Michigan State football misses chances in 24-17 loss to Wolverines

Drives continuing to stall in the red zone. Costly penalties at inopportune moments. A botched onside kick. A targeting ejection.

One self-created mistake after another proved costly for Michigan State football. And Michigan took full advantage to extends its rivalry win streak to three in a row.

The Spartans put together a dominating start Saturday night at Michigan Stadium, but the Wolverines used some razzle-dazzle and capitalized on every MSU breakdown en route to a 24-17 victory.

“Didn’t finish like we wanted to,” first-year MSU coach Jonathan Smith said after his indoctrination into the rivalry. “The group battles. But really in all three phases, there’s some things we didn’t do well enough to earn a win tonight. And that’s why it’s frustrating and disappointing.”

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MSU had a final chance to tie the game late in the fourth quarter, but Aidan Chiles’ fourth-down rollout throw to Aziah Johnson got broken up in the end zone, allowing the Wolverines to run out the clock. The Spartans also squandered a scoring chance on their first drive of the game, and Chiles committed a costly fumble at the end of the first half. That turnover led to a U-M field goal which gave the Wolverines the lead for good after the Spartans dominated for much of the first two quarters.

“We have to figure out a way in order for us, when we drive the ball down there, to finish with points, hopefully touchdowns,” said junior running back Nate Carter, who ran for a personal MSU-high 118 yards and a touchdown while adding 56 receiving yards. “Yeah, it hurts, especially when when we have so much success. And at the end of the day, we shot ourselves in the foot a lot.”

After five straight night games, MSU (4-4, 2-3 Big Ten) next hosts sizzling hot and unbeaten Indiana (8-0, 5-0), which topped Washington on Saturday, 31-17. It will be a 3:30 p.m. kickoff against the 13th-ranked Hoosiers with no television broadcast — streaming on Peacock, NBC’s online-only service — next Saturday at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing.

Michigan (5-3, 2-2) hosts No. 1 Oregon next Saturday at 3:30 p.m. (CBS).

The Spartans outgained the Wolverines 352-265, including 163-119 on the ground. However, U-M did not commit a turnover and was not flagged for a penalty while MSU had six for 35 yards and Chiles lost his fourth fumble of the season for his 11th overall turnover. The sophomore quarterback finished 17-for-23 for 189 yards and a touchdown.

Electric start for MSU turns ugly at end of half

MSU’s offense came out and slugged the Wolverines in the mouth early, often and repeatedly for the first 25 minutes.

On the game-opening possession, the Spartans pounded U-M with five different ball carriers and ticked off 68 yards in 14 plays. Chiles opened things up with his legs and hit Carter for a 26-yard screen pass before the drive sputtered as it neared the goal line.

MSU lined up to go for it on fourth-and-goal at the 2, but Chiles took a delay of game penalty that backed the Spartans up 5 yards and forced them to attempt a 25-yard field-goal try. But kicker Jonathan Kim, who hit a school record six a week ago in a win over Iowa, shanked it high and right to end an 8-minute, 8-second drive without points.

The Spartans’ defense smothered U-M for a three-and-out, and Chiles and Co. went right back to work with the same blueprint. This time, Carter powered behind a block from right guard Brandon Baldwin on fourth-and-1 for a 2-yard touchdown with 10 seconds left in the first quarter. The Spartans had 135 total yards and a 93-1 rushing advantage to build the 7-0 lead.

But Michigan’s defense cranked up the pressure and penetration from there, and MSU managed just 15 yards in the second quarter. And Wolverines quarterback Davis Warren found a short passing rhythm with tight end Colson Loveland, exploiting coverage gaffes in the middle of MSU’s defense. The Wolverines scored on a 10-yard TD connection between the two with 29 seconds left before half but had trouble with the snap and missed the PAT. The Spartans looked to be headed to the locker room with a lead.

But after Carter ripped off a 15-yard run on the first play after the kickoff, MSU got risky. Chiles rolled away from pressure looking downfield and did not sense the pressure coming from his backside. Defensive end Josaiah Stewart got a strip sack, the ball bounced toward the U-M sideline, and defensive tackle Kenneth Grant pounced on it at MSU’s 37 with 14 ticks left.

The Wolverines took a 9-7 lead as Dominic Zvada kicked a 37-yard field goal just before time expired. They also closed the MSU yardage edge to 160-116 through two quarters, though the Spartans had a 119-37 rushing advantage.

Right before U-M’s TD drive, MSU lost starting long snapper Kaden Schickel on a punt earlier in the second quarter to an apparent left leg injury while racing down to make a tackle on a punt. He was carted back to the locker room with a towel on his head.

Bad finish to half leads to second half MSU ugliness

The Wolverines nearly replicated how the Spartans opened the game, taking the second-half kickoff 75 yards in 11 plays over 5:11. The difference is they punched it in the end zone on a 2-yard touchdown run by Alex Orji after the backup quarterback had an earlier 29 yard run on that drive. The Wolverines converted three times on third down on the possession, including the scoring run that made it 16-7 with 9:49 left in the third quarter.

A special teams gaffe, with Sam Edwards calling a fair catch as Alante Brown fielded the ball, forced Chiles and the offense to start an all-important countering drive at the Spartans’ 5. Chiles moved them from there, with a 30-yard throw to Montorie Foster on third-and-4 extending the possession before it stalled at the U-M 28. Kim booted a 46-yard field goal off a near-perfect snap from Edwards, who replaced Schickel, to pull MSU within 16-10 with 3:45 to go in the third.

Kim then attempted an onside kick, with his coverage unit stuttering and peeking back at him as they fanned out. It gave away the attempted ruse, and the Spartans also jumped offsides before U-M recovered to set the Wolverines up on MSU’s side of the field for a drive that went nowhere.

But U-M continued to convert on third downs, blending Orji runs with Warren throws, and mix up its play-calling with trick plays. An Orji run at the end of the third quarter and between-period review got MSU linebacker Jordan Turner ejected, and he will miss the first half against Indiana by Big Ten rules.

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Four plays later, Donovan Edwards took a toss from Warren early in the fourth quarter and, with MSU’s linebackers crashing down, threw a perfect pass to a wide-open Loveland for a 23-yard score with 13:20 to play. Warren found Loveland equally as open for the 2-point conversion to extend U-M’s lead to 24-10.

But the Spartans responded with a methodical drive that mirrored their early-game dominance, with two third-down conversions on the ground by Carter and Lynch-Adams. Facing third-and-12 at the Wolverines’ 20, Chiles hit Nick Marsh on an in-route, and the freshman wide receiver shook two U-M defenders with a stutter-step cutback at the 10 and weaved his way to the end zone. Another long snapper, Jack Carson-Wentz, set up Kim’s extra point that made it 24-17 with 6:12 remaining.

MSU’s defense forced a three-and-out, and a bad punt set Chiles up near midfield. He immediately took an intentional grounding penalty, backing the Spartans up 15 yards, but hit Jack Velling to get it back. Then Chiles evaded pressure and hit Carter on third-and-10, and the running back kept his balance for 30 yards into Michigan territory. MSU then had a false start penalty before Chiles’ last-gasp throw got batted to the ground.