Our Michigan State Spartans improved to 3-0 over the weekend and TOC has a game ball to hand out. Week 1 had an obvious winner in Makhi Frazier. Week 2 had a few candidates who earned serious consideration. Week 3 falls in the middle.
Nick Marsh had himself one heck of a game first half. He finished with a stat line of 6 receptions for 94 yards, a 15.7 average. Unfortunately, he sustained an injury in the second quarter and did not return to the game. He was shown with a wrap on his knee on the sideline.
We are still awaiting word on the severity of this. While he was in the game, after one of his catches, the broadcast showed a stat that Marsh was leading the Big Ten in broken tackles through two weeks of the season. In his two quarters of play on Saturday, I think he added roughly another 10 to 15 as he regularly was making the first, and sometimes even the second guy, miss. It is clear that he did a lot of work in the weight room this offseason as he is proving to be incredibly difficult to be taken down by a single defender. No doubt, had #6 been able to play the full game, he would have walked away with this game ball. But availability counts.
A couple other MSU pass catchers stepped up after Marsh went down. Jack Velling, the tight end, had his best game of the young season. Velling equaled Marsh with six receptions and a total of 70 yards. Omari Kelly added 4 catches for 49 yards, but also was a force on special teams. In the 3rd quarter, with MSU leading only 17-10, Kelly took a punt 83 yards to the YSU 4-yard line. I am going to use this opportunity to say that if it were not for a lackadaisical effort by Darius Snow blocking near the end of the return, Kelly would have made it to the end zone.
In a game where we surrendered 24 points to an FCS program, there will be no nominees from the defense for player of the game.
And that leaves us with Aidan Chiles. The second-year starter seems to be improving each week at this point. His pocket presence, decision making, and ability to make something out of nothing are all leaps and bounds above what they were last year. Chiles had a very strong statistical game against Youngstown. He completed 22 of 29 passes (76%) for 270 yards. And he also led the team in rushing with 76 yards on only 8 carries (9.5 average). The only stain on his stat sheet in this game was the interception, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt and say that one can be attributed to poor blocking in front of him. Running back Brandon Tullis completely missed picking up a delayed rush by a Penguins linebacker and allowed a batted pass which was picked off. On a day when the rest of the running game was not meeting expectations, Chiles picked up the slack and had an amazing performance. We award him this week’s game ball.
Do you agree?
