From Michigan State’s chaos emerged a miracle play that might have saved Ohio State’s season.
It should have been simple. Out of timeouts, Spartans junior quarterback Drew Stanton planned to spike the ball to stop the clock and set up for a 35-yard field-goal attempt on the final play of the first half.
But Stanton didn’t spike it. He said he heard someone yelling, “Field goal, field goal,” and the “huge miscommunication” left Michigan State scrambling to change personnel.
The scrambling left the Spartans a man short, missing the wing on their left side. The Buckeyes saw the gaffe and linebacker Anthony Schlegel, responsible for the call, announced “Right Max,” sending an extra rusher to that side.
Senior free safety Nate Salley stormed in and blocked John Goss’ kick and junior cornerback Ashton Youboty picked it up and dashed 72 yards for a touchdown despite suffering a painful hip injury two plays before. The 10-point swing sparked the Buckeyes to a 35-24 come-from-behind victory Saturday before 105,122.
“It was huge. It propelled you right through the second half,” senior defensive end Mike Kudla said of the block.
It might have propelled the No. 15 Buckeyes further than that. With road games next at Indiana and Minnesota, OSU (4-2, 2-1) kept alive its hopes of winning its first outright Big Ten title since 1984. Penn State, Wisconsin and Iowa are 3-1 in the conference, Ohio State and Northwestern are 2-1.
No. 16 Michigan State (4-2, 1-2) fell despite holding a huge edge in time of possession (40 minutes 59-seconds to 19:01) and watching the Buckeyes fumble six times, losing four.
Facing the nation’s top-rated passer in Stanton, the Buckeyes were saved by a school-record 12 sacks, two in the Spartans’ final drive. Youboty also blocked a 37-yard field-goal attempt by Goss with 7:10 remaining that would have allowed the Spartans to pad their lead to 27-21.
Ohio State also was saved by Michigan State’s coaching staff and the disaster at the end of the first half. Had Goss made the kick, Michigan State would have led 20-7. Instead, OSU cut the gap to 17-14. After using his last timeout with 24 seconds left, Stanton rushed for no gain. As the Spartans tried to line up, a player ran off late.
Interviewed at halftime on ABC, Michigan State coach John L. Smith said, “I’m very upset. The coach sent him in. That’s a dang coaching mistake.”
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