the team behind junior wide receiver Matt Trannon.
Scott threw the ball twice Saturday, both completions - one for a touchdown to sophomore quarterback Drew Stanton. Earlier in the season against Notre Dame, he recovered a blocked punt in the end zone for a touchdown.
Rushing to success
The Spartans do run a spread offense, but it's been the running game that has helped MSU since entering conference play.
MSU is ranked second in the conference averaging 194.3 yards per game on the ground and averaging 232.7 yards in its three conference games. Smith said he just tries to balance the pass and the run and go with what works.
The three running backs - junior Jason Teague, senior DeAndra Cobb and redshirt freshman Jehuu Caulcrick - have adopted their own identity.
"We call ourselves 'us' now," Cobb said. "It's a group effort, and it is all about who is getting it done at that particular time."
Home-going
The last time MSU won back-to-back homecoming games was 1998 and 1999, when the Spartans beat Indiana, 38-31, in double overtime and against Iowa, 49-3.
The Spartans lost their homecoming game in 2000 to Wisconsin, 17-10, and lost again in 2002 to Minnesota, 28-7. They did beat Indiana, 31-3, last season.
