Believe it or not, Ohio State and Michigan State came to be beneficiaries of one another after their Big Ten Championship showdown. In full understanding, the Buckeyes would choose to negate this presumption, but the opinion stands firm in a foundation of proof.
From Michigan State’s standpoint, Saturday’s Big Ten Championship was a win-win scenario for them, regardless of the outcome. Had they lost to the #2 ranked Buckeyes, the Buckeyes would’ve held on for dear life to their rank, setting them up for the National Championship with Florida State. Ultimately, it would’ve bumped up the second place Spartans to the Rose Bowl to fill the spot for the Big Ten team. Obviously, that’s not the case.
The fact that Michigan State won now has the carpet thrown down for them to waltz to the prestigious Rose Bowl with the quintessential defense and immensely improved offense. Right now, they’re flourishing about as well right now as their player personnel could ever allow them to.
More than anything, the overlooked importance this game brings to both sides—MSU and OSU—is this: the game for both served as a course of preparation and experience each can take with them heading into their respected bowl games.
The ingredients for preparation now instilled in them, Michigan State now has the confidence from their now proved capability to put up points and finish a football game against, at the time, an undefeated and second-best team in the country. From an even rosier perspective for them, the fashion they won in was foreign to them, though it’s something they can pull away from Indianapolis as their greatest positive.
That fashion was the relentless passing approach to such an intimidating, silver-scalped Buckeye defense. That fashion brought an element to their offense they never had for the first two-thirds of the season. That fashion won them the Big Ten.
Backpedaling and scanning his options 40 times, Michigan State’s quarterback, Connor Cook, fared masterfully at securely yet urgently distributing the ball against a pursuing defensive line tied for first in the country in sacks. Now, this is not just any experienced quarterback named the starter of his college team by his junior year of high school like the typical stud that leads a Rose Bowl team. If that generic depiction of a guy who tossed for 304 and three six-pointers—against Ohio State, at that—is supposed to be typical, then Cook’s journey might as well be documentary worthy.
Having come from a sophomore, whose initial job this year was to assume the clipboard in the depths of the crowded sideline, and becoming that panting, drenched Big Ten Championship MVP, the entire fantasy tale of Michigan State’s quarterback shows shades of a minor ‘Colin Kaepernick of Last Year’ scenario. That can be left for an article feature of its own; the circumstances seem inconceivable to consider, really. Much respect there.
But back to Cook’s impact; to see his offense’s overall success teeter from a run-heavy orient to a much balanced attack with a passing punch, particularly in the last third of the season, it’s stunning.
Ohio State, the boisterous bunch ranked seventh in the land against the run, couldn’t even contain that. Spartan halfback Jeremy Langford rushing for 128 yards, that balance was as present as ever. The notable fact is that the Buckeyes were able to counter with scores, despite their stumbles into a brick wall line of scrimmage, breaking through only once out of 10 third down conversion attempts.
Win or no win, a bright shimmer of upside for the Buckeyes seeps through the cracks in the state of dark depression they now remain in. Still so fresh from their devastating upset, the lost invitation to the National Championship trumps all reasons to prop their chins up, but the Buckeyes will eventually accept to notice a very much overlooked positive they got out of this game. Again, regardless of the outcome.
That positive is this: dismissing their crumbling breakdown on defense for the second consecutive week, those third down falters, Braxton’s teething troubles throwing the ball, and every domino that falls as a result, this Ohio State offense still managed to find a way to put up 24 points on the best defense in the country, that being of Michigan State.
Between Braxton Miller, Carlos Hyde, and Jordan Hall, they plowed their way to a combined 273 yards on a mean, green, 11-man machine holding teams to an average of only 81 yards a game. Presumably heading into the Orange Bowl against Clemson, the Buckeyes have a hell of a lot to be proud of in that aspect for as poorly as they held up or converted when it mattered.
The Buckeyes probably don’t want to hear that right now. But let’s face it: their immense value in preparation gained from last Saturday’s game is replenishing. It’s for their own good, though it’s hidden by every emotion that comes with a loss like that. Michigan gave them their first competitive fight of the season, but it was against Michigan State when they finally faced their first legitimate challenge against a defense in about a year. That’s not exaggerating either.
The ugly beauty to a loss like that is the rejuvenated redemption type of mentality it can bring back for the following game—in this case, the Orange Bowl. The damage done on the ground is what Ohio State can take there. Similarly, Michigan State now faces the challenge to recover from gaps in their defense Ohio State opened wide—that rush defense that held up so well until Saturday.
Responses to Ohio State’s type of offense have been alike on every level, it seems like. From the NFL to college, teams that aren’t accustomed to facing a dual-threat quarterback tend to falter miserably. Seemingly impenetrable at times, Michigan State’s defensive efforts seems to be sucked into the norm of defenses for once, all of which tending to fall apart when mobile quarterbacks like the passer-turned-runner Braxton Miller escape the pocket or streak through the open field on designed runs. It’s flat out hard to defend.
Much like Ohio State, the Spartans found a way to keep the pressure-packed, spotlight-magnet game alive despite their own unique, unusual falters both teams abruptly met for their first times all year.
So all in all, forget the win-win scenario for Michigan State; the shell-shocking experience gained from that game made it become a win-win-win for them. The Spartans’ first apparent defensive deficiency has now been exploited, and it’s shown to have that alleged “brick wall” of theirs to be about as permeable as fluffy snow when facing a mobile quarterback.
But thanks to those heroic developments offensively, they’ll be playing far from that flaky stuff.