Michigan State backfield, defense flex their muscle in stress-free rout of Akron

East Lansing – Forgive Michigan State if it wasn’t worried Saturday evening about some nagging issues in its passing game.

After all, the 14th-ranked Spartans had just rolled to a 52-0 victory over Akron, the overmatched foe from the Mid-American Conference, behind six rushing touchdowns and a defense that forced four turnovers and pitched the program’s first shutout since 2019.

It made for an easy day at Spartan Stadium, one with little to no stress as Jalen Berger ran for 107 yards and three touchdowns while Jarek Broussard scored two more and Elijah Collins added another. They led an offense that was the beneficiary of great field position, thanks to the defense forcing four fumbles.

All four led to touchdowns as Michigan State allowed only 22 rushing yards, holding an opponent scoreless for the first time since it blanked Rutgers in 2019. It was the first home shutout since 2016, when Rutgers as also the opponent.

Offensively, Michigan State (2-0) ran for 260 yards, gaining 496 total as the seventh touchdown was scored on a 16-yard pass from Noah Kim to Tre Mosley. Freshman kicker Jack Stone added his first career field goal, a 43-yarder late in the first half.

“That was good solid win for us today,” Michigan State coach Mel Tucker said. “It's not easy to win football games because we can see the scores across the country. We can't take anything for granted. You’ve got to get the job done and give credit to our guys because they went out there and played hard.

“But God knows we’ve got some things we need to improve upon. We’ve got some things to clean up.”

Indeed, it was far from a perfect game, regardless of what the scoreboard said.

There were some defensive breakdowns in the pass game early and Payton Thorne struggled again, going 18-for-28 for 212 yards with two interceptions as several of his passes sailed over open receivers, especially in the first half.

BOX SCORE: Michigan State 52, Akron 0

It was the same thing that afflicted Thorne in the opening win last week over Western Michigan.

“I'm really tired of throwing the ball high,” Thorne said. “It's pissing me off because I did same thing last week, and that's never been an issue for me. So I’ve got to figure that out quickly because we it can't have that anymore.”

Against Akron, it didn’t come back to haunt the Spartans thanks in large part to the running attack. Berger led the way with 107 yards on 17 carries for an average of 6.3 yards per attempt while Broussard had 81 yards on 15 carries. Collins was also effective, gaining 57 yards on eight carries. His touchdown was his first rushing touchdown since 2019 when he was the team’s leading rusher.

The defense was also on point as Ameer Speed had nine tackles, Charles Brantley broke up three passes and Jacoby Windmon was credited for 1.5 sacks, giving him 5.5 through two games.

“Akron was a good team that came out and played hard,” Windmon said, “but for the most part, it's all about us and we’ve got to focus on that. I feel like we did a good job of that because it showed on the scoreboard. Shutouts are not easy to do, no matter who you play. But it was a dominant performance.”

Akron (1-1) had some early success through the air but quarterback DJ Irons was knocked out of the game and the Zips couldn’t find any momentum from there.

“Thought we had an opportunity in the first quarter,” Akron coach Joe Moorhead said. “We were moving the ball and we talk about performance indicators – explosive play margin, turnover margin and third down and red zone. We didn't win any of those. You can't turn the ball over once against a team like this, let alone four times and expect to win.”

After allowing three quick first downs, the Michigan State defense came to life as Akron was cruising on its opening drive, having just completed a 16-yard pass to the MSU 20. But receiver TJ Banks was nailed by safety Kendell Brooks, knocking the ball loose. It was picked up by Cal Haladay, who returned it 21 yards to the MSU 41. After three Berger runs and a facemask call, the Spartans were deep in Akron territory and took advantage when Broussard scored on a 1-yard run to give Michigan State a 7-0 lead midway through the first quarter.

Later in the first quarter, Akron’s Shocky Jacques-Louis hauled in a 22-yard pass but had the ball stripped by Windmon and recovered by Maverick Hansen. The Spartans capitalized on that with a Berger 1-yard touchdown run to go up 14-0 late in the first quarter.

Then, late in the second quarter, Windmon recovered a fumble on a bad pitch from Akron backup quarterback Jeff Undercuffler, setting up Berger’s second touchdown run to give the Spartans a 21-0 lead. Michigan State added three points on Stone’s field goal to give the Spartans a 24-0 lead headed to the locker room.

“At halftime we were talking about it like the score was 0-0,” Windmon said. “That’s how we looked at it, like it was the first quarter just coming out to play again. So we take a lot of pride in that because as a defense, that's a beautiful performance to have a shutout.”

The Spartans overcame Thorne’s second interception on the first play of the second half by creating another of their own as Haladay nailed Undercuffler, forcing a fumble that was recovered by Derrick Harmon. Two plays later, Kim, in for the injured Thorne, hit Mosley with for the score.

On its next drive, Michigan State followed the legs of Berger and Broussard as Broussard capped a nine-play drive with a 3-yard touchdown run to extend Michigan State’s lead to 38-0 with 7:58 to play. Michigan State added Berger’s third score on its next possession and closed out the third quarter with Collins’ score.

Things ramp up for Michigan State from this point as the Spartans head west to take on Washington next week before opening Big Ten play the next week at home against Minnesota.

“We’re gonna have to worry about us, watch film and be well-prepared on their defense,” Thorne said of getting ready for Washington. “But we have to worry about our execution and focus on what we need to do to get ourselves in the right position to win.”

mcharboneau@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @mattcharboneau