Angry and frustrated, yet proud and emotional, Michigan State coach John L. Smith took to the podium after his No. 16 Spartans fell 35-24 to No. 15 Ohio State Saturday in Ohio Stadium.
Predictably, Smith was grilled about his team’s most glaring gaffe, a field goal attempt on the final play of the first half that the previously reeling Buckeyes blocked and returned for a touchdown that turned a double-digit Buckeye deficit into a much more manageable 17-14 score.
“It was a mess,” Smith said. “It was a total mess.”
The debacle started with 24 seconds left in the half and MSU up 17-7 and looking for more after a fumbled punt by OSU sophomore receiver Ted Ginn Jr. Coming out of a timeout, Spartan junior quarterback Drew Stanton was stopped for no gain on the play, and with no timeouts left for MSU, the clock started ticking toward zero. Amid mass confusion, the Spartan field goal unit ran onto the field to attempt the kick before the end of the half, but had only ten men lined up and another player racing toward the sideline to get out of bounds before the snap.
Smith said his team practices the “fast field goal” play all the time, but it did not go according to plan this time.
First, during the timeout, the Spartans, who were not in a fourth-down situation, had planned to spike the ball if the play ended with the clock running.
“We knew we were going to go up and spike the ball,” Stanton said. “That’s what the offense established.”
Second, the call for the field goal came from a coach other than Smith, which was not what was supposed to have happened.
“The bottom-line call comes from the head coach,” Smith said. “I’m the one that sends them on and that did not happen.”
Smith did not name which coach called the play, but seemed miffed when discussing the play.
“Why would you send them on the field?” he asked rhetorically, momentarily gritting his teeth.
Third, the Spartans were not supposed to snap the ball unless the correct number of players were on the field. Junior punter Brandon Fields is the holder on the field goal unit and was in charge of the counting.
“The holder’s responsibility is to count and never snap the ball without the proper 11 on the field,” Smith said. “But then again, this is the first time he’s ever done ‘fast field goal,’ so he’s shaken as well. He doesn’t know what to do.”
Finally, Stanton said there was a miscommunication among the offensive linemen that stayed on the field.
“The offensive line on the left thought we were spiking the ball, so they just stood there,” Stanton said. “On the right they knew that we had a field goal on, so that’s why the pressure came so stiff from the left.”
Junior cornerback Ashton Youboty and senior safety Nate Salley came through from the left and easily blocked the kick of junior John Goss. Youboty picked up the loose ball and scampered 72 yards for the momentum-changing score.
Smith placed the blame for the play squarely on his shoulders.
“The bottom line responsibility is mine,” he said.
Later in the game, Goss had a 37-yard attempt blocked by Youboty that would have given MSU a seven point lead. Five plays later, OSU had the lead for good.
It was all part of an up-and-down day on special teams. In addition to those crucial mistakes, the Spartans forced four fumbles, two of which they recovered. One of those was recovered on the 3-yard line by freshman safety Otis Wiley and led to MSU’s first touchdown of the day.
“We had breaks enough to win this game,” Smith said. “We had those opportunities, and it’s just a shame we gave them back.”
The Spartan offense had the same kind of day. The Big Ten’s top offense rolled up 456 total yards and Stanton completed 26-of-36 passes for 340 yards. However, OSU had a school-record 12 sacks, including two crucial sacks on MSU’s drive after the Buckeyes took the lead for good.
“We knew they were going to blitz, and as long as we could block it up they’d have holes in the back end,” Stanton said. “We were able to establish the run a little bit, show them some different things and mix it up.”
MSU’s defense could not escape some errors of their own. Twice on long OSU touchdown passes, Buckeye receivers were able to break tackles to get to the end zone. On Ginn’s third-quarter touchdown, he broke the tackle of sophomore linebacker Kaleb Thornhill, while junior receiver Santonio Holmes escaped the grasp of senior corner Jaren Hayes on his fourth-quarter touchdown.
In addition, the Spartans had a defensive breakdown on Holmes’ first-quarter touchdown that allowed him to sneak between the cornerback and the safety.
“We had a blitz called and not everybody came, so (OSU junior quarterback Troy Smith) had a lot of time,” said senior safety Eric Smith, the safety who came over late on the play. “It’s not really that good of a coverage for the routes they ran.”
With everything that went wrong, John L. Smith placed blame on himself and the coaching staff.
“I think this loss today goes to the coaches,” he said. “I’m proud of our guys – extremely proud. They fought their tails off.”
