“I was talking to (junior wide receiver) Mark Dell about it and he said ‘Oh man, another one of these,’” senior wide receiver Blair White said. “I said ‘Yeah, but this time we’re going to win it.’”

Unlike earlier in the season, the Spartans’ defense was able to hold, and as Purdue quarterback Joey Elliott took a snap on fourth down, he immediately was met by junior defensive end Colin Neely.

Elliott was able to shift to his left and mostly avoided Neely, but Elliott began to stumble and the Spartan faithful held their collective breath.

“I was hoping he was falling,” Neely said. “The field was really sandy so we were losing our footing everywhere too, so I was hoping he would lose his footing sometime too.”

Elliott did lose his footing, finally hit the ground for the first time, and the Spartans were able to exhale.

They finally had gotten over the hump in a season when each loss has come down the final minutes.

“It’s nice to be on the other end of one of these close games,” sophomore quarterback Kirk Cousins said. “We just kept playing all season. There’s been a lot of games like this where things haven’t gone our way early, and we just keep playing and don’t give up and it was nice that this one came our way at the end.”

The Spartans have lost five games this season by a combined 23 points — and they blew a late lead against Michigan before winning in overtime.

The Spartans are now 2-5 this season in games decided by eight points or fewer.

“We kind of squirted out of that one but we made enough plays to win, and we’ve been that kind of team all year, in close games,” White said. “This time we made the plays we needed to make.”

All-in-one weapon

The Spartans saw the playmaking abilities of sophomore wide receiver Keshawn Martin in numerous forms Saturday.

Down 27-20 late in the third quarter, the Spartans put Martin behind center in a Wildcat formation, something they had practiced but never used in a game. Martin faked a handoff and ran up the middle for a 19-yard gain.

“All week in practice, the fake really gets them,” Martin said. “I kind of knew it was going to be open, so I just had to hit it and go with it.”

After blocking a Purdue field goal in the fourth quarter, the Spartans ran a double reverse, handing the ball off to Dell, who then gave it to Martin. Martin used his speed, running past his blockers down to Purdue’s nine-yard line for a 45-yard gain.

Then late in the game, after Purdue had tied the game at 37, Martin returned the ensuing kickoff 85 yards to Purdue’s 11-yard line that set up the game-winning field goal by senior kicker Brett Swenson.

Martin has been a big-play guy for the Spartans this season. He has at least one run, kick return and reception for more than 80 yards this season, and also has thrown several passes in his career.

“Experience is the best teacher for him and you can see, over the past two or three games, he is hitting the point where he’s more comfortable back there,” offensive coordinator Don Treadwell said. “His confidence is there and we’re trying to find ways to get him the ball other than route-running.”

Players-only halftime

Going into the locker room down 20-17, the players decided to have the coaches leave the room and have a players-only talk.

“We just basically had a player-only get-together and we just said ‘This is our playoff and we need to screw all the technique, just make plays,’” White said. “We came out in the second half and we did that.”

The captains and seniors talked, but White said senior defensive end Trevor Anderson really fired up the team .

“At halftime, our seniors did a great job, basically pulling themselves together,” head coach Mark Dantonio said. “They wanted the coaches out of the locker room. I thought that was important that they would even ask for that. That’s a good thing because you have to lead on the field. They came out inspired in the second half and continued to play and hung in there.”