In one of Michigan State’s most disastrous losses in years, Rocky Lombardi could see the silver lining.
Sure, the Spartans quarterback saw his team’s seven turnovers in its season-opening loss to Rutgers.
But in the aftermath, Lombardi focused on something else, as well: Michigan State had moved the ball well in between those turnovers, still managing 27 points and 369 yards of total offense.
So while Spartans fans wallowed after the loss, Lombardi went into the week with a different mindset.
“All I’m thinking in my head is we’ve got some guys, we can move the ball offensively,” Lombardi said. “We can win any game that we come into the game with the right mindset and right attitude.”
Michigan State came into its Saturday game against Michigan with a different mindset – and a different gameplan.
On the back of a consistent deep ball threat from Lombardi, the Spartans went toe-to-toe with Michigan on offense and made the big plays necessary to come out with the upset win in Ann Arbor.
The Spartans had to leave the field quickly, but that didn’t damper the postgame celebration with the Paul Bunyan trophy.
“It was just a lot of emotions piled on top of each other,” Lombardi said. “Obviously last week didn’t go how we wanted it to, but to win this week was really emotional for our guys.”
Step one for the Spartans' offense this week was to limit the turnovers. The unit brought that total from seven to zero.
Past that, Michigan State was determined from the start to complete the deep ball, and did so consistently against the Wolverines' secondary.
Lombardi competed just more than half of his passes (17-for-32). But a high percentage of them were down the field: five of those completions went for 30 yards or longer, and three went for 50 yards or longer. Three of the team’s five scoring drives included a pass of 30 yards or more.
Ricky White caught a 30-yard pass to open the scoring for the Spartans. Jalen Nailor hauled in a 53-yard completion down the sideline to set up another Spartans' touchdown in the second quarter. In the third quarter, White faked out the Michigan defense and hauled in a 50-yard catch to set up a field goal.
For comparison, Michigan quarterback Joe Milton had 15 more completions than Lombardi but 23 fewer passing yards.
The benefits of the Spartans' deep ball strategy went beyond passing yards. Michigan defensive backs were flagged four times in coverage, twice for pass interference and twice for holding, giving the Spartans an additional 50 yards and four first downs.
Lombardi, in his fifth career start, consistently delivered those deep balls on the money and gave his receivers a chance to make a play.
“Rocky did a really nice job,” Michigan State coach Mel Tucker said.
Nobody made more plays than White, a freshman who had eight catches for 198 yards and a touchdown in his second career game. His 198 receiving yards were sixth most in a single game in school history. Only Plaxico Burress has recorded more yards in a game against Michigan.
But while White’s emergence was a surprise to outsiders, those inside the walls of the Spartans' practice facility said they’ve seen plays like that regularly.
“We’ve got a bunch of playmakers,” Lombardi said. “You’re going to have to cover all of them.”
Michigan State’s air-it-out strategy marked a departure from Tucker and offensive coordinator Jay Johnson’s debut game last week. Against Rutgers, Lombardi completed 31 passes, nearly twice his total this week. But only two of those passes were longer than 20 yards, as the team opted for shorter, higher-percentage completions.
This week, they went for the opposite based on what they saw from Michigan’s defense, and reaped the rewards.
“We work on deep balls every week, every day,” Tucker said. “We were not surprised by what we saw out there.”
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