Even the cardboard cutouts couldn’t believe this one.
Michigan’s players and coaches trudged out of a cavernous stadium feeling emptier than their gigantic bowl after Michigan State pulled the stunner of a still-young college football season. The Spartans beat the Wolverines, 27-24, one week after losing to lowly Rutgers in their own building.
Michigan entered with swagger, having won on the road a week earlier with 49 points on the board. But any cockiness ebbed away like a snowflake in the Arizona sunshine, while MSU quarterback Rocky Lombardi picked apart U-M’s pass defense.
Lombardi connected on 17 of 32 passes for 323 yards and three touchdowns to bomb U-M into submission. When he wasn’t connecting, the Wolverines’ cornerbacks were getting flagged for grabbing onto MSU receivers.
MSU’s freshman wideout Ricky White alone secured eight catches for 196 yards and a touchdown, while redshirt junior running back Connor Heyward pulled in a pair of TD tosses.
Michigan followed up a hugely promising opener on offense by running into a green brick wall when it came scoring time. The Wolverines managed only 17 points through the first 59:23, and couldn’t make the miracle happen thereafter.
Michigan redshirt sophomore quarterback Joe Milton threw for 300 yards, finishing 32-of-51 passing, but didn’t connect on a single scoring pass. He blamed himself for the loss and questioned his own calmness afterward.
“I was a lot more poised last week,” Milton said. “I got a lot more poised throughout this game. I don’t know why my feet were so busy.
“None of their pressures really affected me. It was just me, as a person … I’ve got to play better.”
The Wolverines out-rushed MSU, 152-126, led by Milton’s 59 yards and 56 on just eight carries by redshirt sophomore tailback Hassan Haskins. Haskins scored a touchdown and freshman back Blake Corum two, but MSU made more big plays and huge conversions to set up TDs and score points.
Neither team turned the ball over, a major leap from the Spartans’ seven turnovers in their loss to the Scarlet Knights.
“They were really good,” Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh said afterward. “They darned near won last week and turned the ball over seven times. … Today, no turnovers. They found a way to win. They protected well, made the downfield throws and catches. They were able to finish drives just a little bit better than we did.”
For the second straight game, the Wolverines found themselves down 7-0 early. On MSU’s second possession of the game, Lombardi unloaded a 30-yard touchdown pass to White behind the Michigan defense.
A 28-yard run by MSU back Jordan Simmons (14 carries, 55 yards) set up the bomb, and MSU looked to make it a very different day than its opening-game embarrassment against Rutgers.
The Wolverines answered with a quick score of their own, a pair of true freshmen factoring heavily into a game-tying TD drive. The march went 60 yards in eight plays, featuring a 12-yard reception by sophomore Giles Jackson on a key third-and-eight.
Milton then dumped off a toss to freshman wideout A.J. Henning for a 15-yard gain. Corum soon sped around MSU’s defense on an eight-yard touchdown sweep, knotting the game at 7-7 at the 7:01 mark of the opening quarter.
But Lombardi kept testing Michigan’s cornerbacks, who racked up several pass interference and holding flags. On one non-grab, MSU’s Jalen Nailor (two receptions, 68 yards) raced behind redshirt sophomore cornerback Vincent Gray to haul in a 53-yard bomb early in the second quarter.
That set up Lombardi’s two-yard TD toss to Heyward. The score completed a six-play, 68-yard touchdown drive, leaving Michigan digging from behind again with 9:40 remaining in the half.
The Wolverines appeared set to tie it with the half winding down. They moved 70 yards downfield, highlighted by a 20-yard throw to Jackson, and runs of 19 and 16 yards by Haskins.
But a direct snap to Haskins at the MSU 5 produced only a yard. A second direct snap to Haskins saw him pull up and loft a pass into the end zone. MSU linebacker Antjuan Simmons leaped and nearly picked it off. It tumbled to the turf, and Michigan settled for fifth-year senior Quinn Nordin’s 23-yard field goal with 2:49 left in the half.
“I saw my man open,” Haskins said. “I just should have put it up more, so that 34 [Simmons] never got to it. It was my fault.”
Lombardi completed only five passes in the first half, but two of them either produced or set up MSU’s touchdowns. He went right back to that playbook on the Spartans’ first play from scrimmage in the second half.
White raced away free behind Gray, hauling in a 50-yard bomb. That set up a 27-yard field goal to make it 17-10 Spartans just 2:34 into the second half.
“They were getting behind our defense,” Harbaugh said. “Getting the big play was a huge difference in the game. We were making adjustments, and they got by us a couple times on a double move as well.”
The Wolverines answered aggressively this time, going 75 yards in 11 plays to tie it up. Milton gunned passes of 11 and 17 yards to freshman wideout Roman Wilson, picked up 15 yards for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on cornerback Shakur Brown (taunting) and zipped a 15-yard bullet to junior wideout Ronnie Bell to get U-M to the MSU 1.
Corum did the rest, soaring high for the one-yard TD dive that deadlocked the game at 17-17 at the 8:00 mark.
The Spartans recaptured the lead on a 51-yard field goal with 4:23 left in the third quarter. A crucial 19-yard completion from Lombardi to White kept the 45-yard drive alive on third-and-10.
MSU then missed a 40-yarder into the wind, 1:39 into the fourth quarter. The Wolverines still trailed by three, 20-17, needing a breakthrough on offense.
Instead, Lombardi kept gouging Michigan through the air, taking the Spartans 92 yards in 11 plays for the backbreaker.
He dug MSU away from its own 8 with third-down completions of 18 and 15 yards. He later unloaded a 31-yarder to White, who made a tumbling, sticky-fingered grab under tight coverage. After a clipping penalty backed the Spartans from the Michigan 3 to the 18, Lombardi slipped a screen pass to Heyward for a 13-yard touchdown.
With 5:11 remaining, Michigan Stadium would have been stunned into silence even with fans. The Spartans led, 27-17, in complete control.
The Wolverines did answer, picking their way 93 yards in 18 plays. Haskins took the direct snap for a two-yard touchdown to pull Michigan within three, 27-24. But the protracted drive left only 37 seconds on the clock.
MSU covered up Nordin’s onside kick attempt, and the Spartans drained away those final precious seconds. That meant the Wolverines never led in a massive one-week reversal for both teams.
“The team is going to own this,” Harbaugh said. “Congratulations to Michigan State. We’ve got to own this and find out where we can improve. This is a high-character team, and I think we’ll do just that.”
---
• Talk about this article inside The Fort
• Watch our videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel
• Listen and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolverine
• Sign up for our daily newsletter and breaking news alerts
• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolverineMag, @Balas_Wolverine, @EJHolland_TW, @AustinFox42, @JB_ Wolverine, Clayton Sayfie and @DrewCHallett
• Like us on Facebook
