1^st quarter

14:21: Strong hands by Worthy, just pushing the left guard for Ohio State back with pure strength.

14:08: Worthy disengaged twice, but just keeps pushing. Only 3 plays, but he’s definitely dominating his matchup with the left guard. Ohio State goes 3 and out and will punt.

13:23: Botched snap here for Kirk Cousins. Center’s fault here. It’s also raining.

12:49: Cousins with a quick pass to the tight end short, but doesn’t put it in the right spot, incomplete.

12:43: Cousins makes an odd decision on 3^rd and 16 to run. Doesn’t even bother to look downfield for longer than a half second. The pressure wasn’t coming either. He just fled the pocket unnecessarily. Both teams go 3 and out early.

11:27: Worthy pancake blocked.

10:48: Worthy pushes forward on a run play and can’t disengage and the guy gets past him, but frees up space for the guys behind him.

8:56: Cousins to a wide open guy need the first down marker. Ball was a little low, but the receiver is still able to grab it and go for a first down and an 11 yard gain.

7:44: Cousins on a play action, gets a nice block in the backfield, gets plenty of time to throw outside of the pocket and then Cousins throws a beautiful deep spiral into the end zone where the receiver is able to get the ball right on the money for a 33 yard back of the end zone touchdown. Excellent spiral, excellent pocket presence. Touchdown. When Mel Kiper and Todd McShay are breaking down Kirk Cousins in April, that last touchdown throw is going to be in the highlight reel of him that they play over and over and over again. Be prepared to see it many, many times.

5:34: Worthy gets free, pressures the quarterback, almost gets a sack, but the quarterback gets out of the way quickly, Worthy doesn’t give up, come back to pressure the quarterback and hit him from behind as his throws. Would have been a pick if it wasn’t dropped.

4:44: Cousins quick throw to a wide open man, accurate and the man is able to utilize the space in front of him and go for 10 yards.

3:38: Another quick throw by Cousins, 14 yards on the catch and run. Cousins is putting the ball in the right spot. Bj cunningham has 3 of Cousins’ first 4 catches. They have great chemistry. I want to see him throw to more guys later, but for now, if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.

2:03: Worthy blows off the snap against a double team, disengages from the fullback block and takes the running back down for a loss.

1:29: Worthy chases a running back down from behind. He isn’t able to bring back down, but he slows him down a bit on what could have been a bigger run.

2^nd quarter

13:08: Cousins finds another guy open for another 1^st down.

12:01: Cousins throws a screen under pressure, but has it played dropped. That’s on the running back.

11:56: Cousins puts a zip on the ball throws it into a tiny window with perfect timing. Nice catch by the receiver as well to hold onto that one in tight coverage over the middle of the field.

11:29: Cousins throws unnecessarily off of his back foot, very overthrown out of bounds.

10:36: Cousins leaves a ball too high for a receiver short. He can’t catch it, it’s tipped up and almost picked. Play called back on a penalty. Michigan State gets new life on 3^rd down here because Ohio State decided to accept  the penalty.

10:12: Cousins on 3^rd and 15, complete, but not enough for the first.

9:45: Cousins off his back foot under pressure, still puts it in the perfect place in coverage to a receiver, but it’s dropped on 4^th down.

9:00: Worthy can’t disengage from the block, but still is able to push his man forward. He’s very strong and better as a big body against the run than as a pass rusher, but he can rush the passer.

7:23: Cousins under pressures leaves one high for the receiver, but he is able to go up and get it for 7 yards.

7:00: Cousins finds Cunningham again for a 10 yard completion. Cousins is playing pretty well right now. 9-13 for 121 yards with 2 drops.

6:12: And now Cousins is bad. He makes a very poor decision and almost has it picked. The defensive back had better positioning than the receiver.

6:08: Another incompletion by Cousins. Throws it behind a well covered receiver who can’t make the adjustment quick enough. Time for the punting unit.

4:13: Jerel Worthy destroys the offensive line after jumping the count. He sacks the quarterback before he can hand off to the running back. That’s how fast it was.

2:28: Cousins off his back foot under pressure again complete for 7 yards. Cousins has an extremely strong arm and can throw off his back foot well, but he needs to make sure that he doesn’t unnecessarily throw off his back foot as a habit. He’s been doing that a lot this season. He’s gotten better with that today.

2:11: Cousins with excellent timing on a slant route, complete.

1:53: Cousins on the run threads the needle on the sideline and is able to complete to Bj cunningham, who makes an excellent sideline grab. Great job plucking it out of the air and keeping his feet in bounds.

1:07: Cousins complete to Cunningham short under pressure and Cunningham drags a man with him to the first down.

0:50: Cousins drops back to pass and drops the ball, unable to recover it, fumble recovered by Ohio State. The ball could be a little slick after all the rain, but no excuses here for Kirk Cousins. There wasn’t even any pressure on the play.

 

3^rd quarter

13:53: Cousins throws to a receiver in space on the flat, almost a 1^st down. 3^rd and 1.

11:47: Worthy blocked off a gap for a 7 yard run by the Ohio State back.

9:34: Cousins with another short completion for 5 yards. Even on short completions, you can tell his arm strength. He can really zip the ball in there and throws a perfect spiral. Accuracy is the issue for him.

8:52: Cousins checks down again and gets the first and more after a late hit penalty out of bounds.

7:44: Cousins checks down again on 2^nd and 1, receiver is able to make a couple guys miss before fumbling out of bounds.

6:44: Cousins stays calm against the blitz and throws a pretty looking deep ball, but it’s pretty inaccurate. Play called back on a holding penalty.

6:37: Cousins over the middle for 7 yards.

5:52: Cousins throws on the run, incomplete after being flushed from the pocket. Cousins was closer to completing it to the defensive back than the receiver, who could have had 6 had the pass been more accurate.

5:31: Worthy gets into the backfield on a play called back on a false start penalty by Ohio State’s left guard, who is matched up with Worthy.

5:14: Worthy hasn’t played well on the snaps he’s been matched up with Ohio State center Michael Brewster, a likely first round pick.

2:36: Cousins going to Cunningham again. Cunningham has 8 catches for 102 yards and a score and he’s really impressing me tonight, more than Cousins is. Cousins has had about half of his production go to one receiver. That’s not always a great sign. Cunningham, meanwhile, could be moving up boards from a late rounder to a mid rounder. He’s having a great season.

1:34: Cousins goes away from Cunningham and almost gets the ball picked for a pick six. Terrible decision.

1:26: Cousins under pressure on 3^rd down, knew he was going to get hit and he hits BJ Cunningham deep with a perfect, accurate bullet pass. 42 yards and Cunningham had one man to beat for a score. He didn’t beat him, but still an awesome play for both players.

4^th quarter

14:09: Inaccurate throw on a fade in the end zone by Cousins. He overthrew it and the first Ohio State defender is able to deflect it in the air and another Ohio State defender is able to make the interception. Two Ohio State guys were able to get their hands on it. No Michigan State receivers could. Terrible throw.

12:30: William Gholston on the sack. Michigan State’s front 4 has played extremely well today. Gholston is a stud true sophomore who could be a first rounder when he comes out. He’s having a huge game. He’s a cousin of Vernon Gholston, which might not be a good thing. He’s 6-7 280 with good speed and, as I’ve seen tonight, great football skills as well.

10:41: Cousins throws an accurate slant to a well covered player, who can’t hold on with a guy on him.

7:18: Cousins fakes a short pass, goes deep to BJ Cunningham, just out of his reach. Not completely inaccurate deep, but not accurate either. That’s a touchdown if he can complete it.

4:28: Kirk Cousins off of play action makes a terrible decision, throwing into very tight coverage for his 2^nd pick of the night.

0:00: Cousins reminds me of another former Big 10 quarterback who also played his college ball in the state of Michigan, Michigan’s Chad Henne. Cousins has all the physical tools and looks occasionally brilliant, but he struggles with inconsistency, decision making, and accuracy. Cousins was a fringe first round prospect in my book coming in this year as a productive 3 year starter in a Pro Style offense and a 3 year captain. Reports said he struggled with throwing off his back foot so far this season, so I was closely monitoring his footwork.

His footwork wasn’t great, but it wasn’t consistently bad. He didn’t have a habitual problem of throwing off of his back foot, though he did do this unnecessarily on occasion. He has such a strong arm that can get throw a nice deep ball of off his back foot when necessary, but he needs to avoid making that habit, as tempting as it can be.

Cousins threw a beautiful touchdown pass on BJ Cunningham in the first and had a couple of other beautiful deep balls, tight spiral and all, but as I said, he only flashed brilliance. His inconsistencies on the night led to a line of 20-32 for 250 yards, that touchdown, and two ugly picks. He did have his receivers let him down on occasion with drops, but the point is, if Ohio State could do anything on offense, Michigan State loses this game instead of winning 10-7.

Cousins was also way too reliant on one receiver, BJ Cunningham. Cunningham, a rising late round prospect, had more than half of Cousins’ production, 9 catches for 154 yards and that one score. However, he needs to learn to look beyond his first read and find the open guy, rather than just throwing to his favorites. There’s definitely potential here, but he’s probably about a 2^nd or 3^rd round pick. Nick Foles has similar issues to him, but I have Foles rated slightly rated right now.

As for Michigan State’s defense, they played extremely well. Ohio State’s quarterbacks suck (how much do you think they’d have to pay Terrelle Pryor to come back), but that doesn’t mean that Michigan State’s defensive line didn’t completely demolish Ohio State’s offensive front. Granted, Ohio State is stay missing day 2 prospect Mike Adams with a suspension, but Michigan State’s performance very was impressive.

Worthy doesn’t fill a stat sheet, but he’s so strong that he doesn’t have to have a single tackle to make an impact. He can get push even against special teams and just move guys out of the ways for linebackers to get in for the tackle. He’s a two gap filler and is best fit as a 4-3 nose tackle at 6-3 310, but he’s athletic enough to make plays of his own when the time is right. Worthy had 2 tackles, one for loss, and a sack in this game.

Two negatives for Worthy were that he slowed down towards the end of the game, and also, when matched up one on one with Ohio State center Michael Brewster, he tended to struggle. Brewster is a stud and impresses every time I watch him and he could make a case to be a top 15 pick in the 2012 NFL Draft, but I would have liked to have seen Worthy at least hold his own against him because Worthy too is considered a top 15 pick in a weak defensive tackle class.

Also impressing me was William Gholston. Gholston is a sophomore defensive end for Michigan State and a cousin of Vernon Gholston, which might not be a good thing. Gholston has 5 tackles, 2 for a loss, and a sack and did it both inside and outside at 6-7 280. He definitely didn’t look like a true sophomore and he’s athletic enough to play outside at the next level. He was helped by Worthy tying up blockers, but I’m very interested to see this kid in the future. A lot of guys have him pegged as a future first rounder.