close
close

first Drop

Com TW NOw News 2024

    • With the season faltering, Wolverines find a way to finish off Spartans
    news

    With the season faltering, Wolverines find a way to finish off Spartans

    Vaseline Posted on

    Ann Arbor — The Wolverines were in shock, and even though it was still early, it felt like it was getting late. The Spartans were churning and everything was turning: the game, the season, the trajectory of the rivalry.

    But one thing we’ve learned about this annual scrap is that there’s always a counterpunch. Michigan found its footing just in time to avoid disaster and deliver a breaker. Michigan State has risen in his first season under Jonathan Smith and Michigan has regressed since the national championship. But a gap remains, although it is likely to continue to narrow.

    The Wolverines didn’t show much early, but eventually showed poise and discipline. They escaped with a 24-17 victory at Michigan Stadium on Saturday night in a game that confirmed what we suspected about both teams.

    Neither wins the Big Ten this season, but neither backs down. Michigan’s offense remains an ongoing battle – Davis Warren and Alex Orji split time and provided just enough – but the defense can still stand strong when needed. And Michigan State’s move on young quarterback Aidan Chiles has everyone on both sidelines holding their breath.

    No one needed this win more than first-year head coach Sherrone Moore, and he seemed to know it, emptying the offense’s bag of tricks. The eventual winning touchdown came early in the fourth quarter, when Donovan Edwards took a throw from Warren and threw a halfback pass to Colston Loveland for a 23-yard touchdown, creating a 24-10 lead and a frantic finish.

    In some ways, it’s good to get the rivalry back after the blowouts of the past two seasons. However, there were also bad manners, such as the skirmish after UM ran out the clock, when Loveland and MSU defensive end Anthony Jones exchanged words and shoves. Loveland capped it off with a half-hearted headbutt, which brought players from both teams into the middle of the field for more shoving, a little swinging and some angry talk.

    To make sure everyone knew the grudge was back, Loveland repeated the tired insult that stirred the crowd but seemed out of place on this day.

    “Little brother, keep doing little things, you know,” Loveland told the Big Ten Network after the game. “MSU, they’re little brothers. They can do whatever they want. We know it’s going to be exciting, but everything within the boundaries of the game we’ll do well. And after that, if they want to be busy, we’ll do it too .”

    A tight fight

    To be honest, no one was too busy during the game, and only moderately busy afterward. It was physical, but not dirty and not completely sloppy, as feared. Michigan (5-3, 3-2 Big Ten) committed no turnovers and was not assessed a single penalty, while MSU (4-4, 2-3) lost one fumble and was penalized six times. I’m sure the disparity will be duly noted, but the truth is that the Spartans have made the majority of the crucial mistakes.

    It was the first meeting of the rivals in the Big House since the infamous tunnel battle, and this was nothing like it. But the Wolverines’ third straight victory in the rivalry looked more like what we know and expect after their 49-0, 29-7 romp.

    The Spartans are on their way back once they get more consistency from the Chileans. And after a brutal first quarter, the Wolverines showed they can still push through adversity, even if their quarterback situation remains a mystery. Warren returned as the starter after being benched four weeks ago and after Jack Tuttle was injured and struggled.

    Offensive coordinator Kirk Campbell finally found a decent mix of Warren and Orji, who rushed for 64 yards, including two clock-breaking runs at the end. Warren went 13-for-19 for 123 yards and a touchdown and was not sacked.

    “We came back on this decision (on Warren) and we feel really good about it and what he did,” Moore said. “Credit to him, he never backed down at any point. Always the same guy, practiced the same way, same teammate and same person.”

    More: Niyo: Michigan QB Davis Warren gets a chance to finish what he started

    Warren moved the offense at times, and certainly his teammates. As Edwards wrapped up his post-game press conference, he had one plea to the media about Warren: “Y’all better stop dealing with him.”

    He has counted again for the time being, and he has earned it. Although if you polled the 110,849 attendees after the first quarter, they would have been much less positive. The Spartans dominated at the start, taking a 7-0 lead on Nate Carter’s 2-yard touchdown run. When the period ended, MSU had seven first downs and 135 total yards. UM had one first down and 15 yards.

    The Wolverines were flailing but didn’t panic and somehow jumped out to a 9-7 lead at halftime. The Spartans lost their chance for more when Jonathan Kim missed a 25-yard field goal. MSU was eating up the distance, but Smith made the curious decision to punt on fourth down from UM’s 2. A delay penalty pushed the ball back, and then Kim pushed the ball wide.

    Meet the standard

    After Warren started to get comfortable and lofted a 10-yard touchdown pass to Loveland, it was 7-6 with a missed extra point. With 29 seconds left in the half, MSU tried for more and Chiles fumbled when Josaiah Stewart sacked him. That set up Dominic Zvada’s 37-yard field goal and UM never trailed again.

    So, what was said during that second quarter, when the Wolverines looked flat and flattened?

    “I can’t say exactly what I said, if you know what I mean,” Moore said with a smile. “The message was that we’re not executing this game the way we needed to, especially on the offensive line. The precedent that we set with wearing that helmet and wearing that uniform, there’s a standard, and I didn’t feel like we were upholding that standard. I just challenged them to do that.”

    The defense has also been on edge. Despite Carter’s 118 yards rushing and MSU’s 352-265 edge in total yards, the Spartans could not finish. They lost 14 yards on an intentional grounder by Chiles, and with two minutes left, Chiles misfired on fourth-and-5 from UM’s 16.

    It was a game that many thought the Spartans would win, even though they were slight underdogs. They certainly had their chances – a failed onside kick in the third quarter didn’t help – and the sting will linger longer than most.

    “We think we should have won this game, and I think everyone in the locker room knows we probably should have won this game,” Carter said. “Just too many missed opportunities.”

    More: ‘We should have won’: Spartans lament missed opportunities due to rivalry loss

    Smith and Chiles went into the rivalry as outsiders and certainly got a taste of it, right down to the nastiness at the end. Moore said the scuffle was “disappointing” and “unacceptable,” and said he would handle it internally with his team and then No. 1 Oregon would come to town.

    After the tension of the moment subsided, Loveland accepted his level of responsibility.

    “It always gets chippy, I got a little carried away there at the end,” Loveland said. “We were just talking back and forth, doing some pushing and stuff. That’s how the rivalry starts.”

    Considering how things look and how they sound, that’s almost certainly how the rivalry will continue.

    [email protected]

    @bobwojnowski

    Vaseline
    View all posts

    You Might Also Like