Should the Spartans give the young quarterback a game off?
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer and do not reflect the views of the entire The Only Colors staff.
Michigan State is sitting at a respectable 3-2 record right now, but they have lost two straight. The first of those losses was a tightly contested game against Boston College that came down to the very end. Unfortunately for Spartan fans, that end occurred when Aidan Chiles lobbed a pass into double coverage in the endzone in the final minute that was picked off. It was his third interception of the game. A week later, against Ohio State, admittedly a level or four better than Boston College, Aidan Chiles and the MSU offense put up seven points in another game that was marred by turnovers. In this one, Chiles had one interception and one lost fumble, and tight end Jack Velling also lost a fumble.
On the season, Aidan Chiles has thrown eight interceptions, which is tied for second most in the nation (the QB for East Carolina has 11!). That is compared to just five touchdown passes (and three rushing TDs). On top of that, Chiles has also put the ball on the ground three times, two of which were recovered by the opposing team. Yes, one of those was due to an uncalled facemask penalty/head-wrenching.
Sure, Aidan has thrown some absolutely beautiful passes and his arm talent is clear. Furthermore, he has displayed that he can be a dual-threat QB as he has had some great scrambles to help keep some of the drives moving. But despite his talents and gifts, what we have not seen from him this year is an ability to learn from his mistakes. They say it is good for a QB to have a short memory, but maybe it would benefit Chiles, and the entire MSU football team for that matter, if maybe he spent a little more time thinking about his accumulation of turnovers. Take that most recent interception from the Ohio State game. It was not a case of the defender making a great play in coverage or an unlucky deflection that popped the ball up in the air for an easy takeaway. No, this was a case of poor decision making and a failure to see things on the field. Chiles tried to float one up over the line to his target just a few yards up field, but the receiver got tripped up among the mass of linemen, and the pass sailed too far right into the hands of a wide-open Buckeye. From the moment that pass left Chiles’ hand, you could see something bad was about to happen.
Among Chiles’ 8 interceptions, we have seen the unlucky variety (e.g. the first pass of the year that went off Montorie Foster’s hands to the defender), we’ve seen the off-target variety (e.g. the first two in the BC game), and the bad decision variety.
In general, I would say the rest of the MSU team is playing better than I expected them to this season. The defense has made great strides since last year and there are a number of playmakers on that side of the ball. On offense, the run game has struggled due to injuries on the offensive line, but the two RBs, Nate Carter and Kay’Ron Lynch-Adams have each shown some flash. And there are a number of receivers and tight ends that have displayed the ability to make plays. But the turnover situation is a massive problem at this point.
Jonathan Smith and this coaching staff need to figure out how to get Aidan Chiles to stop giving the ball away so frequently. Unfortunately, I do not think this Friday’s game at Oregon is a likely environment for that to happen. Oregon has one of the nation’s top defenses. Aside from their game against Ashton Jeanty, er, I mean Boise State, the Ducks have allowed only 232 total yards per game and 13.7 PPG. In four games, they have four interceptions and 24 passes deflected. Looking at just their pass defense, they are giving up 155 air yards per game. Basically, it is going to be tough to throw against this team, and that would be the case without a turnover-prone quarterback.
I do not know where Chiles’ mental state is currently after these last two games; he was not brought into the press conference after the Ohio State game. What I do know is that if he is in his own head right now as a result of his recent play (and really his play all season), then this Oregon matchup is going to further that damage. Sometimes what is best is to take a step back, watch things from a different perspective, and try to learn from watching rather than doing. For that reason, I think it would be in this team’s best interest to sit Aidan Chiles for the Oregon game, allow Tommy Schuster, a grad transfer with a 140.8 career rating, to play this game, and bring Chiles back after our bye for the Iowa game on October 19.
To be clear, I am not advocating for a permanent switch at the quarterback position. But I do think getting benched for a game could help Chiles’ development. I think he could benefit from watching Schuster for a day, and I also think he could benefit from the message that there are consequences to continuing to be careless with the ball.
I think the future is bright for Aidan Chiles and I am excited that he will be the quarterback for my Spartans for the foreseeable future, but I do need to see him begin to clean up his mistakes. This seems like a great opportunity for Coach Smith to give his young QB a valuable teaching lesson. Have Chiles sit one week and get him to come back with a clear head and a clean slate to take on the second half of the schedule.
What do you guys think?