Error processing SSI fileMissed opportunities give Spartans anguish
MSU was poised for a breakthrough, but poor kicking and other woes doomed any hopes.
The Spartans' Jerramy Scott is about to throw a pass toward the end zone that was intercepted in the first period.
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EAST LANSING -- Spartan Stadium's home-team fans were loud and thunderous Saturday -- when things went well.
Michigan State's campus shook during those lightning-fast scoring drives directed by quarterback Drew Stanton.
The Spartans' rooters, who were most of the 79,401 folks who turned out on a glorious autumn day, shrieked deliriously during a rumblin', stumblin' sprint down the right sideline for a touchdown by 320-pound defensive tackle Domata Peko that tied the game, 31-31, late in the fourth quarter.
But in the end Spartan Stadium turned quiet. Deathly, dispiritedly quiet.
Michigan had come back to beat MSU, 34-31, in one more overtime crusher for Spartans fans who wonder when their ongoing anguish will end.
Saturday was supposed to have represented a breakthrough. The Spartans were unbeaten and ranked 11th.
Michigan, the despised rival that has had such fun at MSU's expense for so long, was battered.
The Wolverines were staring down the barrel of a losing record had the favored Spartans and Stanton thrashed Michigan with an offense that seemed all but invincible a month into the season.
State didn't lack for points Saturday. The Spartans -- and their fans --instead, perhaps, lacked faith. They seemed almost to wait for another inevitable disappointment wrought from too many such afternoons.
There were simply too many missed invitations Saturday for the Spartans to beat a Michigan team that, on the opposite end of the competitive spectrum, is skilled and experienced in finding ways to win, despite U-M's own brand of bungles.
"We have to learn from this," said Stanton, who threw for 282 yards Saturday. "We had too many opportunities get away from us."
There were kicking problems that had, from the season's start, loomed as trouble down the line for MSU. John Goss missed two short field goals, the last in overtime, as Saturday's pressure appeared to sink an inexperienced kicker.
"Our kicking game stunk," said Spartans coach John L. Smith, who knew what Saturday's failures were all about.
"We need to make more plays and get more big plays on the offensive side of the ball," Smith said. "If we can't get that done, that's our fault."
Smith and his staff might have issued a self-indictment there. MSU turned strangely tentative on a pivotal possession that began at MSU's 4 and stretched from the third quarter into the fourth quarter's opening moments.
The score was tied, 24-24. MSU had a first down at Michigan's 12. Three consecutive running plays gained 6 yards. It left MSU with fourth-and-4 at the 6, setting up Goss for his first missed field goal, a 23-yarder.
With Michigan State and its fans poised to take control of a game begging for an aggressor, there was a curious shutdown of MSU's normally pedal-to-the-metal offense during that watershed Spartans drive.
No pass into the end zone.
No option play.
Three weak running attempts invited Goss to do what MSU's followers had feared he would do in just such a circumstance.
"We were getting the ball moving," Spartans wide receiver Kyle Brown said, "but when it came down to it, we did not execute and put the ball in the end zone. It was a big game and we went out there, and we didn't play how we wanted to play."
Smith is often jubilant and off-the-wall during MSU's more tranquil moments. But Saturday was a gut-punch for MSU's coach, in his third year.
He was short with his answers, irked by an afternoon when he believed MSU had given up a game it seldom has seen Michigan offer.
"It hurts, it hurts real bad, and it should hurt," Smith said.
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