Turnovers help defense win first preseason scrimmage

Moving one step closer to the start of the regular season, the MSU football team held its first scrimmage of the preseason Monday at Spartan Stadium.

The defense won the scrimmage, 95-89, using a modified scoring system for an 85-play session in the morning followed by 93 plays in the afternoon.

MSU’s passing game looks like it will be as potent as expected, as junior quarterback Kirk Cousins went 26-for-42 with 306 yards and three touchdowns, but also threw two interceptions. Junior receiver Keshawn Martin hauled in eight of those passes for 83 yards to lead the Spartans while fellow junior receiver B.J. Cunningham caught seven passes for 65 yards, including two touchdowns.

Martin wasn’t known for his pass catching ability last season, used more effectively on runs and gadget plays, but after having almost half as many catches in one scrimmage as he had in all of 2009, it looks like the MSU coaching staff wisely is looking to get the ball to one of the most explosive players in the Big Ten more often.

One surprise to come out of Monday’s scrimmage was freshman running back Le’Veon Bell, who led the team in rushing in front of sophomores Larry Caper and Edwin Baker.

Caper put up decent numbers, rushing for 47 yards on 16 carries and a touchdown. But it took Bell four less carries to rush for 50 yards, including a 10-yard touchdown run.

After freshman Nick Hill led MSU in rushing in the spring game last year, it’s safe to say the newcomers at running back will have a chance to take some carries away from the incumbents at the top of the depth chart.

Head coach Mark Dantonio said turnovers were the difference in the scrimmage, and while turnovers are never good news for the offense, it’s encouraging to see the defense force the offense into mistakes.

Sophomore cornerback Johnny Adams showed that all the talk about him being the difference in a secondary that struggled to make plays last season could be true. Adams picked off two passes, had seven tackles and broke up two passes to lead the defensive backs.

Besides Adams, MSU’s pass rush also could help the secondary improve this season. Not surprisingly, senior linebacker Greg Jones was everywhere Monday, leading the Spartans with four sacks to go along with his 12 tackles, while sophomore linebacker Chris Norman and freshman defensive end Denzel Drone also added a sack of their own. Norman was right behind Jones with an impressive 11 tackles.

Although getting to the quarterback is never bad for the defense, it appears the defensive line needs to do a better job of doing so without help from the linebackers. If MSU has to rely on blitzing to rush the quarterback this season, the Spartans could end up giving up a lot of big plays.

Throughout the scrimmage Monday, both the offense and the defense showed some bright spots but also a few areas of concern Monday. But as just the first scrimmage of the preseason with almost three weeks left before the first game, the Spartans still have a lot of time to fix and of the problems they might be having on the field.

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