EAST LANSING - A last-second decision to send in the kicking unit rather than spike the ball to stop the play clock ended up costing Michigan State a chance to go to overtime and eventually served as the final loss-cinching mistake in an error-prone day for the Spartans, in a maddening 10-7 loss to Arizona State, Saturday at Spartan Stadium.
Matt Coghlin’s 42-yard kick appeared to have tied it with six seconds remaining, but a replay showed too many men on the field for Michigan State, which had rushed the field-goal team on in a disorganized fashion.
Michigan State (2-1) was out of time outs after burning two during Arizona State’s go-ahead touchdown drive, which ended with :50 seconds to play. ASU improved to 3-0.
Michigan State drove 46 yards to set up Coghlin’s attempt, thanks to a 25-yard strike from Brian Lewerke to Darrell Stewart with less than :20 seconds remaining.
Lewerke spiked the ball to stop the clock with :11 seconds left.
“We had no more time outs,” Dantonio said. “The :40 second clock was running. Initially we were going to try to take a shot to the end zone.
“Then I said, ‘Hey, we need to kick it,’ because if we catch the ball and we’re not in the end zone, the game is probably over. Line up and kick it.”
By that time, the Spartans were running players on and off the field and the play clock was dwindling.
“The field goal kicker was a little late,” Dantonio said. “He’s sort of watching. So he runs out, the clock is ticking down. He still makes the field goal.”
Coghlin had missed from 46 and 31 yards in the first half. (The 31-yard miss came after he had connected from 26 yards, only to be flagged for a delay of game penalty. The second shot at it, from five yards deeper, sailed wide right, just before halftime).
Coghlin thought he had gained a measure of redemption when his 42-yard field goal had apparently tied the game at 10-10 in the final seconds, an ominous score on a day in which Dantonio was trying to break Duffy Daugherty’s school record for wins, with Daugherty’s most famous game ending in a 10-10 tie in a de facto national championship game against Notre Dame on this field in 1966.
Officials reviewed the play and found that Michigan State had 12 players on the field. After a 5-yard penalty, Coghlin missed from 47 yards.
Arizona State’s Cam Phillips jumped the offensive line to try to block the field goal, an move that should have been flagged 15 yards for hurdling. Michigan State lost a game to Indiana in 2016 after committing a hurdling penalty while trying to block a field goal. But the officiating gods weren’t with Dantonio on this day, and he knew it.
“They call no penalty (on hurdling),” Dantonio said. “It’s not reviewable. But that’s just to get to overtime. There were a lot of opportunities prior to that where we could have won the football game.
“I think that they need to take a good hard look at the officiating, and that’s all I’ll say, because there were some disputes out there.
“I’m not sure how (we had 12 on the field). We had injuries on the offensive line, and I think maybe one guy stayed in. I haven’t seen the film. I know they reviewed it and said there was no foul and then they reviewed it again.
“We lined up again to kick a field goal. They try and hurdle us. That should be a penalty.”
BURNING THE TIME OUTS
Michigan State out-gained Arizona State 404-216. ASU’s offense was bottled up all day, aside from a field goal drive in the first half, and a desperation drive in the final minutes for the go-ahead touchdown.
That drive was fueled by a deep pass from ASU quarterback Jayden Daniels to wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk. Aiyuk became open behind stumbling cornerback Josh Butler for a gain of 40 to the Michigan State 25-yard line.
ASU then needed eight plays to cover the final 25 yards, with only 2 of those yards coming through the air. The rest came Daniels scrambles and a 1-yard plunge by RB Eno Benjamin.
Daniels’ 15-yard scramble on fourth-and-13 was a killer for Michigan State.
Prior to that fourth-and-long conversation, Michigan State burned its last two time outs. Dantonio was asked about the uncommon usage of time outs in that situation.
“Well, I thought it was going to come down to that last series,” Dantonio said. “We were so concerned about the quarterback scrambling.”
ASU had not been able to pass the ball with consistency (Daniels, a true freshman, was 15-of-26 for 140 yards on the day), or protect the passer effectively (Michigan State sacked him four times).
ASU’s run game had been stifled most of the day (ASU rushed 26 times for 76 yards).
Daniels’ legs on scrambles had proved to be the most difficult variable for the Spartan defense. Daniels finished with 48 yards on gains (against 11 yards in sack losses).
Daniels’ ability to improvise with his legs was the reason Dantonio burned the time outs.
“Just trying to make sure we were lined up correctly, and figure out whether we were going to pressure or not, how we were going to handle No. 3 (Benjamin) on the screen if he screens it, and how are we going to keep the quarterback in the box, knowing that he is going to scramble," Dantonio said. "And that’s what he did on fourth-and-14. And that should not happen. So there were a lot of different things we had to look at.
“We were trying to look at the formation they were running and make them change that formation. So we took the time out to make sure that we were going to be lined up correctly to make them change a couple of their formations.”
Rather than blitz Daniels and run the risk of chasing him into a tuck-and-run scramble play, Michigan State decided to drop eight defenders into zone coverage and guard receivers while keeping an eye on the backfield for the QB scramble.
“We dropped eight, spied the quarterback so we would be able to prevent something just like that,” Dantonio said. “They ran double seams and he (Daniels) got out on the edge. I mean it’s not the three-man rush that gets busted out, it’s the people in the back. They are all facing the quarterback so they should be able to rally back and stop a 14-yard gain.
“Obviously I was at ground level and didn’t see it on film so I’m not sure who, what, where, what happened.
“But you have decisions to make. Do you want to blitz him? Do you want to pressure him, which is a little bit less than blitzing. Do you want to four-man rush him? There’s a lot of things going through your mind right there so you have to try to make the best decision you can, but I don’t care what defense you have, on fourth-and-14, you have to stop them.
“I just think he made a play. He was throwing the ball pretty well early in the game. Going into the last drive, they had 148 yards of offense. They had one big long one. We could have played better on that one. The rest of it, they sort of nickel and dime you and scramble.”
Michigan State took a 7-3 lead with 8:37 left on an Elijah Collins 9-yard TD run.
On the first play of Arizona State’s next drive, Kenny Willekes sacked Daniels, causing a fumble, which Michigan State recovered at the Sun Devils’ 28-yard line. The game looked like it was in MSU's hands, at that point. But Michigan State’s Raequan Williams was flagged for an illegal hand to the face.
Dantonio was asked about MSU’s 10 penalties on the day.
“There were a lot of things that set us back, some were in question," Dantonio said. "We get a fumble recovery. I didn’t see a flag come out. There was a fumble recovery and all the sudden a flag is out and we had just scored. So there are a lot of things you could look at but we have to get on to the next challenge, that will be at Northwestern. We need to get ourselves ready. We’ve got a lot to play for.”
Following that Williams personal foul, ASU drove to the 49-yard line and punted Michigan State back to its 10-yard line.
Michigan State took over with 5:51 and had a chance to melt the clock and win.
After a pair of Collins runs gained 1 an 2 yards, Lewerke completed a pass to Cody White for an apparent first down with 4:12 left. But tight end Matt Dotson was flagged for pass interference. His route interfered with the man covering White.
Then on third-and-14, Lewerke’s pass to a diving Stewart was initially ruled complete with 3:45 left. Again, Michigan State’s odds of winning soared. But replays showed the ball had hit the ground, and Michigan State had to punt. ASU took over and drove for its only touchdown of the day and what proved to be the winning points.