Junior defensive tackle Malik McDowell had some of the highest projections of anyone in college football coming into this year. He was a preseason first-team All-American selection for a number of different media outlets, as well as a unanimous first-team All-Big Ten selection from the coaches and the media.
Heading into this season with his career stats at 56 tackles, 17 of them for a loss, and six sacks, he was only supposed to go up from there.
The MSU defensive lineman has only eight tackles this season, only one-and-a-half for loss and two quarterback hurries. He has been seeing double teams since his arrival at MSU, but there is one thing causing some frustration for the junior.
“Last year I got a lot of double teams, so it made it kind of hard for me to get to the play,” McDowell said. “I got used to it and I don’t really get frustrated. I get more frustrated with the refs being real picky about me and not picking with the (opposing) offensive lineman.”
“Oh I know I’m getting held every play,” McDowell said. “I haven’t got one holding call this year and you can literally just throw the penalty for holding every play.”
For a player of his caliber, it should be expected that he sees a number of situations where he is double-teamed, or even just players getting a body on him to slow him down. Opposing game plans this season have keyed in on McDowell, and for good reason, said MSU head coach Mark Dantonio.
“When you’re a good player you’re going to attract attention,” Dantonio said. “Just got to stay the course. He’s playing extremely hard. He plays extremely hard on the field. Just keep making plays, keep playing. When you’re a good football player, that happens. I would think that’s a natural progression to where he’s at in his football career.”
With the opposition’s attention garnered mainly toward McDowell, it’s up to the rest of the defensive line to generate pressure and make the opposing quarterback uncomfortable. For the season, MSU only has six sacks, and only three-and-a-half of those come from members of the defensive line.
Redshirt-freshman Raequan Williams understands that as a unit, they need to increase their intensity and make up for what McDowell hasn’t been able to do so far.
“I mean, he’s the best player on the field, of course he’s going to get doubled,” Williams said. “Nothing we can do about that, but everybody just has to attack their gap. Everybody gets doubled sometimes, it’s just about handling it and freeing up the gaps for our linebackers.”
McDowell said the holding calls not being whistled against him are infuriating at times, but have never stopped him in the past and that he has to just work through the fact that they might not be called.
“I’ve been held my whole life,” McDowell said. “I feel like teams are being a little more blatant with it this year, but that’s football.”
Going back, McDowell has had plenty of conversations with the referees — another thing he needs to improve, he said — discussing the situation with a humorous demeanor.
“I kind of feel that they (conversations with the referee) work on the opposite side of me, so I probably need to stop having those kinds of conversations,” McDowell said. “It ain’t working for me.”
Despite the lack of pressure coming from the defensive line, Dantonio reiterated that the final score comes down to contributions from everyone on the team, and they need to get better as a full team unit, not just one area first, and get ready for the next battle together.
“People usually get themselves ready for the next challenge,” Dantonio said. “I think that’s human nature. I think that’s basically human nature, and I think in football especially. Doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. Got to make plays and do things on the field, but I think that we can draw from things that went down and just push forward.”
