Advertisement
Advertisement
Published Oct 21, 2023
Michigan State routed in 49-0 loss to Michigan
circle avatar
Colin Jankowski  â€¢  Spartans Illustrated
Staff Writer
Twitter
@ColinJankowski

It was all Wolverines this week as Michigan came into East Lansing and beat Michigan State 49-0, securing the Paul Bunyan Trophy for the second-straight year. The offense never got anything going, defense could not get stops and penalties continued to kill the Spartans. Simply put, Michigan dominated.

Advertisement
info icon
Embed content not availableManage privacy settings

First Half

To begin the game, Michigan State won the coin toss and deferred to the second half, so the Spartan defense was up first against the Wolverines.

A few plays into the first drive, Michigan State's defense had a chance at an early stop, getting Michigan to a third-and-14 in the Wolverines' own territory. But, a big strike to AJ Barner kept the drive alive. Simeon Barrow Jr. was banged up on the play, but came back in later in the game.

The drive later ended when Blake Corum punched in a touchdown from one yard out later, and the Spartans found themselves down 7-0 early.

Michigan State's offense then got to work. After two quick runs to set up a third-and-long, Katin Houser connected with Nate Carter for a 17-yard gain to pick up the first down.

The Spartans soon found themselves in a 4th-and-short scenario at midfield, however. They handed the ball to Carter, but the Michigan defense was too much and stopped the running back one yard short. Michigan State's drive ended in a turnover on downs.

On Michigan's next drive, the Wolverines drove down the Spartans' 25-yard line. MSU got some pressure on quarterback J.J. McCarthy, but missed the sack. McCarthy capitalized, finding Roman Wilson in the end zone for the 25-yard score.

Michigan State's offense came up empty on the next drive. The first quarter ended with the Spartans trailing 14-0.

The second quarter brought more of the same. Michigan continued its drive to open up the quarter, ultimately tacking on another touchdown to make it 21-0. Michigan State couldn't get anything going on offense, and would find themselves down 28-0 at the break.

McCarthy found tight end Colston Loveland for both of the touchdowns in the second quarter.

Second Half

The Spartans showed a small glimmer of hope on offense to open the second half, moving the ball down the field with some nice grabs by Maliq Carr and Christian Fitzpatrick. But, two penalties derailed the drive before a pick-six was thrown by Houser. Michigan's Mike Sainristil returned the interception 72 yards and put the Wolverines 35-0 after the extra point.

Additionally, offensive tackle Spencer Brown was ejected for a flagrant unnecessary roughness penalty on the interceptio nreturn. The wheels quickly fell off the bus for the Spartans, if they weren't already after that first half.

Later in the third quarter, Michigan State again had penalty problems. An illegal hands to the face penalty on the defense, followed by a late hit penalty on the same play, tacked on 30 yards in field position and set up the Wolverines in field goal range.

On the following play, a face-mask penalty moved the ball to MSU's 11-yard line. McCarthy would connect with Barner in the end zone to put the Wolverines up 42-0.

A late-game interception by true freshman quarterback Sam Leavitt, who came into the game for Houser, set Michigan up with a short field. The Wolverines tacked on another touchdown after a quarterback keeper from Alex Orji with eight seconds left. That made the score 49-0 as UM was never even challenged by MSU.

Michigan State will travel to Minnesota to face the Golden Gophers next week. That game on Oct. 28 is scheduled for a 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time kickoff and will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Join the discussion on this article in our premium forums by clicking here.

You can also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Threads, TikTok, and Instagram.

For video content, including our Red Cedar Radar podcast, find us on YouTube and consider subscribing.

MichiganState
FOOTBALL
Scores / Schedule
footballfootball
27 - 6
Overall Record
17 - 3
Conference Record
Finished
FINAL - Sat 03/15
Michigan St.
74
Michigan St.
Wisconsin
77
Arrow
Wisconsin
FINAL - Fri 03/14
Michigan St.
74
Arrow
Michigan St.
Oregon
64
Oregon
FINAL - Sun 03/09
Michigan St.
79
Arrow
Michigan St.
Michigan
62
Michigan
Advertisement
Advertisement
Michigan State
2025Commitment List
Updated: Mar 16, 2025 5:08 pm
Advertisement