In five plays in 2:26 minutes, the Spartans — particularly Cousins, sophomore running back Le’Veon Bell and senior wide receiver B.J. Cunningham — took big strides in moving up the field, ultimately finishing with MSU’s only touchdown of the game.

Cousins completed a 33-yard touchdown pass to Cunningham — who Cousins said was supposed to be on the sideline rather than under the goal post where he caught it.

“I would say he wasn’t wide open,” Cousins said. “I threw it up and basically trusted a guy with a lot of ability to go up and get it, and he did that.”

Although it was the Spartans’ only touchdown, Cousins completed 20-of-32 passes for 250 yards — his 19th career 200-yard passing game — but he also had two interceptions. Cunningham finished strong, leading MSU (4-1, 1-0 Big Ten) with nine receptions for 154 yards in MSU’s 10-7 victory over the Buckeyes (3-2, 0-1).

However, after the first quarter touchdown, MSU’s offense struggled to convert on multiple scoring opportunities throughout the remainder of the game.

The Spartans’ running game — while it gained a couple yards at a time — couldn’t get a rhythm going, but Bell — who finished with 50 yards on 14 carries — said MSU still somewhat managed to maintain a balanced offense.

But compared to the running backs’ dominance against Central Michigan, the Buckeyes contained them Saturday.

“It’s definitely important for us to get our running game going because that’s going to set up our pass game,” Bell said.

“We don’t like just dropping back and passing the ball every down, so when we get the running game going — even if it’s just like one or two yards — that’s just keeping them off balance.”

Bell said it was particularly frustrating for the Spartans to move the ball up the field against Ohio State’s experienced defense without earning any points at the end of the drives. Had they successfully executed more plays, players said the score would have been drastically different.

Although MSU’s defense kept the team in control of the game, Bell said MSU needs to improve on converting on drives before the Michigan game on Oct. 15 at Spartan Stadium.

“We didn’t finish drives,” Cousins said. “We feel like we could have — with a few plays going our way here and there — could have come away with 20-plus, 25-plus points.”

Overall, the Spartans only converted 3-of-14 third downs, and two of the failed drives came from Cousins’ interceptions, which were both in the fourth quarter when one scoring opportunity could change the game.

His first interception was on a third down on Ohio State’s six-yard line, and it was picked off in the endzone.

The second also was on a third down and was intercepted by the Buckeyes at their 20-yard line.
An upside for MSU’s offense was an improvement on the offensive line, which has suffered several injuries since the beginning of the season.

Head coach Mark Dantonio said the improvement was noticeable, and the line effectively protected Cousins from Ohio State’s “outstanding front seven” players.

“They have a good defense all right,” Bell said.

“The (offensive) line definitely strapped it up and moved some people, and they had holes out there.
“Sometimes you win a play or you lose a play. The offensive line — pretty much through the game — I felt like they dominated, and we were moving the ball, (but) we just didn’t finish.”