Joel Klatt on how Ohio State can exploit Michigan State's defense: Show up
A fan asked college football analyst Joel Klatt on his show Breaking the Huddle how Ohio State‘s offense can exploit Michigan State‘s defense this weekend as they face off in East Lansing this weekend, to which Klatt gave a brutally honest and brief answer.
“Show up,” Klatt laughed and said. “Because not difficult to exploit Michigan State’s defense.”
Klatt elaborated on the matchup between the Buckeye’s prolific, high-powered offense and Michigan Sate’s defense that struggled against the Buckeyes last year, defeating them 56-7, and could have their hands full this year as well.
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“In fact, Ohio State if you look at what they did to the Spartans last year, it was an absolute boat race. Now granted that one was in The Shoe, but it’s not like this Michigan State defense is much better. In fact if you look at what this defense was a year ago, they were 130th in pass defense, but that was after Ohio State took them to the shed, that’s right, that shed Mel Tucker always talks about,” Klatt said. “They’re coming into this game with the 115th ranked pass defense, that ain’t good.”
Klatt’s motto for Ohio State’s offense this weekend is just to continue to be themselves, as they currently rank third in the nation in yards per game averaging 529, as their opponent this week has lost a lot of their offensive firepower from last year, and could struggle to keep pace with CJ Stroud and company.
“So Ohio State, if you resemble yourself at all on Saturday, you’ll be able to exploit this defense, which has not stopped anybody. The problem for Michigan State is they don’t have an offense that can overcome like they did a year ago. Last year they had Kenneth Walker and that run game and his ability allowed them to overcome some of those games which they were giving up a lot of points, they don’t have that this year. That’s why they’re in trouble, Michigan State is in trouble,” Klatt said.
Klatt even went as far as to say that the Spartans last season were closer to the bottom of the Big Ten versus the top despite only losing two games.
“The difference between Nebraska last year and Michigan State was not that far on the field, remember, Nebraska held Michigan State without a first down in the second half,” Klatt said. “And yet one of those teams was 3-9 and the other one was 11-2, and so you’re seeing that flux right now and that transition, because Michigan State doesn’t have it.”
Michigan State is definitely trending downward at the moment, losing their last three games, two to conference opponents, following a 2-0 start to the season. The Buckeyes on the other hand remain undefeated, and are looking to stay unbeaten in a road game where they’re favored by 27 points.
“Ohio State will be able to exploit that defense by showing up, Michigan State cannot overcome it with their offense, which has scored seven and 13 somewhat respectively in each of the last two weeks,” Klatt concluded.