The Michael Geiger field goal attempt during overtime wobbled, floating, flirting with a chance of victory.
But it fell short —about five yards short of its 49-yard target, seemingly confused about where to land.
Discombobulated in a sense, as one reporter described MSU.
“I could use a lot of words,” Dantonio said. “They might not be as pretty as discombobulated.”
An erratic effort, good one minute, lethargic the next, proved to be another downfall. What was thought to be preseason, first-game mistakes easily shed mistakes carried into week four.
Penalties, dropped passes and lenient coverage all added up for MSU football in a 24-21 loss to Indiana University Saturday night.
The Spartans slipped out of a 14-0 lead held through the waning moments of the third quarter before relinquishing 21 late-game points and eventually losing on a 20-yard field goal in overtime.
It was a “disappointing loss,” almost uncharacteristic following three years of a combined five losses and 36 wins. Games against Indiana were counted wins. But now after reloading with younger, inexperienced talent, MSU has positioned itself in an uncomfortable limbo between being able to click for prime wins and being a few plays from collapse.
“At the end of the day, you’ve got to win,” Dantonio said. “It’s not good enough to say ‘well, I played well’ or ‘I coached well’ and it starts with me, it starts at the top.”
And after the loss, MSU’s mantra of “Back2Back” is all but finished. With two losses in Big Ten play, MSU is all but out of the playoff picture.
A fluctuant offense
For most of the contest, MSU could little ascertain what it wanted to do on offense. Its best drives were a first quarter 86-yard touchdown pass from Tyler O’Connor to R.J. Shelton and its final, game-tying 13-play, 75-yard drive.
There were moments where O’Connor found his rhythm, connecting on short and underneath routes. Other times the run game was able to charge full steam behind three running backs and O’Connor, who kept the ball multiple times on designed runs.
But even as the offense reached into the Hoosiers’ territory, the flags were thrown or play calling and execution were lacking. O’Connor rushed throws or passes were dropped. Sacks were an issue.
“It’s frustrating,” O’Connor said. “When you look at the stats, you look at what we did we did a lot of great things ... it was penalties, it was mistakes, it was on us. We drove the ball well, then something halted us.”
O’Connor was able to throw for 263 yards on 21-of-35 passing, including three touchdowns through the air. He and Shelton linked up for 141 of those yards.
MSU, however, was never able to establish a comfortable chemistry, almost as if following an order to stay away from breaking the game open.
“We hurt ourselves,” Dantonio said. “Credit Indiana, they played with a lot of enthusiasm the entire night and they just kept getting a little bit stronger and a little bit stronger.”
The play calling never seemed to link up when needed except during the quick-fire game tying drive in the fourth quarter.
Trying to play savior and down a touchdown, O’Connor led the drive down to the one-yard line. On fourth down he faked the handoff to LJ Scott and knifed the ball to Josiah Price. An extra point later, MSU knotted the game at 21-21.
Minutes later the Spartans received the ball to start overtime, and the protection that afforded the drive disappeared.
Three plays into overtime, O’Connor ended up on the ground twice from the pressure of the pass rush, crumbling into a heap.
“Probably had an opportunity to hand the ball off instead of throw it, which we probably should have done,” O’Connor said. “There was a route confusion on the other (play).”
Indiana dialed up blitzes that were able to muster enough pressure to cause MSU to falter. The Hoosiers were able to take advantage of the MSU miscues and penalties, stifling drives and largely cutting MSU down to a few big plays.
O’Connor called his play “decent,” and a week after throwing three picks against Wisconsin he didn’t record any. He did under-throw a route to Donnie Corley and float a few passes into double coverage, but none of those passes proved costly.
His play has raised questions with many fans and from the media about whether or not he’s the right guy to lead the offense.
“Based on what I see, he is,” Dantonio said of questioning over whether O’Connor was the starter. “But, again, you watch the film and make decisions based on that, but I would say so.”
Giving a team hope
MSU bottled up the Indiana offense for most of the night, stuffing runs in the backfield and keeping passes from exploiting any holes in the coverage. But for the second straight week, MSU struggled to get off the field on third down, allowing Indiana to pick up 9 of 16 third down opportunities. The Hoosiers, however, were 0-for-4 on third and longs.
“We all just have to be better as a unit,” senior safety Demetrious Cox said.
MSU was without arguably its top linebackers in Riley Bullough and Jon Reschke. The pass rush mustered no sacks, allowing Indiana quarterback Richard Lagow plenty of time. They stuffed the run and ultimately held the Hoosiers to 120 yards in the first half.
“Well you‘ve got to have sacks, we’ve always been a team that has gotten sacks here,” Dantonio said. “Right now we don’t have them, sometimes I guess they come in numbers.”
But there were signs of a possible concern including missed coverage and lenient man coverage. The defense eventually broke in the second half.
MSU allowed 148 yards and 155 yards in the third and fourth quarters, respectively. Indiana picked up seven third-down conversions in the third quarter and built on the momentum, scoring three straight touchdowns.
Lagow completed 16-of-26 passes for 276 yards and two touchdown passes finding receivers Ricky Jones, Mitchell Paige and Nick Westbrook throughout the night.
Paige was the difference maker, seeming to make the biggest catches of the night, including a 15-yard touchdown reception that fluttered over the head of Andrew Dowell.
Paige also delivered the throw on the trick play to Lagow that got Indiana on the board at the end of the third quarter.
MSU suffered further injuries as Raequan Williams limped off the field and Darian Hicks landed awkwardly after a diving interception attempt slipped through his hands.
Later in the fourth quarter, MSU’s Malik McDowell was ejected for targeting on a roughing the passer penalty that many saw as a questionable call. He’ll be ineligible for the first half against BYU on Saturday.
But despite the injuries and the faster Indiana offense in the fourth quarter, Dantonio wouldn’t allow fatigue to be an excuse.
“I really didn’t think we were a tired football team out there,” Dantonio said. “We were playing hard, but we didn’t really have to substitute too much in our secondary. Played very well the first half, they hit us on a couple plays.”
The pass rush will continue to be an issue. BYU has rushed for 1,000 yards and thrown for more than 1,000 passing yards and will present the defense with perhaps its toughest and quickest competition yet.
Hopes and dreams
MSU football’s season is all but done. There are eight games remaining, but even if MSU were to win out, MSU would have to hope other Big Ten teams in the East division will also incur two losses.
It presents a formidable task, especially with games against top 5 opponents, No. 2 Ohio State University and No. 4 University of Michigan.
Now MSU will have to keep the season from becoming lost.
“Players are competitors, you hope they’re competitors,” Dantonio said. “If they’re not, we recruited the wrong guys.”
With dreams nearly dashed, the season might seem to be a lost cause after years of competing for a Big Ten championship. Even if the goal remains the same, it might never come close to materializing.
“There’s a lot of football teams that don’t go to the playoffs or don’t win a Big Ten championship,” Dantonio said. “You keep playing and you play yourself into situations to get you where you have to go.”
Dantonio also bucked any idea of complacency or overlook.
“You can’t count them before you play them,” Dantonio said. “There’s a standard here and there’s a bar that’s been set. You have to play to that bar every week, you have to have high expectations and I still have very high expectations.”
MSU’s hope still resides in its head coach. If they’re to turn it around dramatically, they’ll have to buy into Dantonio’s final message.
“There’s not a team that we could play that we cannot beat,” Dantonio said. “I think that’s been proven.”
