Michigan State started Saturday’s game against Michigan with two dominant offensive drives. The first one resulted in a missed chip shot field goal from 25 yards out. The second one ended in a Nate Carter touchdown.
MSU had the ball at the UM 2-yard line and was faced with a fourth down before a preventable delay of game penalty pushed the Spartans back on that first drive. In hindsight, head coach Jonathan Smith said that he should’ve called a timeout to avoid the penalty. That forced the team to attempt a field goal, which went wide right.
It was the first drive of the game and plenty of other red zone missed opportunities hurt the Spartans in the 24-17 loss in Ann Arbor.
“The red zone piece is frustrating,” Smith said after the loss. “We’ve got to keep looking at it, again, to be able to punch it in (to the end zone). That’s on me, I’m thinking about the first drive, go down there, saw the clock where it’s at, it’s fourth-and-2, you know what, we’ll just take three and we don’t even get that. But we’ve got to find ways to finish drives when we get inside the 20, 25-yard line.”
Michigan State had the lead for a good chunk of the first half. Then thanks to a solid offensive drive by the Wolverines which resulted in a touchdown, and then a fumble by quarterback Aidan Chiles that set UM up in field goal range, the Wolverines scored nine points in the final minute of the first half to take a 9-7 lead heading into the locker room.
The Spartans also couldn't find a way to get the job done in the closing minutes of the second half. On a huge fourth down with under two minutes to play and a must score situation to push for overtime, Chiles forced a pass to a well-covered Aziah Johnson and it fell incomplete. MSU's defense could not stop the Michigan ground game on the ensuing possession to force a punt and the Wolverines sealed the win.
“Frustrating, disappointing,” Smith said. “A lot to digest in the game, and I look at both ends of halves – we didn’t finish well at all.”
Before that final offensive play of the game for the Spartans, they took a timeout. They recognized the man-to-man coverage and were confident in the play call, but Michigan covered well in the secondary and Chiles did not have a good option to throw to.
“We had a few options, talked a little bit with Aidan, talked through with the offensive staff, felt good about the call," Smith said. "It was something we had called before, not this game, but before in the season and had success with it.”
One of the bright spots in this game for MSU was the performance of running back Nate Carter. He led the team in rushing yards (118) and receiving yards (56) on Saturday. It was Carter’s most productive game on the ground in his Spartan career.
“He was a spark, ran it well, made some plays catching the ball,” Smith said about Carter’s performance. “I think about that late one on the last drive there, kind of a low catch, stays up, breaks a tackle, gets it all the way down, I think it was about to the 20 (yard line). He played really well tonight.”
Defensively, Michigan State limited the Michigan ground game. UM's duo of running backs – Donovan Edwards and Kalel Mullings – ran for 42 yards on 22 carries. However, MSU struggled defending the run against quarterback Alex Orji. He had six carries for 64 yards and one touchdown.
“I thought we prepared really well for that,” Smith said about Michigan using Orji in the run game. “We anticipated we’d see a decent amount of him, whether he was a starter or not. I thought we prepared pretty well. The kid bounced it a few times and obviously finished the game when they needed it.”
This was Smith’s first time experiencing the Michigan vs. Michigan State rivalry as a head coach.
“It’s passionate,” Smith said about the rivalry. “Neither side likes each other. That’s why I go back to it’s pretty frustrating.”
MSU still has four regular season games remaining and the Spartans need to regroup from this loss fast because undefeated Indiana is coming to East Lansing next Saturday.
“We did put a lot into this game and we put a lot into every game,” Smith said. “I’m pretty confident. We’re going to have to regroup and deeply digest this one. We got a big time opponent coming in next Saturday and I’m confident these guys will be back to work and ready to go again at home.”
The Spartans will host the No. 13 Hoosiers on Saturday, Nov. 2 at Spartan Stadium at 3:30 p.m. on Peacock.
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