Your Michigan State Spartans have now lost four straight games, including their three Big Ten games, and now sit at 2-4 on the year. It was another game full of MSU shooting themselves in the foot as Illinois spoiled homecoming in East Lansing.
The first quarter was a disaster. After the first 15 minutes, the Michigan State offense generated a total of eight yards while the Illinois offense produced 134 on their way to a 10-0 lead. MSU only saw two drives, and both of them were 3-and-outs.
The Fighting
Illini were able to score 17 straight points before the Spartans could even get a first down. Katin Houser had two touchdowns, one through the air and the other on the ground, but Alessio Milivojevic was able to find Jaz Patterson on a 6-yard pass for MSU’s first touchdown to make it a 17-7 game. Illinois added another field goal before halftime, and they took a 20-7 lead heading into the locker room.
Michigan State’s offense was putting together a nice drive to start the second half, but a Brennan Parachek fumble gave the ball right back to Illinois. MSU was able to stop the Illini on the following drive to give them another chance – yet, an illegal formation after converting on fourth down prevented them from being able to score a touchdown, and they were forced to kick a 42-yarder instead. Momentum was shifted to the Spartans after a Houser overthrow landed in Devin Vaught’s lap, and Jaz Patterson ran it in from 11 yards out on the very next play.
Heading into the final frame, Illinois held a 23-17 lead after being up by 17 early in the second quarter. Michael Clayton took over for the Illini after Houser injured his throwing hand after his interception. Despite being a freshman, Clayton looked comfortable as he drove them down the field and finished the drive with a 14-yard passing touchdown to give Illinois a double-digit lead again. Michigan State had a 4th-and-1, but a false start by Ben Murawski was another mistake by MSU on a fourth down. Luckily, Milivojevic was able to convert on his next two throws, including a 24-yarder to Frederick Moore for his second touchdown pass of the day.
Things got really interesting as Pat Fitzgerald called for a sneaky onside kick down 31-24, and it was recovered by Samson Gash. However, the refs called Gash offsides when he was clearly not once they showed it on the replay, and they also called Gash out-of-bounds, so it would’ve resulted in an additional penalty for kicking it out of play. The refs then went back to review it again to say Gash was actually in-bounds, but the offsides call still stood and MSU was forced to kickoff again. The whole string of events was a brutal sequence for the Spartans as they’ve been looking for a bounce like that to go their way all season.
Despite the horrendous call, Michigan State was still able to capitalize. A trick play saw Carson Gulker throw a 27-yard touchdown, but another MSU penalty brought it back. Luckily, Jaz Patterson ran it in shortly after for his third touchdown of the game with 1:17 left. A 31-31 tie when the clock hit zero meant we were in store for some free football.
Michigan State won the toss and chose to defend, but Illinois scored on a 25-yard pass on the first play of overtime. The Spartans responded with the fourth touchdown of the night for Patterson, but they got caught being too cute on the two-point conversion with their own version of the Philly Special, so Michigan State fell short to Illinois and lost 38-37.
Just when it looked like MSU had the chance to pull off the comeback after being down 17, they couldn’t close it out on the final play in overtime to get their first Big Ten win. Pat Fitzgerald and the Spartans will take on his former employer, the Northwestern Wildcats, next Saturday at 12PM.
Go Green!
