No. 2 Ohio State entered Michigan State on Saturday needing to beat the 3-7 Spartans to keep Big Ten Championship and Playoff hopes alive. OSU could take the East if it were to beat Michigan next week and get a Penn State loss, but it had to take care of business against a team that’s been the kryptonite to many a Buckeye championship run both during and before the Urban Meyer era.
Michigan State chooses to go for 2 and the win, but falls to Ohio State
The Spartans had a chance to wreck another Ohio State season.
Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images
MSU had a chance to tie it up with 4:41 left, but chose to go for two and the lead, resulting in an interception. The score was parked at 17-16 and remained there until the final.
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The Spartans bottled up OSU QB J.T. Barrett all day, allowing only 86 yards on 22 throws, and got the ball back with 2:04 left. Ohio State’s pass rush got to MSU’s Tyler O’Connor twice, resulting in a sack and another pick, and that was that.
For Meyer (and OSU in general), getting past Mark Dantonio’s Spartans is always an achievement, considering how many times the Spartans have upset the Buckeyes. The Playoff committee probably won’t be all that impressed by the final score, but the Buckeyes have bigger worries right now: Michigan’s next.
Ohio State claims seven national titles. If not for Michigan State, the Buckeyes might’ve been able to claim as many as 12.
To update a Bill Connelly story from 2014:
- In Duffy Daugherty’s final season as the Spartans’ coach, a 3-4-1 MSU team took down 1972’s undefeated Ohio State, 19-12, in East Lansing.
- Two years later, Dennis Stolz’s 4-3-1 team beat the undefeated, top-ranked Buckeyes, 16-13, with a finish former players still debate more than 40 years later. It was the Buckeyes’ only regular season loss in each year.
- In 1998, young Nick Saban took his 4-4 Michigan State squad to the Horseshoe to face John Cooper’s dominant, top-ranked Buckeyes. The Spartans left town with a stunning 28-24 win, one that kept Ohio State out of the BCS’s first title game.
- In 2013, the two schools met in the Big Ten Championship in Indianapolis. No. 10 Michigan State knocked out undefeated No. 2 Ohio State, 34-24, denying the Buckeyes another BCS title game bid.
- In 2015, preseason No. 1 Ohio State reached 10-0 before falling 17-14 at home, with a minor revolt against the playcalling afterward. The Spartans went on to get mauled by Alabama in the Playoff, while OSU beat Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl.
How’d Michigan State get back to playing like a Dantonio team, at least for the last week or two?
For one thing, young dudes are stepping up during a midseason reshuffling. From last week, after a 49-0 win over Rutgers, MSU’s first Big Ten win of the year:
Dantonio has played more freshmen in 2016 than any other year and that in game experience showed up today. Offensively, in addition to Chewins and Higby, Trishton Jackson scored his first touchdown. On defense, Justin Layne played tight coverage all day and all of the lineman — Josh King, Mike Panasiuk, and Raequan Williams — more than held their own. Joe Bachie and Tyriq Thompson both made a few nice plays late and, as he has all season, Donnie Corley made plays on both side of the ball with the highlight being his #TruckStick of a Rutgers tight end.
These are the foundational parts of the 2017 roster. Seeing them all make an impact has to make the fans and coaches alike feel pretty good.
Sophomore LJ Scott, already a star, took over this game, piling up 236 total yards and two touchdowns.
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