Mark Dantonio still thinks the Spartans can achieve all of their goals. A rare blemish for a team that’s now lost only four games in its last 36. That’s a cataclysmic drop for their playoff chances. However, they seemed to put it all together on Saturday night. He has always valued the importance of overcoming adversity as an educational tool. If the Spartans remain undefeated, they will be playing in the playoffs…
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“I guess we’re pretty spoiled around here at this point, but that’s a good thing”, Dantonio said. “We’ve won an bad lot of close football games”. “We’ve got the win over MI”. I can talk about it. But there’s more than one play out there where we had the opportunity to win the football game.
The following italicized text, via Rittenberg, is the Big Ten’s explanation of the call that allowed Reilly’s touchdown to stand.
“You’re not going to win all the time”. They had the ball down just outside of the red zone, but with a fourth and one down at the 23 yard line when LJ Scott was tackled in the backfield and ended up losing two yards for the Huskers to take possession.
This game has the makings of a blowout in MI State’s favor. But the Badgers pulled out a last-minute win after the Spartans were flagged for roughing the punter.
Up next for Urban Meyer team is a clash with IL, before the two big showdowns against MI State and MI afterward.
“In the first five minutes of the second half, they really took it to us, and we didn’t respond”, said Sall, who coached much closer to East Lansing when he was at Ferris State for about a decade before coming to Northern two seasons ago.
Here are this week’s Big Ten Power Rankings with a mere three weeks to play in the regular season. It’s Ohio State and nobody else.
Making the most of it, especially when it comes to beating the Buckeyes in the final weekend of November, will be easier said than done. They could not find the angle to show there was no contact at all.
Less than 24 hours later, the still shocked Spartans had their team banquet and tried to process the fact they weren’t headed to the Rose Bowl. When in reality, it has never been more subjective and susceptible to overt biases and hidden agendas than it is right now.
Dantonio didn’t coach scared at Nebraska.
The Spartans (8-0, 4-0) sit No. 7 in the first College Football Playoff rankings. The Huskers got the ball first and Moore had a big catch on a 43 yard reception to get the ball down to the one yard line for Cross to get his first touchdown of the game. But that meant trusting a defense that an injury-riddled secondary has made defenseless.
He smartly didn’t blame the officiating following the game and how the Big Ten handled the game-winning touchdown and whether or not Nebraska receiver Brian Reilly was forced out of bounds before returning into the field of play and catching the winning score. IL threw for 251 yards, Wisconsin threw for 322, Minnesota tossed it around for 301 yards, Northwestern’s anemic passing attack managed 177 and last week, Purdue threw it for 274 yards. Instead, he swallowed hard and singled out the No. 1 culprit – his own coaching lapses. In addition, the Spartans should have running back Madre London back from an injury.
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Contact Drew Sharp: [email protected].
