Michigan Football: 3 takeaways from shocking loss to Michigan State

Michigan football faced its in-state rival the Michigan State Spartans on Saturday. Here we discuss the three takeaways from the game.

The Michigan vs. Michigan State rivalry game goes all the way back to 1898 and after Saturday’s game, the two teams have met 113 times. Michigan entered the game leading the all-time series between the programs, 71-36-5 and the winner receives the Paul Bunyan Trophy.

Michigan leads the Trophy series as well, 38-27-2 and the Wolverines have the longest win streak with 14 games, and their streak of two games was crushed on Saturday.

The Big Ten was one of the last conferences to return to the field as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, so they each only have one game under their belt for the season. Michigan handled Minnesota last week 49-24, while the Spartans were defeated by Rutgers, 38-27.

I’m not sure if the Rutgers score didn’t reflect the play on the field, or if the motivation of losing the first game and wanting to turn the season around during the rivalry game is what the Spartans needed to come and play a good game.

That is exactly what they did, so let’s get to the takeaways.

3. Hype vs. Reality

There is always a lot of hype surrounding big rivalry games like Michigan and Michigan State, and in the era of COVID-19, this year was no different. Michigan was heavily favored to win the game but trailed Michigan State for most of the game.

As mentioned above, the outcome of both teams’ first game of the season may have skewed some of the expectations for both teams. The Spartans turned the ball over seven times last week but kept control of the ball without any turnovers this week.

In the same way, the hype that surrounded Michigan and their imminent win in the rivalry game was supposed to give them motivation and determination to get the win, that same hype gave MSU the desire to prove everyone wrong by securing their first victory of the season, over rival Michigan.