Observations of things to be encouraged about

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We actually threw the ball in the middle of the field with some success

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How many times? That is the issue.

Not only did Harris have good pocket presence, on the one sack he took (good sack to take in that situation) he was just shaking off the tacklers. Took like 6 guys to get him down.

And after playing what I would expect to be a very good rushing team, we've got to be in the top 5 nationally in rushing defense.

Agreed

I think this is going to be a special season

Really I think the only thing that kept us from blowing the doors off last night was a few untimely penalties.

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Well we didn't throw it that much at all

But we actually did throw to the tight ends. I thought Harris threw some good balls

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one thing i'd mention is that even in mett's big year, we didn't throw the ball that much by college football standards.

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No turnovers on the road in the first game of the season.

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That's a big deal

Especially since we didn't create any on defense

The team looks the best it has in years. Positive take is that Miles was being conservative last night with a young QB on the road and that it paid off.
Negative take is that it was more of the same with Miles playing not to lose.
We will see. I think Miles will open it up more as the season goes along and we may not lose a game.

1 - First half we looked like a Top 5 team who could play with anyone. Despite their losses, this is still one of the best MSU teams in decades (along with last year's team).

2. - Dural is a great holdover - he could be playing for money right now.

3. - Harris looked poised - he definitely looks ready to play.

4. - Orgeron has made immediate improvement on the DL - I'm still concerned about depth and I think that impacted us on defense in the second half.

5. - Steele appears to be no drop off from Chavis, and perhaps an improvement

6. - OL looks beyond dominant at times

7. - Buga is still Buga

8. - Secondary and linebackers looked great (in the first half)

9. - Desean Smith is slowly becoming a weapon

10. - While not the threat that Buga is (who is?), Williams looks great with a head of steam. With more reps, hopefully his vision and "first step" will improve - I think that's all he's missing from being an every down back. His effort and yards after contact are special.

11. - Dupre looks great

Harris' throw to Desean Smith was a thing of beauty (also of note Harris' best 2 throws were deep over the middle of the field - to Smith and the TD called back to Dural)

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I'm all about quality over quantity

If we can throw the ball efficiently we don't need to put it up 45 times a game to win

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I don't mind if we have a 3 to 1 or even a 4 to 1 run to pass ratio, we all know our stregnth is on the ground with Fournette and Williams behind a very good offensive line. It felt in the 2nd half like it was 10 to 1 run to pass.

Basically this is what I want to see. I don't mind run-run-run-run, but we need to pass the ball enough to keep the defense honest. We need to run some plays that get our talented receivers invovled, work in a TE pass from a heavy set, etc. We are going to see a-lot of 8 box sets, but if we can keep the defense honest we will run alot better.

Basically our offense will struggle if the defense crashes down every snap because they have no respect for the pass. If the defense at-least hesitates to crash down when the snap occurs because of the pass threat we will run a-lot better.