Another game, another loss.

This Saturday, October 14, Michigan State traveled to Piscataway, New Jersey to play the Rutgers. MSU, once again, came in as the underdogs. Throughout this game, MSU played decently until the fourth quarter.

Finally, after five weeks of Noah Kim starting at quarterback for the Spartans, Katin Houser got his first start. The Michigan State offense did a mediocre job throughout the game until the fourth quarter. MSU had a total of 245 yards with 112 of them being on the ground and 133 through the air.

Keeping a theme with the offense, the Spartan defense also was doing pretty well until the fourth quarter. The MSU defense gave up a total of 295 yards with 114 yards coming from the ground and 181 yards midair.

Michigan State was doing well throughout the game, and at one point in the third quarter had a 98.3% chance of winning. I thought that MSU was going to win their first game in a while, until things started going downhill very quickly in the fourth quarter.

Going into the fourth quarter MSU had the lead 24-6. It was 4th down on MSU’s 27-yard line and MSU was out to punt the ball away to Rutgers. The punt was good and went all the way to the Rutgers’ 35-yard line. However, there was an illegal formation penalty against MSU, which made them redo the 4th down and put them back five more yards. Instead of something normal happening, Michigan State punter Michael O’Shaughnessy dropped the snap. The ball got pushed all the way back into the MSU endzone where it was recovered by Aaron Young of Rutgers for a touchdown. After the extra point, the score was now MSU 24, Rutgers 13.

I wasn’t too worried about MSU losing because I knew we would get the ball back, and hopefully take it down the field and score to seal the game away. However, this did not happen. MSU instead went three and out and punted the ball away back to Rutgers. At least that time we didn’t fumble the snap. Rutgers did what they needed to do and had a 12-play 73-yard drive that ended in a touchdown pass by Gavin Wimsatt to Isaiah Washington. Rutgers also then completed a two-point conversion which then put the score at MSU 24, Rutgers 21.

So at this point, everything was going wrong for Michigan State and everything was going right for Rutgers. And to keep that trend, Rutgers kicked the ball somewhat short back to MSU and recovered the kick. Rutgers now had the ball at the MSU 21-yard line with all the momentum they could ever need on their side. That momentum stayed with them as Rutgers scored in one play on a 21-yard touchdown run by Kyle Monangai. Their two-point conversion failed, but Rutgers still had the lead 27-24. Michigan State got the ball back one more time this game but went three and out again and punted the ball back to Rutgers—who proceeded to hold onto the ball the rest of the game.

So in the span of about six minutes and after hearing the horn in SHI Stadium blow what seemed like an infinite number of times, the Spartans blew an 18-point lead over Rutgers. At this point, MSU will be lucky to win even one more game the rest of this season.

The Spartans’ next game will be at home against Michigan, their long-term rivals.