Senior running back Jehuu Caulcrick celebrates after rushing in the first touchdown of the game during the first quarter Saturday at Spartan Stadium.
When he dropped back to pass from his own 21-yard line, Indiana quarterback Kellen Lewis had no idea it was coming.
Senior defensive end Jonal Saint-Dic swooped behind him, wrapping one arm around him for the sack while using his other arm to swat the ball out of his hands.
The ball fell to the ground, and Saint-Dic tried to get up and grab it, but not before a wide-eyed senior defensive end Ervin Baldwin pounced on it.
“I saw that in the corner of my eye,” Baldwin said. “I saw Jonal ‘Sackmaster’ Saint-Dic come around and sacked him my eyes got real big.
“I can’t fall on it at the 10-, 15-yard line — I’ve got to scoop and score.”
Baldwin snatched up the loose football, and trotted his way 12 yards into the end zone — adding a touchdown to his already impressive two sacks on the game.
He called it his best game of the season, and he said it came after a sub-par performance last week against Northwestern when the defense failed to pressure the quarterback.
“Last week, I felt like I just let my team down because I didn’t bring the same energy and same effort,” Baldwin said. “So I put it on myself that I was going to play 100 percent all-out.”
Marking milestones
With his seventh forced fumble of the season, Saint-Dic tied former Penn State defensive end Michael Haynes for the Big Ten single-season record.
“It’s not only for me, it’s for Michigan State University,” Saint-Dic said. “It’s for my teammates, the defensive line coach, coach (Mark Dantonio). Those records go out to everybody.”
Although Baldwin beat him to recovering the record-setting strip, Saint-Dic said he was excited that his teammate grabbed it.
“That’s a momentum changer,” he said. “That’s when you put the nail in the coffin.”
Senior running back Jehuu Caulcrick wrote some history of his own on Saturday, becoming the 14th player in Spartan history with 2,000 rushing yards.
His third rushing touchdown of the game also made him fourth all-time at MSU with 30 in his career.
“It’s a great accomplishment, and I can’t ask for anything better,” Caulcrick said.
“I owe it all to our offensive line. They did a tremendous job out there today.”
Controlling the Clock
The Spartans ran 54 more offensive plays than the Hoosiers on Saturday, kicked off by a first quarter in which Indiana saw only five snaps on offense.
“I knew they were tiring, actually in the first quarter,” Caulcrick said. “They started backing down a little bit, we just kept going at it. We just couldn’t get complacent out there.”
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
Offensive coordinator Don Treadwell said MSU came out looking to establish the run, and he said the linemen were adamant about pounding it to the defense.
“It’s kind of nice throughout the course of the game early on when your linemen are telling your offensive line coaches, etc., ‘Coach lets keep bringing it,’” Treadwell said.
MSU had the football more than double the time of the Hoosiers, with a 41:05 time of possession compared to Indiana’s 18:55.
“You could see it in the beginning,” junior quarterback Brian Hoyer said. “(The Indiana defense) had their hands on their hips, taking some deep breaths.”
