Head coach Mark Dantonio walks off the field after after the Spartans lost the game against Iowa, 19-16, on Saturday, Oct. 13, 2012 at Spartan Stadium. The team left the field right after the game, skipping their normal huddle for prayer on the field. Julia Nagy/The State News
When he stood at the podium Tuesday for his weekly press conference, Mark Dantonio spoke about the importance of weathering the storm that has become a cloudy season.
Yet Saturday when the storm actually came, with rain swirling all around, the MSU football team (4-3 overall, 1-2 Big Ten) failed to meet the challenge, falling to Iowa (4-2, 2-0) 19-16 in double overtime, dropping the Spartans record to 2-3 at home.
It’s the first time with Dantonio as head coach that MSU has lost three home games in a season, and with games against Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nebraska looming in the next three consecutive weeks, there are few signs things will improve.
Seven games into the season, the Spartans simply are what they are: a pedestrian offense and a defense that can’t make the plays when they matter most.
It’s part of a cold, harsh reality that despite the talent on this roster, the moments where plays need to be made, moments that defined the careers of Kirk Cousins, Keshawn Martin, BJ Cunningham, Jerel Worthy, Trenton Robinson among others, simply aren’t being made.
Despite the inclement weather and MSU holding the lead for most of the game, junior quarterback Andrew Maxwell still was asked to drop back to pass 35 times, and could only complete 12 passes as he battled misreads and inaccuracy that resulted in only two receivers totalling more than one catch.
The Spartans’ highly-touted defense has now allowed a team to move the ball on them in the game’s final minutes three of the past five games, only managing to stop Indiana and Eastern Michigan.
Sure this loss came in double overtime, and yes the Spartans only lost to Ohio State by one point, and of course MSU has had to deal with injuries to two offensive linemen and junior tight end Dion Sims.
The excuses are there, but the losses and obstacles this team faces remain the same.
As they’ve battled adversity throughout the season, the Spartans’ constant refrain has been that “all the team’s goals are still in front of them,” but the goal of beating U-M for a program-record fifth consecutive time might decide the final destination of a tumultuous season.
If the Spartans can’t right the storm next Saturday and lose to their in-state rival for the team’s fourth loss in six weeks, nearly all of the team’s season-long goals, including the ultimate goal of a Rose Bowl, will be a rainbow that never came.
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