No. 3 Indiana pulls away from MSU for 38-13 win

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (WLNS) – The Michigan State football team was unable to sustain a strong start against one of the top teams in the nation, as No. 3 Indiana defeated MSU 38-13 on Saturday.

The Spartans scored on their first two possessions of the game. The second drive culminated in a 15-yard touchdown pass from Aidan Chiles to Nick Marsh to give the Spartans a 10-7 lead with 9:22 to play in the second quarter.

However, the MSU defense had no answers for Indiana’s dynamic offense. The Hoosiers scored the next 31 points of the game before MSU kicked a field goal in the final minute of the fourth quarter.

Indiana posted 464 yards of total offense and did not punt in the game.

“That’s a good football team,” said MSU head coach Jonathan Smith. “Margin for error against a good football team is pretty small. You look at the tackling, we’ve got to tackle better. [There were] a couple opportunities to have better plays there and we just did not have it today.”

Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza completed 24-of-28 passes for 332 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions.

MSU quarterback Aidan Chiles was 27-of-33 for 243 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions. While he was unhappy with the result, Chiles felt the Spartans put forth a better effort than they did a week ago in a 38-13 home loss to UCLA.

“I’m genuinely proud of this team and how we came and competed,” said Chiles. “Not proud of how we executed and finished the game but at the end of the day we came out here and we played as hard as we could. We did and it didn’t work out for us. But at the end of the day, I’m not satisfied, but I’m appreciative of how we played.”

MSU has lost four straight games and is still in search of its first Big Ten win. The Spartans will host rival Michigan next Saturday, Oct. 25th, at Spartan Stadium.

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