IOWA CITY, Iowa—In their first road test of the year, the Michigan State football team couldn’t hold on as they were defeated by Iowa 23-16 in a sluggish offensive performance.
MSU is now 0-3 in games coached by interim head coach Harlon Barnett as they drop to 0-2 in Big Ten play and 2-3 overall.
The Hawkeyes received the ball to begin the game. On their first play of the drive, senior quarterback Cade McNamara rolled out to the right to find junior wide receiver Diante Vines for a loud 23 yard gain. Two additional completions by McNamara moved Iowa down the field rather easily. MSU began to contain the rhythm and force a third down at their own 20 yard line. A wide pass by McNamara out of bounds forced a field goal attempt, as Hawkeye sophomore kicker Drew Stevens nailed the 40 yard kick to put Iowa up 3-0 early.
Michigan State’s offense has struggled in the first half of each of their four games to start the season so far. With just 30 points scored in the first half of those games, the Spartans looked to try to change that against a proven Iowa defense.
Senior wide receiver Alante Brown took control of the ball on a sweep for ten yards and a first down on MSU’s first play from scrimmage. However, a few completions from redshirt junior quarterback Noah Kim on first and third down were not enough to pick up another first on the next set of downs, and the Spartans elected to punt the ball to begin their offensive series.
A 61-yard boot by redshirt freshman punter Ryan Eckley pinned the Hawkeyes inside their own 5-yard line. On second down, McNamara escaped pressure in the end zone to avoid a safety and attempted to pick up yardage on a scramble. McNamara made a series of cuts to juke the defense, but he went down visibly in pain by the time he was tackled. He did not return to the game as sophomore quarterback Deacon Hill took over under center.
The Spartans did a good job of getting off the field following the quarterback substitution. A sneak from Hill on third and 11 resulted in an Iowa punt from their own end zone.
With promising field position, MSU looked to put their foot on the gas and move downfield. Kim found redshirt junior tight end Maliq Carr on a 16-yard passing play. A hands to the face penalty on Iowa added 15 more yards to the end of the gain, setting MSU up in the red zone. Two plays later, an illegal block by redshirt senior tight end Evan Morris backed the ball back 15 yards to the Hawkeye 26 yard line. Kim found Carr for 6 yards on third down and 14, but short of the line to gain. Redshirt senior kicker Jonathan Kim nailed the field goal attempt to tie the game at three in the first quarter.
Michigan State’s offense started to find some momentum on the next drive. A 13-yard rush by redshirt sophomore running back Nate Carter and multiple short completions by Kim moved the ball past midfield. On fourth and two, Iowa false started to keep the drive going for MSU on Kim’s hard count. An incompletion from the Iowa 14 on third down brought on Jonathan Kim for another field goal from 32 yards out. Kim’s kick went right through the uprights, putting the Spartans up 6-3.
The Spartan defense began to come alive after the second field goal, putting together two consecutive stops since Hill came into the game for McNamara. This help continued to ignite the offense, especially on the ground. Kim received multiple calls for quarterback draws early on in the game, including a 14-yard rush on MSU’s fourth drive. A Carter rush for 13 yards on the next play put Michigan State in the red zone again. Kim then took a shot for the end zone on first down looking for redshirt freshman wide receiver Jaron Glover, but overthrew him as Iowa came down with the ball for the interception, Kim’s fourth of the season.
The Hawkeyes then took advantage of the mistake, as Hill found his senior tight end Erick All wide open on the right side of the field for a gain of 32 yards. A roughing the passer penalty by MSU enforced 15 extra yards, putting Iowa at the Michigan State 33 yard line. Hill found All again two plays later for 17 yards to set up a red zone possession. Iowa decided to go back to All once more on a horizontal pass as he broke multiple tackles on the intended screen to bulldoze his way into the end zone for the touchdown.
With just 35 seconds and three timeouts, MSU looked to get to at least field goal range to build momentum going into halftime. Two 16-yard completions by Noah Kim put the ball on the Iowa 48-yard line. Kim then found senior wide receiver Montorie Foster Jr. on the comeback route for an 8-yard gain, lining up a long 58-yard attempt for Jonathan Kim. Kim drove the ball low with power and split the uprights with room to spare, bringing the Spartans within one point as Iowa took a 10-9 lead into the half.
Jonathan Kim’s 58-yard kick is the new longest field goal ever at Kinnick Stadium, and the fourth longest in Michigan State program history. Ralf Mojsiejenko’s 59-yard kick in 1983 was the most recent kick from that kind of distance, with the record being 63 yards by Morten Anderson in 1981.
Michigan State started to move down the field to begin its first drive of the second half, just past midfield. Just as rhythm started to develop, Noah Kim under-threw Foster Jr., as senior defensive back Sebastian Castro jumped the route and picked the ball off for Iowa for the second time of the game.
Despite the struggles on offense, the Spartan defense continued to be resilient. On the first play following the interception, junior running back Leshon Williams fumbled the carry on the ground. Redshirt junior linebacker Cal Haladay scooped the ball up and returned it 42 yards for the score to put Michigan State back on top 16-10.
In the theme of records, Haladay’s scoop and score ties the record for most career defensive touchdowns in MSU history.
Momentum continued to swing the Spartans' way on defense on the very next drive. Senior defensive back Angelo Grose stared down Hill’s eyes and read the pass to jump the route and record the interception. Iowa’s two turnovers on back-to-back drives suddenly changed the energy of the game directly out of the break.
MSU’s offense just couldn’t seem to complement the defense, however. The Spartans found themselves in a fourth and one situation, which led to a quarterback sneak by Kim that was short of the line to gain at the MSU 30-yard line. Iowa looked like they were ready to threaten and score a touchdown, but redshirt senior defensive back Chester Kimbrough fired out of a cannon on the delayed blitz and sacked Hill for a loss of nine yards. Michigan State provides more help, and forces a field goal by Stevens for Iowa to make it a 16-13 game.
After McNamara went down, Iowa struggled to generate much progress downfield. Hill threw for just 115 yards, and Iowa could only gather 60 yards as a team from the running game.
A statement was made for the Spartan defense, as they caused Iowa to punt three straight drives following the field goal that pulled the Hawkeyes within three points.
It was similar to the Spartan offense, though, as MSU punted the ball away five times since their last score. A 15-yard punt by Eckley put the Hawkeyes past midfield with potential to take the lead on their second to last drive of the night.
A quick seven play drive in under three minutes set Iowa up for a 32-yard field goal attempt as Michigan State stopped the Hawkeyes from getting in the end zone once again. Stevens nailed the kick through the uprights to tie the game at 16 with over five minutes to play in the game.
Looking to create a potential game winning drive, the Spartans came back on the field on offense to try to break their scoring drought. Two false starts didn’t help the case, as MSU went three and out.
Eckley punted the ball back to Iowa. Junior defensive back Cooper DeJean fielded the punt and had lots of room to work with. DeJean broke two tackles, bouncing off the MSU defenders and found a hole down the sideline. Nobody could keep up with DeJean, as he took it 70 yards for the score to put Iowa up a touchdown with three minutes and 45 seconds left.
Michigan State looked to put up one last fight to try to tie the game. Kim threw a quick pass to redshirt senior wide receiver Tre Mosley for a gain of five yards, but a powerful hit from Iowa senior linebacker Nick Jackson forced a fumble, leading to a Hawkeye recovery. Stevens put the exclamation point on the scoreline with another field goal to give Iowa a 26-16 victory.
The Spartans will get a rest next week as they encounter their bye week. They return to action away at Rutgers on October 14.
