Junior safety Dominique Long (9) pounds his chest during the game against Penn State Oct. 26, 2019 at Spartan Stadium. The Spartans fell to the Nittany Lions, 28-7.
Michigan State football (4-4, 2-3 Big Ten) fell to No. 6 Penn State (8-0, 5-0 Big Ten) 28-7 Saturday evening. The score however, doesn't completely reflect the defense's performance. For the Spartans defense tonight, it was a tale of two halves.
The first half was a rough showing for the Spartans, who allowed 209 yards and 21 points.
Defensively, they made mental errors.
The first touchdown came as a floating pass that hung in the air for Penn State sophomore tight end Pat Freiermuth. The ball was playable for the Spartan defense, but they didn't get anyone to it.
The second and third touchdowns in the first came off passes as well. Breaks in coverage resulted in points for the Nittany Lions.
Senior linebacker Joe Bachie believes the lapse came down to executing, and they didn't do that.
"Execution. That's what it comes down to," Bachie said. "Everything they scored on, I mean they lobbed the ball up in the corner, we got to make a play on the ball for the first touchdown.
"The second one, the Y-pop or whatever it was, we were right there. We've seen it thirty times on film. ... We killed ourselves."
21 points in the first half.
Hurting themselves with mental mistakes, offsides and holds led to drives that resulted in points.
The second half went different. Michigan State's defense came out ready to compete in the third and fourth quarter.
During halftime, the defense calmed themselves down and refocused on the half ahead.
"Just calm down. We've seen everything they're doing, and in the second half, we just went out there and played, kind of freely," Bachie said. "(We) can't have pressure on ourselves. I don't know if in the first half there was pressure or what people were putting on themselves, but just go out there and play football."
A muffed punt put the ball at the 6-yard line in Penn State territory after the Spartans forced a punt to start their half. Penn State was able to capitalize on the tremendous field position let up by Michigan State special teams, moving the ball six yards for a touchdown.
That six yard score was the only points let up by the Spartans the entire half.
Penn State's next offensive possession would end in a senior free safety David Dowell interception.
Following Dowell's interception, the Spartans would keep momentum swinging towards their defense. The next five Nittany Lion possessions would all end in the same way: a punt.
In the second half, Bachie's defense allowed a total of 93 yards, forcing six punts and allowing seven points.
"I thought we came out in the second half and fought. That's all you can ask for. ... We kind of shot ourselves in the foot a couple times, but plain and simple, it comes down to execution. That's what we talked about in there, players gotta make plays," Bachie said.
"That's the main thing. You just can't quit while you're out there."
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The Spartans will head in to a bye week, then will meet an Illinois (4-4) team fresh off of two big wins against No. 13 Wisconsin (6-2) and Purdue (2-6), on Saturday Nov. 9, at home.
Michigan State's defense will look to get healed and refocused during their bye, and then put together four quarters of defense for the last third of the season.
"There's still a third of our season left. It starts with Illinois in two weeks. ... Defensively, we gotta figure it out this week. Four weeks in a row we have not played good ball at all," Bachie said.
"We know where we could be, where we can be, where we should be, so hopefully we get it right this week."
