EAST LANSING >> In 30 years of football, Joe Rossi has never seen anything like this.

In the past six games, the Michigan State football team has not recorded a single sack. Not one. Not even on a blitz. Not even out of sheer luck. And that’s a little shocking for the Spartans’ defensive coordinator.

“Usually by now, just by accident you get one,” Rossi said Tuesday, speaking inside the Tom Izzo Football Building after practice. “And so it’s something that’s a concern, and it’s something that’s talked about.”

Say anything about this slump; it just shouldn’t happen. And Michigan State’s defense has been feeling its own pressure because of it. With ample time in the pocket, opposing quarterbacks have used that time to pick apart the defense as a whole.

Especially in the past two outings against Indiana and Illinois, the strain of this lack of pass rush put a lot of burden on the secondary to play sticky coverage with a group of players hampered by injuries. And when blitzes have failed to reach the quarterback, this ineffectual pass rush has only taken bodies away from other areas they’re needed on the field.

Early in the season, sacks didn’t look like they’d be so hard to come by. The Spartans racked up 15 in the first four games of the season, including seven in the season-opening game against Florida Atlantic. But since Anthony Jones recorded the last sack in the third quarter of the 23-19 loss to Boston College, Michigan State hasn’t put an opposing quarterback on his back.

Nationally, the Spartans tie for 110th in the country with 15 sacks. Only Maryland, with 13, ranks lower in the Big Ten.

As bad as the sackless streak looks, it hasn’t been all bad in the eyes of the Spartans’ coaches. By introducing some different angles to the pass rush against Illinois, the group nearly ended the streak at five games, getting good pressure on quarterback Luke Altmyer and forcing him to leave the pocket at times.

“Actually, we’re really close,” Michigan State coach Jonathan Smith said Monday. “We had a couple times guys running free, good job by (Illinois) extending, throwing the ball away. We have not won enough one-on-ones when you just got a four-man rush, hand in the dirt and do it.”

So how exactly does Michigan State end this streak? It’s a tricky question, because it’s not like the group hasn’t done a lot to get to the opposing quarterback. Rossi has called five- and six-man blitzes. Smith mentioned last week that the group spent its second bye week going back to the principles of a four-man pass rush, trying to fix the problem from the ground up. And the Spartans even changed up their attack angles for edge rushers. No dice.

“I will say, I think Coach Legi (Suiaunoa) and Coach (Chad) Wilt are doing a great job coaching the guys up front,” Rossi said. “And those two guys, and Coach Legi in particular, they’re doing the right things. We just haven’t seen the results right now.”

In Rossi’s experience, pass rush isn’t something that just comes together overnight. It takes a long time to develop instinct and habits — like martial arts, he compared. It takes time to see results, but six games and eight weeks counting the byes is already a long time as it is. This illustrates how much of a process building up the pass rush really can be, and how much Michigan State needs to improve it.

Lately, the Spartans have been viewing their pass-rush objectives as part of the overall need to get third-down stops. These are plays that, because of the necessity to reach the sticks, usually take a little longer. They’re also huge momentum shifters when a defense can force a third-down sack. If there’s one particular way Michigan State might break its slump, then third down may be the opportunity.

“Just working on our third-down success, that’s kind of been something big that we emphasize throughout the weeks and the past couple of weeks,” defensive end Jalen Thompson said. “Just knowing that, you know, we want to get more pressure on the quarterback. So we’re just working at that every single day.”

Work is one thing, and results are another. The Spartans are desperately in need of some development in the pass rush that leads to results. The blitzes need to get home. The four-man rush needs to put linemen on skates. And someone just has to luck into a sack at some point.

“It affects the passer when he hits the turf,” Smith said. “And obviously the field position when you can get behind them ticks, and that’s been something that we got to do better.”