EAST LANSING — Defensive coordinator Joe Rossi got a closer look at the action when he came down from the Spartan Stadium sky box to call plays on the sideline in Michigan State’s Saturday night game against Michigan. And though its efforts wouldn’t be enough, his unit put together one of its better performances as of late. Rossi’s unit allowed just 86 passing yards to Michigan freshman phenom Bryce Underwood and kept Michigan to a reasonable 362 yards overall. But in a 31-20 loss , his defense ultimately couldn’t do enough to win.

“We talked about it through the week, just having his voice on the sideline,” MSU coach Jonathan Smith said. “Hadn’t done it the whole year. We needed to obviously fix some things defensively. And I did think the effort defensively — those guys played with pa

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