DEEP DIVE: What was the problem for Michigan State's pass defense, and how bad is it?

EAST LANSING, Mich. - Michigan State came out of the weekend with a dramatic victory, a 2-0 record, and some pretty good lessons from Boston College. Boston College lit up Michigan State’s pass defense for 390 yards on 34-of-45 passing and four touchdowns. The Eagles exposed some technical weaknesses in the Spartan pass defense, which Spartan coaches were hard at work to diagnose and correct during the game, and on Sunday during film study and meetings. The corrections will continue through the practice week, and should result in Michigan State becoming a better version of themselves in the days ahead.  “Yeah, we learn a ton,” Smith said during Monday’s weekly press conference at Spartan Stadium, when asked if Boston College’s subtle but uniquely effective passing attack is something the Spartans can draw from. “Call me a football junkie, but I’ve just got respect.” Smith was complimentary of Boston College head coach Bill O’Brien and the Eagles’ offensive scheme prior to the game, immediately after the game and again on Monday. “You turn on tape, and then you kind of watch it, and you see a previous play, and then some adjustments get made,” Smith said. “You see a formation shown, and sometimes a play is run in a formation really for the next play that he's going to call, and you got a lot of that out of Boston College, Coach O'Brien, that offensive staff. “I look at some of the challenges he presented defensively for us, formationally in the boundary.” Formation into the boundary means having three or more receivers to the short side of the field, which can create a flood of levels to the short side, with a quick read and short throws. “The ball's coming out of the quarterback's hands quickly,” Smith said. “So I just got a bunch of respect for that kind of thing, and yeah, we're always trying to learn, so yeah, we're studying that tape.” (Much more detail and analysis inside SpartanMag).