Quarterback Brian Lewerke (14) walks off the field after the game against Northwestern on Oct. 6, 2018 at Spartan Stadium.
After a third consecutive loss to Northwestern on Saturday, Michigan State will look to address its struggling offense.
Co-offensive Coordinator Dave Warner has been noticing the struggles since the beginning of the season, but now he knows that things need to change for this offense as the team gets ready to face No. 11 Penn State and No. 15 U of M in the coming weeks.
“There’s always going to be second guesses,” Warner said postgame. “I’m not sure what the answer is or what the reason is on why we are not executing at the end of the game, but obviously it needs to be addressed and be corrected.”
Michigan State’s rushing offense is ranked No. 104 out of 129 with 3.4 yards per carry, while their next opponent, Penn State, is currently ranked 10th and average just over six yards per carry.
Quarterback Brian Lewerke agrees with Warner on the team’s lack of execution, but he still thinks that there is no lack in their relationship and feels confident with his choices.
“I definitely do not put it all on him,” Lewerke said after the game. “Obviously, any quarterback and offensive coordinator have to have a good relationship. I think ours is great and it’s definitely on all of us.”
On Saturday, Lewerke threw one interception to give him six on the season, which is the same number of passing touchdowns he has.
Another noticeable trend is their inability to close out games in the fourth quarter. MSU scored just 18 points in the fourth quarter between Utah State and Indiana.
“The problem is execution with our overall offense,” Warner said. “It doesn’t matter if we’re backed up on our own goal line or on the 1-yard line, we need to execute.”
Coach Mark Dantonio stated during his postgame press conference that Lewerke “(was) feeling pressure the whole day”, evidenced by him getting sacked twice by the Northwestern defense.
Dantonio said his teams' issues, miscommunication on plays and inability to close out games does not fall on one person, but the whole team.
“It's a team game,” Dantonio said. “He’s (Lewerke) proven he can make plays for us … I’m disappointed and I’m sure we’ll look at it very, very closely and make some decisions.”
The team will head back to practice on Monday and watch film of the loss to the Wildcats, but for now Warner will brainstorm on how to improve this offense.
“You gotta find a way to call plays that work,” Warner said. “We’ve been searching for that … I’ll take responsibility for that.”
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