MSU defense overcame mountain of adversity to beat Illini
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Mel Tucker emphasizes to his players that they can win every game.
Everyone in his profession does the same. Preaching belief is virtually written in the job requirement.
Michigan State football’s matchup — at least on paper — against Illinois on Saturday looked about as bleak as it could get.
A double-digit underdog. Facing the nation’s No. 1 defense with a struggling offense. Going up against the nation’s top running back and an offense that controlled the clock with a defense missing nearly a dozen key contributors to suspensions and injuries.
A recipe for disaster MSU blew right out of Memorial Stadium into the swirling 40 mph winds.
The Spartans contained running back Chase Brown under his average and bottled up the Illini five times on fourth downs, three times in the fourth quarter. Payton Thorne and the offense turned one of those stops and botched Illinois punt into two short-field touchdowns in the third quarter, stunning the No. 13 Illini, 23-15.
Shocking to everyone except the players and Tucker.
“With the guys that went down, we had next-man-up mentality with the guys that came in,” linebacker Aaron Brule said. “We just know we can make plays at any at all levels of the defense. Things don’t always go our way, but we always find a way to just tough it out in the end.”
It felt like a crossroads victory for the Spartans (4-5, 2-4 Big Ten), putting them two wins away from bowl eligibility following a loss at No. 4 Michigan the previous week. After that game, Tucker indefinitely suspended eight defensive players — including star linebacker Jacoby Windmon and two other starters — for their role in a postgame fight in the tunnel to the locker room.
Tucker on Saturday said he does not know when those suspensions might be lifted. It remains unclear how long the police investigation in Ann Arbor will take, as well as when the Big Ten will respond and if the league will add any further punishment.
Brown, who entered the game leading the Football Bowl Subdivision at 151 yards per game, showed his rushing ability on Illinois’ first drive, picking up 31 yards on four plays to get his team to the MSU 9. That’s where the Spartans have been at their best all season, and the defense smothered Brown for no yards on first down and 1 yard on third down before forcing quarterback Tommy DeVito to throw an incompletion on fourth-and-goal from the 2 for its first turnover on downs.
A massive jolt of mojo that carried over for the final 50-plus minutes.
“I think it starts up front. I think that’s where
we’re strong at,” safety Xavier Henderson said. “And so when we get down there, that’s where we lean on those guys to push the line of scrimmage backwards. So I think that’s why we’re so good near the goal line.
“The first one was big-time. They had the momentum early, as soon as the game started, really. And we kind of let them get down there and then stopped them. We talk about points off the board, and we kept them off the board right there.”
Illinois took two plays on the next possession to score on a 60-yard DeVito-to-Isaiah Williams touchdown pass. But Thorne and his unit responded with one of their most timeconsuming possessions of the season, a 72yard, 14-play drive that ate up 6:27 and provided the Spartans with some juice. It stalled at the Illini 3, but Ben Patton’s 22-yard field goal made it 7-3 late in the first quarter.
MSU continued to stymie Brown on the next drive — 4 yards on four attempts — to force a punt, and Thorne hit Jayden Reed for 31 yards to set up a 2-yard touchdown pass to Tre Mosley on third-and-goal. Patton missed the extra point, but the Spartans carried a 9-7 lead into halftime thanks to Henderson forcing Brown to fumble on the next drive. Brule pounced on it.
“Especially with the momentum involved in a football game,” said linebacker Ben VanSumeren, who had 10 tackles. “They say always that the momentum swings back and forth, back and forth. And getting off the field in big situations like that is definitely huge for us.”
The defense got another turnover on downs
on Illinois’ final possession of the half, after Tucker first declined but then opted to take a 15-yard penalty for a block below the waist that pushed the Illini out of field-goal range.
That was the first of a few fortuitous moments the Spartans capitalized upon. Midway through the third quarter, Illinois punter Hugh Robertson booted a ball off the backside of one of his upbacks, setting MSU up at the Illini 29. After Thorne converted a fourth-and-4 throwback to Jalen Berger, Jarek Broussard scored from 11 yards out to extend the lead to 16-7.
Illinois again on fourth-and-1 on its next drive tried to test MSU’s depleted front seven. Again, the Spartans stuffed Brown, with Cal Haladay dropping him for a 3-yard loss. Three plays after that, Thorne hit Reed for a 17-yard touchdown for MSU’s final score.
“It’s a good feeling,” said Thorne, who went 19-for-29 for 182 yards. “We talked about it during the week. I remember my dad telling me there’s a lot of opportunity in adversity. And obviously, it was a pretty adverse situation this week. We definitely had some things happen to us that you wouldn’t normally wish to happen. But we came out here and we played with the guys we have, with the coaches we had, and we played our butts off.”
After Illinois pulled within eight early in the fourth quarter, the Spartans’ defense responded with back-to-back stops, again stopping Brown short on fourth-and-2 deep in MSU territory and then sacking DeVito on consecutive plays to force the turnover on downs on the next.
Illinois finished 1-for-6 on fourth down and 6-for-17 on third down. And despite finishing with 136 yards, the sixth straight running back to top 100 against the Spartans, 14 of Brown’s 33 carries went for 1 yard or fewer.
“I give Scottie and our defensive staff a lot of credit for continuing to work to develop our defensive players and work through our injuries,” Tucker said. “We have a next-man-up mentality. We took our lumps, but we’ve started to play better.”
Needing to make one more stop after a Patton missed field goal with 1:06 to play, with Illinois again nearing a score, Chester Kimbrough forced a fumble that allowed time to expire and give the Spartans reason to exhale and celebrate after an arduous week of scrutiny and doubt.
“It just shows we’re relentless and that we’re resilient through everything that’s been going on,” said linebacker Haladay, the linebacker who had 31⁄2 of MSU’s nine tackles for loss. “The media and everything that’s been going on has just been trying to be a distraction, but the coaches do a good job of making sure that we blocked it out and just focused on Illinois. That’s all we needed to focus on, because that’s what was important.
“I mean, stuff happened, but that wasn’t what we had to worry about. We had this game to worry about and taking care of business.”
csolari@freepress.com