Michigan State vs Michigan prediction, game preview, how to watch. Week 9, Saturday, October 29
Michigan State vs Michigan How To Watch
Date: Saturday, October 29
Game Time: 7:30 ET
Venue: Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor, MI
How To Watch: ABC
Record: Michigan State (3-4), Michigan (7-0)
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Michigan State vs Michigan Game Preview
Why Michigan State Will Win
The Spartans – particularly head coach Mel Tucker – have a strange mind grip over Jim Harbaugh and Michigan.
The Wolverines rolled through the Big Ten last year, beat Ohio State, blasted Iowa in the conference championship, and … lost to Michigan State.
The 2020 Spartan team was awful in a 2-5 season. It lost to Rutgers, couldn’t score against Indiana, and … beat Michigan.
The Spartans might have bailed out their season with the overtime win over Wisconsin two weeks ago – the passing game clicked – helped by two takeaways. They have to throw well and force mistakes, which wouldn’t be against the normal against that team from Ann Arbor.
How did they beat Michigan last year? Kenneth Walker went crazy, but the offense was balanced, the defense held up against the run, and the two takeaways helped.
Under Tucker, MSU has won its last eight games when coming up with multiple takeaways. Michigan has lost the ball two or more times twice this year, and …
Why Michigan Will Win
Michigan State is 0-4 this year when not forcing multiple takeaways. Michigan has only turned it over four times and haven’t given it up more than once against anyone.
Everyone but Wisconsin has been able to throw at will on the Spartan secondary, and Michigan will give it a shot. Of course the idea is to stop the running game first, but JJ McCarthy has been sharp – he threw for over 300 yards in the win over Indiana and hits over 70% of his passes – and then everything else bust through from there.
Michigan’s offensive line has been fantastic. It’s going to pound away on a Spartan defensive front that was beaten up by Minnesota and Ohio State, and gave up five yards per pop to Maryland.
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What’s Going To Happen
Will this be another one of those Michigan State performances against Michigan that defies all logic and reason?
You don’t win the last two meetings and three of the last five against your rival without knowing how to troll, tweak, and control the situation.
The Michigan secondary can be thrown on, and it’s up Payton Thorne and the strong receiving corps to bomb away from the start and keep the pressure on, but can the Spartan D hold up?
Not really.
The Spartans will be hot early on the way to a first quarter lead. Michigan will sputter, cough, and make too many mistakes – penalties will be a problem – and then midway through the third quarter the O line will take over.
There won’t be the avalanche like the Wolverines came up with in the second half of the 41-17 win over Penn State, but they’ll grab the momentum with the ground game and MSU won’t be able to get it back.
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Michigan State vs Michigan Prediction, Line
Michigan 38, Michigan State 17
Line: Michigan -21.5, o/u: 53.5
ATS Confidence out of 5: 2
Michigan State vs Michigan Must See Rating (out of 5): 3.5
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