Good Dot Comp article

November 22, 2015

DotComp: The Horseshoe and Man Grenades

Jim Comparoni
SpartanMag.com Publisher

Talk about it in The Underground Bunker
COLUMBUS, Ohio - No one on the sideline seemed nervous when Michael Geiger lined up for that field goal.

I didn't see anyone praying, looking worried, or gnashing teeth as is usually the case when a little un-athletic kicker gets set to determine victory or defeat for 180 alpha onlookers.


A few of Geiger's Spartan teammates huddled together, and got comfortable to watch another thrilling conclusion to TV's best sports reality series, the docudrama known as Spartan Football, 2015.

Geiger was close to perfect as a freshman two years ago. But he had a mediocre 2014, and has had a bumpy 2015.

No matter. No worries.

This is today's Michigan State.

"I don't think we had any doubt," said quarterback Tyler O'Connor.

"I knew he was going to make it," said Shilique Calhoun

They aren't kidding.

"We were just waiting for it to go through," O'Connor said. "When it did, it was like, 'There you go.' That was it."

Many of these Spartans have been in the Rose Bowl, the Cotton Bowl, the Big Ten Championship Game. They have met Oregon, lost, and won the rematch. They've dominated their in-state rival. Sometimes they win comfortably. Sometimes they win via a slow-play choke hold.

Prior to Nov. 14, the Spartans had won eight straight games decided by a touchdown or less. Now they are back to a charmed football life, which suddenly looks like it may end with a championship or two.

The Spartans expect to win. They expect to gain control of the line of scrimmage, even if they had been having more trouble doing that this year than in past championship seasons - up until Saturday. And they expect to make the necessary ball plays at the end. That's why Geiger and his teammates were comfortable as he lined up to strike that kick.

This win marked 36 wins in 40 games for the Spartans since late November of 2012. They haven't dominated the line of scrimmage in most games this year, as they expected to, for various reasons, including injury problems. But they have been making progress toward that end for weeks, although most of us didn't see it coming


This win, and the way the Spartans won, with a sudden return to dominance in the trenches against college football's biggest bully, sends the Spartans to a 10-1 record heading into next week's Senior Day game with Penn State. If Michigan State beats Penn State, the Spartans will advance to its third Big Ten Championship Game in five years, snuff the Buckeyes and Wolverines out of the conference title hunt, and force their fans to find something else to fight about on ferries to Put-in-Bay next summer.

The Spartans spent most of this fall trying to chase excellence on the o-line and on defense, but failed to harness it. But on this cold, rainy evening at Ohio State, they mastered both and thereby regained the look of a champion.

Part of being a champion is having the onions to function at winning time. If the game is close, and you're playing the Spartans, chances are that your team is the one that is most likely to blow up and disintegrate or have some sort of puntastrophe - not Michigan State. This time, a Geiger kick from 41-yards was the grenade that finished Saturday's demolition of Ohio State, 17-14. The kick all but destroyed Ohio State's hopes of winning the Big Ten East and defending its National Championship.

At The Horseshoe, known as Ohio Stadium, before a crowd of 108,975, the largest to ever watch a sporting event in the state of Ohio, Geiger's Spartan teammates executed with power and precision.

The offensive line clicked with a level of fundamental soundness that the group has been pursuing all year.

The defensive line won the majority of its battles, reestablished the line of scrimmage, and reduced heretofore Heisman candidate Ezekiel Elliott to words of defection.

Michigan State's once-leaky secondary continues to improve. The Buckeyes didn't challenge MSU via the air often, but when they did, the Spartans rarely allowed separation.

MSU's defensive backs were good in run support, especially Montae Nicholson on a tone-setting open-field tackle on third-and-two to stuff Ohio State's second series of the game. Nicholson had been a poor tackler for most of September. He began to improve two weeks ago in the loss at Nebraska. He became even better last week while regaining his starting job. And then in this game, in a championship-elimination type of situation, Nicholson - like like Geiger, like the o-line and d-line - found something close to his A-game when legacies were on the line.

And that's what the Spartans expect of themselves. That's why they weren't nervous when Geiger lined up for that field goal.

"I talked to him earlier in the game," Calhoun said. "I said, 'Make the rest of them.'"

It's unclear whether this was a threat or encouragement.

That was after Geiger missed a 43-yarder in the first half.

"I knew he was going to get another opportunity," Calhoun said.

Served On The Rocks

Ohio State coach Urban Meyer called a time out to try to ice Geiger in the final seconds. He called it late enough that MSU's snapper, holder and kicker had a chance to attempt a kick after the whistle, giving those three a practice run of sorts. Geiger made that field goal, but it didn't count.

"When that kick went through the first time, I was like, 'Yeah, there's nothing that can stop it now,'" Calhoun said. "You just gave him an aiming point."

"If anything, it's such an advantage and just gives you more time to think about it, not to mention I got to swing and hit one through," Geiger said. "Just seeing the ball go through even with the tough conditions, pouring rain, was a major confidence booster."

Well, actually the rain had stopped about an hour earlier. That's how focused he was. He didn't notice.

"I've rehearsed that kick countless, countless times," Geiger said.

He had made that kick in practice, and in summer workouts, and in past springs, and the winter, and throughout his childhood.

Geiger grew up in Toledo, a town torn between Michigan maize-and-blue and OSU scarlet-and-gray, the son of a pair of Michigan graduates.

He would tee up the ball in his back yard, with the voice of a make-believe announcer narrating in his head: "This is the kick to beat Ohio State. This is the kick to beat Ohio State." Then he would put his foot into the ball.

He'd rehearsed it so many times, in his backyard in Toledo. The opponent about to go down in his fairy tale mind was always the same.

"Always Ohio State," he said.

Yeah, but was he make-believe kicking for Michigan?

"No sir," he said with a rosy-cheek smile.

Don't believe him? He doesn't care. They don't care. No one believes in them. And that's the way they like it.

"I think we make a lot of people look foolish," said senior center Jack Allen. "You look on TV and I think we were supposed to get blown out today. But (shoulder shrug) I think it's good to look back on that and the people that said that."

They're 36-4 in their last 40 games. They finished in the Top 5 in each of the last two seasons and they are likely to be in the Top 5 on Tuesday when the College Football Playoff Selection Committee announces its new rankings.

And we in the media were all stupid enough to give them little to no chance of winning this game. Fans, insiders and outsiders all quit on the Spartans.

"We sat around all day and listened to how we were under dogs," Mark Dantonio said. "That motivates people. This was the first game this season we could take on the role of underdogs, and we were hunting. We came in with something to prove. Usually when you have that, you have a chip on your shoulder maybe and you a play a little better."

Ohio State probably believed the hype too. Then they learned at game time that Connor Cook would sit out due to a shoulder injury.

Now the Spartans seriously had no chance, right?

Wrong. Cook's absence merely gave the Spartans a chance to bring a new name to the forefront of this docudrama.

When Your Team Needs You

Coaches informedTyler O'Connor at about 10 o'clock on Friday night that he most likely would get the start, the first of his career.

Nervous as hell, at The Horseshoe? O'Connor should have been. But he said he slept great. He dozed off before the lights-out check. He woke up eager to get to The Horseshoe, maybe even surprised by how positive he felt.

He grew up in Lima, Ohio - about two hours north of here - in a town full of sports fans who revere the Buckeyes and hail Ohio Stadium as football holy ground. He had been here a few times as a spectator, and once as a high school all-star, winning the MVP of the Ohio North-South Game, whirling and finding open receivers on that day with various stickers all over his helmet, a few thousand in the stands, and not much to lose, but plenty of fun to be had.

This time, there was everything to lose. Michigan State had undisputedly been among the two best teams in the Big Ten and five best programs in America over the last 40 games. But that status was in jeopardy on Saturday. Lose this game, and Michigan State could slide as far as third in the Big Ten East standings by the end of the season.

None of that seemed to be on anyone's mind as Geiger got set for the 41-yarder, with stadium flags whipping violently in various directions, and thousands of background Buckeye fans waving their lit cellphones in circular motion, trying to knock Geiger off his rehearsed vision.

Know this about Geiger: He is small, but he is not scrawny. He is athletic. He is a football player. He just happens to look like most of the rest of us.

Just because he's a good little kicker, don't assume he's like Hans Nielsen, Morten Andersen or one of these Australian punters who joined a college program with only a vague understanding of the game and its rivalries. Geiger has known the game his whole life.

He was a starting wide receiver and safety for his high school team at Toledo Ottawa Hills.

He has worn the pads and delivered more hits than most of us who watch from the stands and press box. He is a FOOT BALL PLAYER.

He just happens to be 5-foot-8. He looks slow when he's on a college football field running around with scholarship speedsters. But he's way faster than the rest of us, athletic enough to have been a two-time all-state high school soccer player.

Like the rest of us, he grew up playing football, loved football, and thrived in a football town. He knows football.

But at 5-foot-8 Geiger was not athletically gifted enough to realistically entertain the idea of playing receiver or safety at the college level - except for this other talent he had - kicking the football.

"I'm pretty much just a glorified soccer player," he told reporters after this game.

But don't believe him. He can run routes, catch passes and tackle better than the rest of us - but not well enough to do it for scholarship money at a program like Michigan State.

"I'd say I'm a football player," he told me in August. "But kicking is what got me here on this great team."

He spends Saturdays watching his favorite team play football, just like you. He just does it while wearing pads and a uniform and a great standing-room-only location. And once in a while he goes on the field and kicks the ball. Then he returns to the sideline and watches some more football.

A glorified soccer player? Not hardly. Soccer players fake injuries. Last year, Geiger faked good health.

He sustained a torn hip labrum at some point during the 2014 season. It hurt, but he didn't tell anyone. Then it started hurting worse, so he let the trainers work with it. But he never asked to sit out.

He kept kicking, and his accuracy suffered. Then a post-season MRI revealed the tear. He had surgery and sat out the spring. He expected to have an improved swing this season, but he was a mediocre 8-of-13 on field goals prior to the game-winner on Saturday.


Didn't matter. Not when the game was on the line. Not when Michigan State needed it. Not when he was about to attempt a field goal that he would remember for the rest of his life, one way or another.

"I kept telling myself this whole year, and everybody would tell me, 'Hey, this (Ohio State) game will be close. You'll have a chance to win that game,'" Geiger said. "I kept telling myself this whole year, you're going to be there when your team needs you.'"

He wanted it. He didn't hide from it. He's a football player.

"My teammates really put me in position," he said. "I was just doing my job and that's kind of the beauty of being a kicker. For me it was just going out there and doing something you've rehearsed for a long time."

Dantonio believed in him, just as he believed in Geiger during the final minutes at Michigan on Oct. 17 when he asked Geiger how close the offense needed to be in order for him to trot out there and beat the Wolverines. But a sack and three incompletions tabled Geiger's first chance at a game-winning field goal for a few more weeks. He had to stand, watch, yell, run and celebrate the Rangers during the docudrama's episode on that night.

But this time at The Horseshoe, in his home state, Geiger had his turn.

Dantonio checked in with him before the moment.

"When I talked to him, it was extremely positive," Dantonio said. "The snapper, the holder, and him - they were all extremely positive.

"I just told him, 'Hey you got it. Believe and be still, and take your time and kick it through,'" Dantonio said. "And he did."

Of course he did.

"Once I hit it, I knew it was a flush hit," Geiger said. "I looked up, saw it was flying straight and to be honest I don't know if I saw it going through the uprights because I figured it was going in and I was ready to celebrate."

He sprinted down the field, with his left arm pointed straight, his left hand balled in a fist, and his right arm windmilling like a third base coach. He ran and whirled and ran and whirled. Teammates tried to catch him but they couldn't, because, like I said, he's not such a bad athlete when he gets a head start.

Trevon Pendleon, another unlikely Ohio hero on this day thanks to his 12-yard TD catch in the second quarter, chased him and started whirling his arm to imitate the new hero.

They finally caught him in the south end zone, and they hugged him and patted him and squeezed him and punched him and hugged him.

"It was just an unbelievable feeling," he said. "Ohio State did not offer me (a scholarship) and it's personal."

After a blur of smiles and yells and celebrations with fans and cheerleaders and band members, and a rendition of the fight song, he skipped and dashed to the locker room for more hugs and hits and slaps. Then they prayed. Then they danced, and there were more hugs and slaps. Then someone put a headset on him and he dropped an f-bomb during post-game interviews for the Spartan Radio Network.

And why not? He earned the right to do that. Eff the FCC. This is football dammit, not soccer.

Then they whisked him to a room full of reporters and sat him down in front of cameras and recorders. He watched his language this time. And when he was asked about the kick, arguably one of the top three field goals in school history, one of the biggest in Big Ten history, and the biggest kick of the college football season so far, this guy didn't want to talk about kicking. He wanted to talk about football.

"Let me say something first," Geiger began. "If you have any doubts that we didn't outplay that team, then I don't know what game you were watching."

He wanted to make it clear that Michigan State was the better football team, and felt it shouldn't have come down to a kick. Any football guy could see that. And he's a football guy.

But since it did come down to a kick, then he might as well be the guy to end it, like he had rehearsed it, "This is the kick to beat Ohio State." A sideline full of teammates knew he would do it. And a stadium full of Buckeye fans feared the worst from Michigan State. Again.

This is the fourth time in 41 years an unbeaten Ohio State team has been in prime position for a shot at a National Championship, only to lose to Michigan State in the last month of the season. It happened in 1974, 1998, 2013 and now in 2015. Mr. Mark Dantonio has had a hand in three of those.

But Dantonio knew it couldn't get done this time without sharp, stunning improvement in the trenches.

'It Starts Up Front'

Allen and Calhoun will look back on this game and remember Dantonio coming into the team meeting room on Monday morning and opening things with a simple statement.

"The first thing Coach D said was, 'It starts up front,'" Calhoun said.

Michigan State's defensive line withstood Ohio State's relentless, physical double teams on Saturday. MSU didn't win every battle. There were times when Joel Heath and Malik McDowell were swept a yard or two downfield by double-team blocks, which are the foundation of Ohio State's lethal running attack. But MSU's guys won way more than they lost.


If Ohio State's double-team blocks gain movement, then one of the double-teamers can release out to the linebacker level, cut off pursuit, and spring Elliott or quarterback JT Barrett into the secondary. They ordinarily get this done dozens of times per gain, en route to a few hundred yards rushing.

Ohio State's offensive linemen are highly-accomplished. Four of them are returning starters from last year's team that rushed for 281 yards against Alabama in the Sugar Bowl Semifinal.

In the last four games, Ohio State had rushed for 283 yards vs. Illinois, 189 vs. Minnesota (without Barrett), 281 vs. Rutgers and 315 against a Penn State defensive front loaded with NFL prospects.

"We put it on our shoulders," Calhoun said.

Michigan State's defensive front was tremendous during the Oct. 17 victory at Michigan, albeit against a good (not great) offensive line and functional (not outstanding) running backs.

But the MSU d-line, with help from aggressive linebackers, had shown it could dominate quality blockers, when the Spartans were fully charged.

The Spartan defensive front was soft in the loss to Nebraska. Various Spartans left Lincoln knowing they hadn't given their all in that game. That can happen during the course of a 12-game season. If it occurs when an opponent happens to be aiming for you with committed, united, evil intentions, that's when college football happens.

Calhoun broke down in tears while addressing teammates in the locker room following that game, saying that loss is what the team needed, to hit rock bottom and regain a level of hunger and desperation. A college football nation forgot about Michigan State, dismissed the Spartans as a November pretender, doomed to be swept away during its trip to The Horseshoe. We all came down with football amnesia. We forgot Michigan State had the individual talent on the defensive line to screw up anyone's offense. They just needed to become committed, united with evil intentions, and allow college football to happen for themselves.

"We truly believed," Calhoun said. "We knew if we play gap-sound, strong in our gaps, it would make it harder for the running back to find lanes.

"As a defensive line we know their double-teams were going to be strong, their tackles were going to be aggressive and we just needed to stand our ground and really make a statement in this game."


MSU stuffed Ohio State's opening play for a loss of one, with McDowell bashing Ohio State's center three yards into the backfield. Calhoun was left unblocked on the play. OSU was optioning him, making him declare one way or another, and then sending the ball the other way. Whichever way Calhoun selected, it was the QB's job to make Calhoun wrong.

But Calhoun smartly slow-played his gap, stringing out the option, rather than falling forward at the snap and getting influenced out of position, as often happens to play-side defensive ends when facing Ohio State's zone read tactics. Calhoun was disciplined on this play, well-schooled, committed. His height and quickness enable him to do it better than most, if he has properly anticipated it.

McDowell's power and Calhoun's discipline, resulting in a loss of one, sent a message that MSU's defense was far different than any the Buckeyes had seen this season.

On second down, MSU threw a new wrinkle at Ohio State. The Spartans showed an "under" defensive front, with the three-technique defensive tackle on the weak side rather than the strong side. This might not seem like a drastic change, but it's enough to alter the angles Ohio State expected in their opening script of plays, and it was enough to cause the Buckeye center to take an extra beat of time to read the defensive front for the rest of the first quarter. This slowed down OSU's uptempo offense just a tad. Meanwhile, a rhythm was being set. MSU was setting a tone, offering change-ups, playing with smart physicality. They were dictating.

When asked what the chief difference was between this year's defensive dominance and last year's loss, Calhoun said: "Our discipline. We understood their offense a lot more and understood where our help was. Everyone wanted to do their job. It wasn't like someone trying to do someone else's job. Don't try to do too much. Try to be an over-achiever and do your job at the same time."

Michigan State went back to its base "over" alignment on the next possession. MSU went back to the "under" alignment for the first play of Ohio State's third drive, just to keep Ohio State off-balance.

MSU went back to an "under" alignment for the rest of the day, as it has done for 99 percent of its snaps under Dantonio since 2007. But the Buckeyes were probably surprised by MSU's audacity. When mixed with MSU's rejuvenated physicality, Ohio State was in for its worst offensive performance of the Urban Meyer era.

"Last year there is no question that they won up front and that's why they won the football game," Dantonio said. "No question we had to win up front."

Even during Ohio State's short-field TD drive, caused by a sack and fumble, Michigan State stood strong at the goal line. Craig Evans submarined on third-and-goal at the 1-yard line and helped stuff an inside run. Ohio State blasted in on fourth-and-goal at the 1, but Michigan State had made it clear that gaining inches on the line of scrimmage against this defensive front was going to be a brutal chore.

Michigan State answered with a 75-yard TD drive to tie the game at 7-7.

Ohio State's next possession began with second-string DT Damon Knox standing firm against a double-team, allowing teammates to stop an inside run for no gain.

Knox started for Michigan State as a sophomore in 2013. He battled injuries last year and had trouble earning an extended role in the rotation. Knox has been functional but not outstanding in 2015. But he was excellent against Ohio State, on the handful of plays he was in the game. He made a difference. Ohio State didn't have a second-string defensive tackle near Knox's caliber.

"The defense played lights-out, by far their best game," O'Connor said. "I think they showed the entire nation what they're all about. That's Spartan defense right there."

Michigan State held Ohio State to 86 yards rushing and 132 yards of total offense.

"We thrive on stopping the run at Michigan State," Calhoun said. "Spartan Dawgs through and through, that's our motto, stop the run, be aggressive, all green helmets to the ball. When they became one-dimensional, the game became a lot easier."

Mother Nature lined up as a defensive presence for the Spartans. She sent the rainy edge of Winter Storm Bella onto the field as an extra player in pass defense. Most experts assumed that a windy, rainy day would hurt Michigan State more than Ohio State, because the Spartans were the team with the better passing attack, the team that relied most upon the aerial game.

But that's only when Connor Cook is healthy.

Take Cook out of the equation, and put O'Connor and Damion Terry onto the field as replacement quarterbacks, add MSU's surprise ability to stifle the run, and the elements stunningly began working in the Spartans' favor.

"We like that nasty weather," Calhoun said. "We don't have the best equipment, we don't have the best players but we know we're going to go out and work hard. Those are the type of situations we strive in, the type of situations where it looks like it's not going to go well for us. That's when we hold our head high."

Dantonio was pulling levers of psychological warfare. Somehow he convinced his players to believe that cold, miserable conditions were a plus.

"When we came out at halftime, our whole team was jumping around in the rain and a lot of them were huddled up by the heaters," Allen said.

Buckeye o-linemen thrive on controlling defensive linemen with double teams and then sending one of the double-team blockers out to the linebacker level to cut off pursuit. MSU beat this in a way that OSU linemen haven't seen in more than two seasons. Not only did MSU's defensive tackles stand up to those double teams better than Buckeye blockers are accustomed to seeing, Spartan linebackers came forward on run blitzes. Riley Bullough and Jon Reschke didn't hang back at the linebacker level, waiting to get combo blocked. They were often assigned to charge downhill into their gaps and negated the effect of those double-teams.

This left MSU susceptible to giving up plays on the outside because MSU's linebackers were sacrificing the ability to run sideline-to-sideline in order to try to stop Ohio State's foundational inside plays. But OSU was never able to mount successful counter attacks to the perimeter.

After punting on three of OSU's first four possessions (including a pair of three-and-outs), Ohio State tried to adjust on the first play of its fifth possession with a bubble screen to the outside. But OSU's receiver dropped the pass.

On second down, McDowell slanted inside and busted up a shovel pass, holding it to a gain of 1.

Then Demetrious Cox made a sure tackle to stop an option keeper on third down, forcing OSU's third three-and-out.

"Another one of our focal points was just tackling," Calhoun said. "The first tackle should be the only tackle. Don't allow them to break our tackles."

Michigan State's safeties supported the run with quick pursuit, proper angles and good tackling. That's what MSU safeties have done for years under Dantonio. But this staple was missing through much of September and October. Now, Cox and Nicholson are becoming assets in run defense.

Cox has always been solid in this area, despite being asked to jump back and forth from corner to safety. Now that he had a chance to spend a full game at safety with his new full-time safety partner, Nicholson, their communication and same-pageness was excellent.

Ohio State tried to go deep on the first play of its next possession. Wide receiver Braxton Miller beat Cox deep. But Barrett was hurried on his delivery by a hard-charging Reschke, who came forward on a cross-key blitz. Barrett overthrew Miller. The Buckeyes didn't know it, but that was one of the last good chances they would have for a big play on offense.

Two plays later, on third-and-five, receiver Chris Samuel took his route beneath first-down yardage. Barrett connected with him, but Darien Harris easily forced him out, short of the sticks. Buckeye receivers misjudged first-down yardage more than once on this day, playing less than intelligently.

Michigan State is the first Top 25 team the Buckeyes faced this year. The Buckeyes seemed rusty at the art of battling for hidden yards, extra yards, crucial yards. They had skated through the first 10 games without much urgency. They played around with a couple of opponents and got caught in some close games, but they never really faced athletic, physical tests down-in and down-out like they were seeing from the Spartans. OSU's competitiveness seemed to have grown dull.

Six-teen of OSU's 28 snaps in the first half went for three yards or fewer.


The Buckeyes tried to regain order with another of their basic inside zone plays on the first snap of the second half. Heath gave up a yard of movement to a double team, but d-end Lawrence Thomas beat the tight end while crashing inside. Meanwhile, Reschke zipped downhill into his gap once again and stuffed Elliott for a gain of 1.

The Buckeyes went three-and-out again.

"There weren't a lot of places to go," Dantonio said.

Ohio State's next possession ended on Barrett zone read keeper when Knox got off a block and stuffed the quarterback on third-and-three. Knox had arrived. And so had this defense. And they might be here for the duration.

"No, this is not the best performance of the season for us," Calhoun said. "We still have a lot to come."

Ohio State scored on a 6-yard TD drive after MSU's Macgarrett Kings fumbled a punt. But that would be all for the Buckeyes. Their scoring drives went for 32 and 6 yards. Were it not for the two turnovers, Ohio State might have lost this game 21-0. The Buckeyes had only five first downs.

"We did a good job of holding their run game," Calhoun said. "But there are still corrections to be made and we'll get in the film room and concentrate on that for the rest of the season."

Dominating the trenches on defense was only half of the equation. MSU's run game needed resurfacing, too.

Pound Green Pound

Michigan State's offensive line was supposed to be one of the best in the country this year. But injuries caused the Spartans to start six different o-line combinations in the first eight games. They struggled to gain cohesion.

The starters returned to the lineup after the bye week. Those of us expecting an immediate turn-around at Nebraska were mistaken. The o-line was a disappointment that night in Lincoln. They vowed improvement last week against Maryland, but the run game remained spotty against the Terps. However, MSU opened the second half of that game with a meat-grinding, 11-snap TD drive with every play a running play.

MSU netted 141 yards rushing against Maryland, including about 170 in gains. That wasn't great, but it was progress. Maryland was No. 3 in the Big Ten in yards allowed per rush attempt in conference games. The Spartans likely could have exploded for more than 200 yards rushing that day if MSU coaches hadn't instead elected to task O'Connor and Terry with some late-game pass attempts to aid their development.

Michigan State's offensive line and ground game gained strength, although it was difficult to recognize at the time.

However, the Buckeyes received full-frontal exposure to a rejuvenated Spartan ground attack that might be quietly emerging as one of the most important national trends of the college football season. The Spartans punched Ohio State for 203 yards rushing, with Gerald Holmes and L.J. Scott landing blows in impressive fashion.

"We felt that we could do this all year long," said Allen, who missed two games at mid-season with an ankle injury. "We have gone through some adversity up front but I think this week we truly gelled as an offensive front and as an offense."

The game's turning point might have been Scott's 20-yard burst on first-and-10 from the 4-yard line with 8:43 to play. That gainer, thanks to a seal by right guard Donavon Clark, began flipping field position for the rest of the game.

On the next snap, left tackle Jack Conklin got out to the middle linebacker on a power to his side for a gain of 5.

Then Scott crashed for 6 more yards on an inside zone.

An OSU blitz held an inside zone to a gain of 2.

Then OSU finally inverted to an eight-man front. MSU had the right play call with a pass choice on that second-and-eight, but O'Connor found no one open and had to get rid of it.

An OSU off-side penalty created third-and-three. MSU opted for a double-slant pass play, which fell incomplete. MSU had to punt. MSU coaches might have second-guessed themselves all off-season about not going for a run play in that situation if the Buckeyes had been able to do anything with the ball in the final 5:49.

But the Buckeyes went three-and-out again. Here's how:

MSU's improving secondary held firm on first-and-10. OSU threw deep to its top WR, Michael Thomas. MSU cornerback Arjen Colquhoun, who has been consistently terrific over the past eight games, cut him off and the pass fell incomplete.

Then Reschke fast-flowed to his gap to stuff a QB keeper on second down.

On third down Cox and Harris tackled Miller short of first-down yardage on a screen. MSU's D was done for the day, capping what could go down in history as one of the best defensive performances in Big Ten history, depending on what the Spartans due to capitalize on this win.

MSU received a punt at the Ohio State 48-yard line. McDowell bumped the punter, but the Big Ten's best officiating crew noted that McDowell got a piece of the punt, which made the bump legal.

"When we got the ball back with four and half minutes left, we knew we were going to have the ball for the rest of the game," O'Connor said. "Our offensive line dominated."

"Pound green pound," Cook said.

Dantonio opted for Scott rather than Holmes at running back.

"I felt like he had a hot series coming off the goal line," Dantonio said.

But OSU held him to a gain of 2 on a power to the right.

Then O'Connor might have subtly made one of the best play calls of the game and the season. He came to the line and saw Ohio State playing off of Aarron Burbridge. O'Connor made an audible signal, then fired a quick hitch to Burbridge for a gain of 7.

That set up a third-and-one sneak, which the Spartans easily converted.

Then Scott hit an inside zone for 7 yards to the 30.

"It was a time when the offensive line said we need to get it down to the other of the field and try to win this game," Allen said. "I think we just put a bigger chip on the shoulder, put our hand in the dirt and grinded it out."

Then, on third-and-two at the 29, the biggest play of the game to that point, Scott veered to his right on an inside zone. Tight end Paul Lang blocked down (inward) and swept All-America DE Joey Bosa with him.

Right tackle Kodi Kieler followed, as designed, with the same inward track. However, OSU LB Joshua Perry jump-scraped to the outside. Kieler was not at a good angle to get a hat on Perry. Perry arrived unblocked on the edge and hit Scott at the line of scrimmage.

But Scott turned and dragged Perry over first-down yardage with determined, Ohio-born leg drive.

Two more Scott runs netted 4 yards, and then it was Geiger time.

The o-line didn't provide a finishing TKO, but they landed a late flurry that set up the game-winner.

"I don't know how many offensive lines in the country have gone through the adversity that we have, and to still come out where we're at, that's something very positive about this offensive line and this whole team," Allen said.

Is any of this starting to look familiar?

Around this time last year, Ohio State's offensive line suddenly caught fire in spearheading the Buckeyes' run to the National Championship. No one will expect or predict that Michigan State's offensive line could do the same thing this year. And that's exactly the way Allen and company want it.

"We just need to keep pushing on and continue to do what we're doing and keep believing what we thought we could do all year," Allen said. "I think we've been waiting for this time, for everybody to get a little healthier and gel and I think we did."

If Allen and Calhoun are right - that the offensive line and the defense still have room for improvement - and the secondary truly is becoming solvent in stopping the run, then what's the rest of the outfit going to look like when Cook comes back to good health? If Cook and the receivers play like the 300-yards-a-day juggernaut that we saw at mid-season, and gets mixed with this renaissance in trench warfare, then MSU could truly only be a functional defensive backfield away from hanging and banging with pretty much anyone.

But don't bother Dantonio with that stuff right now.

"We cannot lose sight that we have to win next week," Dantonio said. "If we win next week, we control our own destiny."

A destiny to win the whole damn thing? The Spartans are in position to make a run at it, and they suddenly look a lot more equipped to finish the job than at any point all season.

How was the game, Ty? Glad you made it out safely...unless this is a situation where a relative is posting in your absence (like OTPT and Ass Dan).

Turtleneck wrote:How was the game, Ty? Glad you made it out safely...unless this is a situation where a relative is posting in your absence (like OTPT and Ass Dan).

Don't taunt me, Regional Partner.

8 straight decided by a td or less? So the IU, CMU and AirForce games don't count or something?