Chips to much for Spartans to Handle

On Saturday, newspaper headline writers in Michigan were probably throwing up all over themselves in anticipation of all the possibilities they could put to print: Spartans stricken ill with LeFevour. Central Michigan has the fever for LeFevour. LeFevour too hot for MSU to handle.

And so on and so forth.

This post will try to refrain from such headlines writing hype. Yes, Michigan State's 29-27 loss to Central was due in part to CMU quarterback Dan LeFevour's performance. But the senior QB was not the sole reason that led to State's demise. Self-destruction played a part in that. Sloppy play and sloppy penalties were key culprits in MSU's meltdown. It seemed there were many long pass plays where the wide receivers had distance on the defense, and yet State QB's (they do it by a committee) just overthrew them. On the times they did throw on target, the receivers made some key drops.

And the last straw that stifled State was the off-sides penalty on MSU while CMU attempted a late-seconds field goal. Who commits an off-sides penalty on a game-winning FG attempt? Any team who wants to gift-wrap the game to their opponent, that's who.

CMU also had one other motivational move on their side....They wanted to avoid the weekend sweep of Michigan-based MAC schools by Big 10 opponents. Indiana had beaten Western Michigan and Northwestern beat Eastern Mich. Central was able to prevent a tri-fecta of Michigan "directional" schools all being beaten by Big 10 foes.