This wild and wooly Michigan State Spartan football season just keeps going. What an amazing come-from-behind win.
We went to my parents' house in the Thumb for a (pre-Thanksgiving) Thanksgiving family get-together. When I stepped in the door a little after 12 o'clock noon, my dad announced that State had just scored the first touchdown. It seemed at that point that the Spartans would go on to roll the Boilermakers and have a fun, relaxing senior day...how wrong I was.
The game went gradually downhill from there. By the time Michigan State was down 28-13 at the end of the third quarter, I was writing off the game as yet another of a long line of headscratching MSU football losses. The Spartans could do nothing right and nothing was going in their favor. Kirk Cousins was banged up and briefly left the game, meanwhile MSU had suddenly forgotten how to tackle, and were committing stupid penalties left and right.
Once again, I thought (and said to my dad at one point) the Spartans had managed to break our hearts. State was going to lose to Purdue, probably lose to Penn State next week, and finish at 9-3 overall and only 5-3 in the conference. I was overcome with despair and knew that the rest of my day, if not my weekend, would be ruined. My dad had enough and decided to putter around the house, and I decided that if the game got any worse, I'd probably let the kids watch Nickelodeon.
Then, a funny thing happened...the Spartans woke up in the fourth quarter. The last quarter of the game looked like the end of a Popeye cartoon, after our hero has gotten his butt kicked by Bluto, desperately reaches for his can of spinach, rips it open, we see his biceps bulge, and the sailor man proceeds to obliterate the suddenly hapless Bluto. This is exactly what happened with the Spartans. With the score 31-20, Chris L. Rucker easily intercepted a badly thrown pass and soon after the Spartans scored a touchdown, converted a two-point conversion, and the score was 31-28. Later, Purdue was forced to punt and Denicos Allen, a redshirt freshman, soared through the air like Superman to block the kick. Johnny Adams recovered the ball at the 3 and a few plays later the Spartans punched it in to take the lead 35-31.
Although the Spartans had the lead again finally, Purdue got the ball back with plenty of time to pull it out, and the Boilermakers were able to move the ball down the field, aided in large part by a 4th down , 15-yard personal foul call against the Spartans. The deciding play of the game, however, came a little later on another 4th down, when Boilers quarterback rolled to his left and was hammered by Greg Jones just as he threw the ball. The force of the collision caused the ball to flutter like a wounded duck and fell into the arms of MSU's Chris Norman for an interception. Game over.
My weekend was saved. Soon after the end of the game, my brother and his family arrived at my parents' house. We had some celebratory glasses of wine and relaxed while watching the next game, Ohio State at Iowa.
So the Spartans are still in line for a potential Big Ten title, but Penn State looms ahead. Just for the heck of it, I checked to see the last time Penn State lost its final home game of the year. The Nittany Lions have not lost on their senior day since 1999, when a very good Michigan team beat them. Since then, ten consecutive wins in the their last game of the season in Happy Valley.
Cause for more concern is the way MSU has been playing since mid-October. Sure, they have been winning (with the exception of the Iowa debacle) but they look like a banged up team that has lost some of their mojo. With the exception of Edwin Baker, the running game has evaporated. Le'Veon Bell mysteriously hit the freshman wall after the Michigan game, and I don't understand why Larry Caper hasn't gotten more touches. The offensive line looks a little tired, and quarterback Kirk Cousins is a one-man M*A*S*H unit. On the plus side, special teams continue to make huge plays, the defense has been very solid for the most part, and the receiving corps of Dell, Cunningham, Martin, and Gantt have been collectively outstanding. Let's just hope they have enough to put it together for one last regular season game and take out the Nittany Lions.
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