Bloomington, Ind. — First, it was Illinois' Juice Williams.
Then, Ohio State's Troy Smith.
On Saturday, the MSU football team made another opposing quarterback look like a transcendent talent, allowing Indiana's Kellen Lewis to pass for five touchdowns and run for a sixth in a 46-21 defeat at Memorial Field.
"He's a great athlete — running and passing," said junior defensive end Ervin Baldwin. "We're just having trouble with the type of quarterback that can run. I don't know why, though."
Perhaps it was because the Spartans didn't plan for a mobile quarterback.
"We didn't really have too much planned for him," senior cornerback Greg Cooper said. "We came out with our normal stuff and just tried to execute it."
The normal stuff didn't work.
The Spartans played a flat, uninspired and unprepared game. They committed drive-killing penalties, dropped easy passes and blew defensive assignments. They had more penalty yards (110) than rushing yards (66), were 3-of-14 on third-down conversions and had possession of the ball for about 23 minutes.
Despite the lopsided final score, the MSU offense looked crisp early on in the game. Drew Stanton plucked away at the Hoosiers' defense on the Spartans' opening possession, hitting receivers on quick passes that led to chunks of yards after the catch.
Fellow wide receivers Matt Trannon, Jerramy Scott and Ryan Allison established strong downfield blocks, allowing Thomas to sprint to the end zone and give MSU a 7-0 lead.
The Hoosiers' defense quickly adjusted, and the MSU offense crumbled. Stanton completed five of his first six passes for 64 yards and one touchdown, but he only connected on 5-of-16 pass attempts for 36 yards the rest of the day. Sophomore quarterback Brian Hoyer replaced Stanton at the end of the third quarter.
But by that time, the outcome had long been decided.
Wide receiver James Hardy's 30-yard touchdown reception near the end of the first quarter gave Indiana a 10-7 lead. Running back Marcus Thigpen caught a 26-yard touchdown pass off play-action in the second quarter to make it 17-7, and two more receiving scores by Hardy — one of which came after junior running back Jehuu Caulcrick fumbled in an attempt to run out the clock — gave Indiana a 30-7 lead to close the first half.
The Hoosiers continued to put points on the board after the break, registering two touchdowns and a safety that pushed the score to 46-7.
MSU finally managed some offense in the fourth quarter, scoring two garbage-time touchdowns that made the score a bit more respectable.
Just one week removed from a record-breaking 35-point come-from-behind win over Northwestern, the Spartans (4-5 overall, 1-4 Big Ten) squandered the opportunity to ride the momentum from the big win and now must win two of their last three games to be bowl-eligible.
Despite registering six tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, a 38-yard interception return, a nine-yard sack and one pass broken up, junior strong safety Sir Darean Adams held himself accountable for the Spartans' lackluster showing.
"I didn't execute at all today," Adams said. "I feel that that game was all my fault. I'm sorry to everybody. My loss, my fault, and I swear to you — I promise you — it won't happen again."
