The Spartans’ special teams unit allowed 209 kickoff return yards and a touchdown against Western Michigan and 98 punt return yards with a touchdown against Oregon. Today, the Spartans held CMU to 54 kickoff return yards and two punt return yards – a good start to solidarity.

Additionally, the Spartans were able to block two field goals, one by sophomore defensive end Demetrius Cooper and one by senior defensive end Shilique Calhoun. Also, a plus for special teams was junior kicker Michael Geiger showing he still can be the 93.8 percent assurance he showed his freshman year, by knocking down a 47-yard attempt in the second quarter. A slight downside for the overall unit was a blocked extra point attempt, but there were enough positives to consider special teams as good on the day.

The Spartans’ offense was 4 for 4 on scoring when in the red zone, which makes the team 13 for 15 on the season.

Last on the list of ‘goods’, but not least, is the play of the Spartans defensive ends, Calhoun and Cooper. As stated above, both were able to get a hand on a field goal kick today. Calhoun finished the game with 2.5 sacks for negative 24 yards, three tackles for loss, four hurries and six total tackles. Cooper finished the game with five total tackles, a two-yard sack and two hurries. The two ends had a great game when the defense needed them most.

“We put the blame on the defensive lineman for big plays,” Calhoun said. “We need to be able to get to the quarterback and past the tackles past the guards and make plays for our DB’s.”

The bad

Injuries have been an unfortunate part of the Spartans’ 2015 season and the bug bit again against CMU. Junior tackle Jack Conklin exited the game early and was on the sideline in the second half with a knee brace. Conklin is in his third year of starting and would be a huge loss to the Spartans offensive line. Junior tight end Josiah Price also left the game and Big Ten Network reported it as an ankle injury. Price caught his 14th career touchdown pass in the first half, which is a MSU record for most receiving touchdowns in a career by a tight end. With Price out, the play-action pass and senior quarterback Connor Cook’s safety blanket could be in jeopardy.

Head coach Mark Dantonio declined to comment about injuries at his press conference after the game.

“Injuries are something that happen in football, you can’t control those,” junior linebacker Riley Bullough said. “But you can control the number two and the number three guys each week in practice, getting them some reps and coaching them up.”

In other bad news, the Chippewas’ offense saw more success than the score indicates, especially on third down. Central Michigan was seven for 15 on third down conversions and inversely were able to sustain long drives early in the game. 

“Oh it was killing me because we were stopping them first and second down, we were dominating them then third and ten, third and twelve they were completing all these passes. Just things you got to look into and get better,” Bullough said.

Taking a step back, MSU’s opponents were a combined 15 for 39 in the previous three games, so today’s mediocrity in the conversion category does not appear to be a common flaw.

“That’s very frustrating, that is another thing we got to work on is getting off the field,” McDowell said.

The Spartans will play Purdue next week at Spartan Stadium for the team’s homecoming game. A timeline for the return of Conklin and Price has not been set, but more information should be available after Dantonio’s weekly press conference on Tuesday.