After scoring on an 80-yard drive to start Saturday's game against Indiana, MSU's offense got the ball back with a chance to jump out to an early 14-3 lead. The Spartans were looking to continue the offensive momentum they captured in the second half against Northwestern.
But after a five-yard run on first down, two consecutive false-start penalties put MSU in a second-and-15 situation. After a sack and short run, the team had to punt. On their next drive, a holding penalty took the Spartans from second-and-1 to second-and-11, and they were eventually forced to punt again. An illegal-block penalty on MSU's next drive negated a first-down run and resulted in a third straight punt.
Three consecutive drives were hampered by penalties. The momentum was lost. Indiana took the lead.
And that was just the beginning. When the game was over, MSU had committed a season-high 12 penalties for 110 yards.
For the season, the Spartans have committed 65 penalties for 559 yards — both almost double their opponents' totals and both easily last in the Big Ten.
Penalties can be results of many things, but head coach John L. Smith was quick to single out one key reason for MSU's woes at his Monday press conference.
"Practice," he said bluntly. "If you don't (practice), you will not execute."
Several MSU offensive starters have been limited in what they can do in practice. Senior Kyle Cook, junior Peter Clifford and sophomore Jesse Miller — all starters on the offensive line — have been wearing protective boots for ankle injuries. That has kept the offensive line, which has already been maligned with holding and false-start penalties, struggling to find cohesion.
The multitude of injuries has kept the Spartans from practicing in full pads for several weeks and has forced starters to practice against reserve players.
"We could have (practiced starters against starters), if you could limp your way up there," Smith said. "Are you going to say, 'Hey, we're going to go (starters against starters) and take a chance of banging guys up more,' or do we go (starters against) scouts and try not to bang guys up more?"
Miller doesn't want to use injuries as an excuse for penalties and miscues.
"All around the country, everybody's sore and tired, so I'm not going to count anything to that," he said. "It's just, how mentally tough is everybody on the team?"
Instead, Miller blamed selfishness and a loss of focus for the team's biggest penalty problems.
"You don't want this guy to beat you, so you're going to make sure he doesn't by grabbing him," Miller said. "There's the other 10 people on the field making sure they're doing their job. The ball goes down the field 50 yards, but there's a yellow flag on the ground."
Playing in a vacuum
With every loss, the grumbling from fans has grown. That rising criticism hasn't been lost on the players.
"(For) the Ohio State game, our stadium was red," Miller said. "Then, it became more evident in the Northwestern game. The first half, all we hear is boos, and after the game, everybody switched up cheering on our side."
But while he admits he notices it, Miller also knows the team can't allow it to be a distraction.
"We know who we have — our family and us," he said. "I'm not even going to worry about the crowd because they're not playing on the field."
