Michigan State punter Aaron Bates may be on the field to do only one thing, but he understands the offensive and defensive trends.
Despite winning just two conference games this year, the Spartans have had a chance to win every one, never trailing by more than 10 points in the fourth quarter. But more often than not (five times, opposed to two), they have lost.
"We're going to have to bring everything to the table," Bates said of tomorrow's regular-season finale against Penn State. "Once we get them down, we're going to have to finish them off and try to get the win at the end of the game."
In the games they've lost this year, that hasn't happened.
Entering the fourth quarter, Michigan State was within 10 points of Ohio State and Wisconsin, within four points of Michigan and tied with Iowa and Northwestern. The Spartans lost those five games by an average of 5.6 points.
Keeping pace hasn't been a problem. Michigan State owns the highest-scoring offense in the Big Ten, averaging 34 points per game. Ultimately the inability to make late-game defensive stops has led to the defeats.
So what does this mean? Penn State wants to build an early lead if possible and carry it into tomorrow's final minutes.
"We have confidence in our defense that they'll step up to the challenge," wideout Deon Butler said.
"As an offense, we want to be able to put up points and score so they can play loose, with a little bit of a swagger. ... We would like to put up points and get a comfortable lead."
That's something the Nittany Lions haven't done in their losses, playing from behind at Illinois and Michigan and at home against then-No. 1 Ohio State.
Even last week against non-conference opponent Temple, Penn State was surprised by some looks it had not expected. Players said they were fortunate to lead 17-0 at halftime last Saturday.
"You can get caught off-guard in the first half," linebacker Dan Connor said. "Marking adjustments are vital to keeping our head above water in a lot of tough games."
The Lions have traditionally gained or extended a lead in second quarters this year. They've outscored opponents 104-21 during that quarter through 11 games. Michigan State has also scored more than 100 points for the season in second quarters, but has also allowed 99.
Needless to say, their second quarters have tended to be shootouts. And it's around this point of the game when the Penn State defense wants to limit the Spartans' extended drives by stopping them on third down, something they had trouble doing in the loss to Ohio State.
If an early scoring pattern develops tomorrow, history has proven this season that Michigan State would have a chance for an upset near the end. And a win is something the Spartans desperately need. They are among 10 bowl-eligible teams from the Big Ten, but with a 2-5 conference record aren't necessarily guaranteed a bowl berth because the conference has only seven bowl tie-ins.
"We need to continue with our bend-not-break style of defense. We do a great job when the field starts getting short of not allowing teams to score," left guard Rich Ohrnberger said. "Offensively, we gotta get on these guys early, because it's going to be their senior day. They're going to be playing for a lot just like us."
