The Spartans drop their second straight lopsided game
PREGAME
It’s on to football with stage one of the MSU quadruple header complete. Women’s Soccer advanced in the NCAA tournament with a 3-1 win over Western Michigan at DeMartin Stadium. The Spartans will face Texas on Friday, who beat Boston University 4-1 in the opening round.
At Illinois, MSU’s defense was extremely shorthanded today, especially in the secondary. Dillon Tatum and Chance Rucker remain out while defensive backs Charles Brantley, Malik Spencer, and Armorion Smith, and linebacker Wayne Matthews were also listed as out on today’s availability report.
FIRST QUARTER
Illinois started with the ball after MSU won the toss and deferred. Michigan State forced a three and out after Jordan Hall nearly picked off a Luke Altmeyer pass on third down. Altmeyer had time to throw but the secondary held up to get off the field.
Michigan State opened with an Aidan Chiles keeper that went for 9 yards before he appeared to fumble. Illinois returned it for a touchdown but fortunately replay intervened and found Chiles to be down before the fumble. MSU picked up the first down with a short run on the next play but could go no further. Ashton Lepo was beat on third down and Chiles was sacked to end the drive. Not a great first series for the offensive line.
Illinois opened their next drive with a first down as Altmeyer connected with Hank Beatty for 12 yards. Michigan State gave them five more yards on the next play with D’Quan Douse jumping offsides. Then Pat Bryant ran past the MSU secondary, with Angelo Grose perhaps lined up too far inside, and Altmeyer found him for a 57 yard touchdown.
7-0 ILLINOIS
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MSU started their next drive with a hand off to Carter who was dropped for a loss to get the Spartans behind the sticks. Chiles bailed them out with a 6 yard completion to Nate Carter and then evaded the rush on third down for a 16 yard scramble and a first down. Then Illinois appeared to have their own miscommunication in the secondary. Chiles found a wide open Aziah Johnson for a 52 yard catch and run touchdown on the next play to answer Illinois and get MSU on the board. Unfortunately Jonathan Kim inexplicably missed the point after and failed to even it up.
7-6 ILLINOIS
Illinois decided to go hurry up to start their next drive and converted four third downs en route to another touchdown. The most damaging was a third and 15 after Illinois had committed two false starts. Altmeyer found Alexander Kapka-Jones, who ran a beautiful come back route to pick up the first down. A few plays later Josh McCray went around tackle for 11 yards and Illinois’ next touchdown.
14-6 ILLINOIS
At this point, the young MSU secondary was struggling and the defensive line still was not getting much pressure on Altmeyer. The Spartan offense needed keep pace to stay in this one but that didn’t happen.
MSU started their next drive with a couple of first downs. Kay’Ron Lynch-Adams ran for 12 and Chiles to Glover went for another 12 before the end of the first quarter.
14-6 ILLINOIS END OF FIRST QUARTER
SECOND QUARTER
Unfortunately, MSU could not capitalize after the first two plays of the drive. A couple of short Lynch-Adams runs led to third and long. Chiles didn’t have time to find anyone open downfield and had to dump it off to Lynch-Adams, who was dropped for a loss, forcing a punt.
The Spartan defense gave up one first down on Illinois’ next drive but held on the next series. The Illini punted and pinned MSU inside their own ten to start the drive. The field position would prove to be another struggle for Michigan State, especially later in the second half.
A Chiles keeper went for a first down but then MSU’s next drive stalled on an offensive pass interference call. What would have been a first down completion to Johnson was negated by the PI call on Nick Marsh, which pushed the Spartans back inside their own ten yard line. An underneath route to Johnson came up short of the first down and MSU punted again.
Illinois went tempo again to start their next drive and found some traction in the ground game. The Illini were also aided by a Spartan illegal hands to the face penalty early in the drive that moved them into MSU territory. Michigan State got it to fourth and 1 but an Altmeyer sneak barely pushed it past the sticks. The Illini drive continued with more success in the running game, getting inside the Spartans’ ten yard line. Then, a corner end zone Altmeyer to Zahkari Franklin throw was upheld by replay to cap a 12 play drive that ate up over 6 minutes.
21-6 ILLINOIS
Michigan State took over and started their 2 minute offense with a lot of success, working the sideline nicely and saving their timeouts. Carter went for 6 yards before the 2 minute warning and then a Chiles keeper to the boundary picked up a first down. Chiles found Marsh for 7 on the next play, his first catch of the day. Marsh was also able to get out of bounds and stop the clock. Chiles faked to Carter and then kept it up the middle for a big 19 yard gain into Illinois territory. Chiles found Marsh again on the next play, who extended his arms to make a nice catch and get it to the 20 yard line. The drive stalled there, however, as Chiles threw behind Marsh and then Marsh dropped an inside screen that looked like it might have had some room. Chiles was pressured on third down and overthrew Lynch-Adams, who would not have picked up the first down even if he had been able to reel it in.
The Spartans settled for a 38 yard Kim field goal to draw a little closer.
21-9 ILLINOIS
Michigan State didn’t use any of their timeouts on the field goal drive and there was still 1:02 until halftime. A short Illinois gain went out of bounds to stop the clock on their first play. Another completion on second down was stopped short of the sticks but MSU didn’t call timeout to preserve time. Illinois threw incomplete on third down and had to punt but there were only 24 seconds left in the half. Michigan State fielded the punt and then decided to take a knee to end the half.
It’s impossible to say if they left some points on the board there but MSU went into halftime with all three of their timeouts, rather than using one on defense to attempt to preserve time for a final first half scoring drive.
21-9 ILLINOIS HALFTIME
Michigan State did what needed to in starting the second half. A nice play action pass to Foster went for 17. On the next series, the Spartans faced a third and 2. They decided to hand off to Lynch-Adams and Illinois looked like they knew exactly what was coming by smothered the play. Near midfield, MSU made the call to go for it rather than punt and the decision paid off. Chiles found Montorie Foster across the middle for the first down. Then Foster was open again and went down the sideline to the Illinois 13. MSU soon faced another fourth and two at the Illinois five and decided to go again. Chiles had some time, surveyed the field and found Nate Carter in the end zone.
21-16 ILLINOIS
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The key play on Illinois’ next drive was a 40 yard Altmeyer to Bryant completion. Altmeyer was hit on the play but was able to heave it to Bryant, who once again got behind MSU’s secondary. The Spartans were able to hold from there and force a field goal attempt. The 37 yard kick was good but MSU was able to stay in the game.
24-16 ILLINOIS
Michigan State went three and out on their next drive, which ended with Chiles running for his life on a third and two. He couldn’t find anyone on the scramble drill and MSU had to punt. The pressure was back on the MSU defense to get a stop and keep the Spartans in the game.
The defense was up to the task, forcing three straight Altmeyer incompletions, with a lot of pressure on the Illinois quarterback on the second and third down plays. The Spartans very nearly had their first sack in five games on the third down play. They didn’t get Altmeyer down but they were able to force a throw away and get off the field.
Michigan State started on their 15 after the Illinois punt. They probably needed to get at least one first down to have a chance at flipping the field and helping the defense. They couldn’t do it though as a third and four back shoulder Chiles to Foster throw went just a little too far to the outside. Foster got one hand on it before it fell incomplete and MSU punted again after another three and out.
Illinois started on their own 45 before the Spartans forced a fourth and five. Illinois kept the offense on the field before the quarter expired.
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24-16 ILLINOIS END OF THIRD QUARTER
After the break, Bret Bielema elected to bring the punt team out to start the fourth quarter and pinned the Spartans back inside their own 20 once again.
The Spartans’ next drive started with a 4 yard sack of Chiles before a Chiles to Brennan Parachek completion picked up only a yard. Chiles found Foster on third down, but the completion was short of the sticks and resulted in fourth and 2. Now, Michigan State kept the offense on the field, even though they were deep in their own territory, before Jonathan Smith opted for a timeout and decided to punt.
After a touchdown drive to open the second half, MSU went for their third three and out in a row. Illinois was called for holding on the punt return but still started on the MSU 49, keeping the pressure on the MSU defense.
To this point, the defense had stood up and got stops in the second half, even with several quick turn arounds and short fields for Illinois. Now, the Spartans held Illinois on the first two plays before finally breaking. Altmeyer found Bryant over the middle for a 32 yard gain on third and long to get to the red zone. Illinois would work it in from there on a 1 yard McCrary leap to extend their lead back to two scores midway through the fourth quarter.
31-16 ILLINOIS
The MSU offense finally showed some life on the next drive with Chiles finding Marsh for 24. Carter caught an 8 yard pass and then ran it for a third and two conversion before Chiles found Marsh for 12 more yards. This got the Spartans inside the Illinois 30 but, even though MSU was moving the ball, there didn’t seem to be much urgency as the clock ticked under 5 minutes.
Unfortunately, it was a comedy of errors from this point forward. Two incompletions and an unsportsmanlike conduct call on Luke Newman, who appeared to take issue with Chiles getting hit by an Illinois player, created a third and 25 situation. Another sack pushed the ball back to midfield and created a fourth and 34. Not many options in the playback for that one and yet another sack gave the ball back to Illinois, again in MSU territory. Ballgame.
Illinois quickly took advantage with a 30 yard McCrary run that put the ball inside MSU’s 10. McCrary would pound it in a few plays later to put the Illini up big.
38-16 ILLINOIS
MSU converted a couple 4th downs on their last drive but couldn’t get a third one and gave it back to Illinois for their victory formation.
38-16 ILLINOIS FINAL
The Spartans have now lost two lopsided games in a row and remain wildly inconsistent, not just from game to game, but within games as well. They come home to face Purdue and Rutgers, needing to win both to get a bowl game. Perhaps we can come back to that next week. For now, let’s hope the basketball and hockey games go a little better than this one.