Michigan State lost to No. 2 Michigan, 30-23, Saturday afternoon, bringing the Spartans record to 2-6 overall, and an 0-5 mark in conference play. After the game, during head coach Mark Dantonio’s press conference, the lights literally went out on the Spartans’ head coach. No seriously, they did!
The lights literally went out on Mark Dantonio after MSU lost to Michigan
How symbolic!
Given how MSU lost to Michigan and frankly, how Sparty has looked all season, the lights going out is pretty perfectly symbolic. This is especially true when you take into account the unbelievably unfortunate final play of this game, which was a classic example of “SPARTY, NO!”
After scoring with one second left to make it 30-23, MSU elected to go for two. That seemed like the most pointless play possible, since a successful try would only cut the margin to five points. Michigan State’s extremely remote chances of victory would still hinge on somehow recovering a kickoff fumble and then running it back, because, as noted, there was only one second left. (You can’t advance an onside kick recovery, so the only option would’ve been to boot the thing and hope something real dumb happened.)
Of course, Michigan’s Jabrill Peppers would take the Sparty fumble back to the house, sealing a Wolverine 32-23 victory. This ending was quite the opposite from last year’s, which was truly one of the most improbable endings in college football history.
The worst part, besides how unnecessary going for two was, is how Dantonio actually said he was trying to send a message to the Wolverines by going for two. Yeeeep, that one backfired very quickly.
MSU still has games against Illinois, Rutgers, Ohio State, and Penn State remaining on its schedule so it looks as if Sparty’s best chance for a conference win will likely come in those first two games. The lone couple of wins on Michigan State’s résumé came in the first two weeks of the season, against Furman and Notre Dame.
Let’s just hope the lights don’t go out on Dantonio’s chances of getting a Big Ten victory in 2016. Phew, who would have thought we’d be saying that about Michigan State at the beginning of the season?
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