Michigan State 26, Michigan 20

First of all, this game never ever should have gone to overtime. Yet, given that Michigan State was participating in the game, it should not be surprising at all. With about 4 or so minutes left in the game (it's a bit of a blur to me now) State had a 20-6 lead. I had a sneaking suspicion the lead wasn't big enough. I was praying that the Spartans could AT LEAST add one more touchdown to make it a 27-6 lead. Instead State went into predictable mode (what happened to the screen passes to our receivers, which Michigan was incapable of defending all day?) and gave Tate Forcier and the Wolverines an opportunity to tighten it up. And tighten it up was an understatement. Michigan tied the game at 20 with only two seconds left in regulation.

I've extremely happy with the turn of events in overtime, but must admit that I was so frustrated at how regulation ended that I couldn't even bring myself to watch the overtime. Instead I went outside and walked up the street in the cold October drizzle. About halfway up the street, I heard a voice shout "We won!" It sounded like my wife's voice, so I somewhat hesitantly turned around and headed back towards my house, sure that what I was hearing was an aural illusion. Thankfully, it was not. The Spartans really HAD won the game.

Sorry to be Debby Downer everyone, but if State had lost this game in overtime, it would have gone down as one of the more monumental collapses in Michigan State football history. And this is a program that has had its share of monumental collapses on the gridiron.

One more admission: I never intended on watching this game. Seems the older I get, the harder it is to stomach these Michigan State/Michigan football match-ups. The problem was that, since it has rained consistently in mid-Michigan for the last week, I could not use lawn mowing as a decent football substitute. Plus, for some crazy reason, my wife decided she wanted to watch the game. So there it was, I ended up like a moth drawn to a flame and watched the game from the middle of the first quarter to the end of regulation. This is when I remembered the very reason I didn't want to watch the game in the first place: the inevitable Spartan meltdown, the seizing of defeat from the jaws of victory (oh, how I love that expression, and how apt it usually is for the Spartan football team, the Chicago Cubs of the Big Ten).

I am relieved and happy. Yes, in the grand scheme of live, football is quite meaningless--yet even at the age of 41 I become giddy when my team wins a big game.