For Michigan State, it was a one-point defeat at Nebraska, a team that finished 5-7.
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L.J. Scott’s late lunge did more than put the ball across the goal line – it all but certainly put No. 5 Michigan State in the College Football Playoff. The Sooners did not play tough. The 6-foot-4, 218-pound senior will have a few weeks to rest his balky shoulder before Michigan State plays Alabama in the CFB Playoff. A half-dozen Iowa defenders tried to stop Scott, but he wouldn’t be denied.
The Spartans ran 79 plays for 365 yards while the Hawkeyes ran 51 plays for 268 yards.
He explains that the six-week break before the game gives plenty of time for players to get healthy again and for coaches to break down “way too much tape, and these coaches have a habit of doing that”. Cook kept it on an option to the left and got the first down. Take away the 85-yard play and the Spartans allowed just 31 yards. We didn’t have any huge runs the whole game, but you saw the Iowa front seven get more and more exhausted, and that’s what fuels us.
Although Michael Geiger barely missed a pair of 52-yard attempts in the first half, he connected on three in the game. Marshall Koehn’s 24 yard field goal brought the score to 3-3.
That theme resonated throughout the game against the hard-nosed Hawkeyes whose effort matched that of the Spartans every step of the way to another improbable ending.
The loss left the Hawkeyes hurt and, evidently, the person who runs U.S. Senator Joni Ernst’s Twitter account confused.
About midway through the third quarter, when the game was still 6-6, I tweeted the following. MSU’s offense correspondingly sputtered and stalled, with the Spartans unable to finish drives for three quarters. 636 that ranks fifth among all schools that have played 15 or more postseason games. As the quarter came to a close, Iowa only managed to gain three yards. The score marked the longest reception of Smith’s career and the longest play from scrimmage for Iowa this season.
The Cats play great defense and have a shot at program history in the Outback Bowl, where a win over Tennessee would give them the first 11-win season by a Northwestern team ever.
On third-and-eight from midfield, Cook hit Aaron Burbridge for a 16-yard first down. “But close game, we came out on the losing end of it. It’s tough to handle, but you live with it”, Beathard says.
Quarterback Connor Cook led the Spartans (12-1) on a 22-play drive that set up Scott’s 1-yard run on third down.
And on Saturday night, freshman running back LJ Scott took Dantonio’s season mantra literally.
Iowa quarterback C.J. Beathard throws during the first half of the Big Ten championship NCAA college football game against Michigan State, Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015, in Indianapolis. Iowa’s undefeated season was ended in the Big Ten Championship Game loss to Michigan State, while Stanford couldn’t reach the final four despite a win over USC in the Pac-12 Championship Game.
The Associated Press plans to release its final regular-season Top 25 poll before the four-team college football playoffs and the rest of the bowl pairings are announced.
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Defensive end Shilique Calhoun said he spoke with Darqueze Dennard, an All-American cornerback on the 2013 Rose Bowl team that is now with the Cincinnati Bengals of the NFL.
