Spartans Rally From 20-Point Deficit; Win Cotton Bowl
1/1/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
By Steve Grinczel, MSUSpartans.com Online Columnist | @GrinzOnGreen
ARLINGTON, Texas - Call it belief. Call it chemistry. Call it an annual blood transfusion.
Michigan State's otherwise inexplicable 42-41 come-from-behind victory against Baylor in Thursday's Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic left little doubt that head coach Mark Dantonio's program excels in one other area beyond player procurement and development, and it's obviously passed down from year-to-year.
"Coach D talks a lot about chemistry and what kind of players we have on this team," said fifth-year senior defensive end Marcus Rush, whose career came to an end with a school record 53 starts. "We have a lot of guys on this team who have heart, and no one ever gives up.
"We all believe in each other and that's why we've been pulling games out like this."
Has there ever been another team that has come back from double-digit, second-half deficits to win four consecutive bowl games as MSU has?
Even after the Spartans wiped out most of a 20-point, fourth-quarter deficit with two opportunistic touchdowns - one was set up when Baylor kicker Chris Callahan's 46-yard field-goal attempt bounced off the goalpost and the other came on busted play that ended on quarterback Connor Cook's gutsy 10-yard scramble to inside the 1 - hope was all they had going for them.
But then, the Bears lined up for a 43-yard field-goal attempt that if good, would in all probability produce a game-winning nine-point advantage with 65 seconds remaining.
Michigan State's only chance of ending on a positive note depended on blocking the kick - in other words, a longshot. But, it's not like the Spartans, and Rush in particular, hadn't been in such a jam before. On Jan. 2, 2012, Anthony Rashad White blocked a 47-yard field-goal try to secure a 33-30 MSU win over Georgia on the final play of triple overtime in the Outback Bowl.
"I was there," said Rush, who as a red-shirt freshman made his 14th career start against the Bulldogs. "Rashad was my roommate, actually."
So one day shy of four years later, Rush, with the help of fellow defensive end Shilique Calhoun and defensive tackle Lawrence Thomas, batted down Callahan's kick. Safety RJ Williamson scooped up the loose ball and returned it 36 yards along the sideline in front of MSU's bench to the Baylor 45-yard line.
Cook began the drive with an 18-yard pass to wideout Keith Mumphery, which he followed with three incomplete passes with less than a minutes remaining. On fourth-and-10, Cook watched split end Tony Lippett get open against single coverage and then hit him with a 17-yard pass to the 10. Two more incompletions gave MSU third-and-goal to go, but Cook calmly flipped a dart at Mumphery, whose catch on a slant-in provided the winning margin with 17 seconds to play.
The Spartan defense that was reeling throughout the game while giving up 603 passing yards, the most ever by an MSU opponent, had the final say. First, Thomas fought through a hold to sack Bear quarterback Bryce Petty for a 6-yard loss, then Rush and linebacker Riley Bullough trapped Petty 7 more yards behind the line and finally, on third-and-23 from Baylor 12, Petty threw a pass that Bullough intercepted with two seconds to go.
Maybe none of the announced crowd of 71,464 saw MSU's rally coming when it trailed 41-21 with just over 12 minutes remaining.
But, the Spartans did.
After all, their school-record four-bowl win streak that started in the Outback Bowl continued in the 2012 Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl, where they trailed Texas Christian, 13-0, with less than minute remaining in the third quarter. Michigan State scored two unanswered touchdowns and a field goal in the final 16:01 to rescue a 17-16.
And a year ago, after trailing Stanford 17-14 in the third quarter of the Rose Bowl, the Spartans rallied for a 24-20 victory that linebacker Kyler Elsworth sealed with his now-iconic leaping tackle on fourth-and-1.
Add another instance of improvisational playmaking in the clutch to MSU's collection.
Had the Spartans lost, Petty's 18-yard touchdown pass to massive 390-pound Bear lineman LaQuan McGowan for the three-score advantage would have been used to haunt, if not ridicule, them for the entire off-season. Instead, it was McGowan that Rush, Calhoun and Thomas exploited to block the kick.
"It was actually the first time we switched it up," Rush said. "We weren't getting much penetration the way we were doing it the whole game (because) the big guy who scored was extremely big and it was hard to get any push on him.
"We were talking back and forth and Shilique said, `You want to switch?' Literally that second, we switched. And, that was it. Shilique went inside and tucked (McGowan) in and me and L.T. had good penetration into the backfield. I got my hand up in the right place. I felt it hit but I wasn't sure if it went forward or backwards, and thankfully it went backward right into the right hands."
The Spartans measured up to the College Football Playoff's fifth-ranked team in the high-scoring first quarter. Tailback Jeremy Langford opened the scoring with a 2-yard touchdown run set with his 65-yard sprint to the 1-yard line.
Michigan State built a 14-7 lead, but after it came up empty on its third possession of the game, Baylor took control with 24 unanswered points that included 53-yard touchdown on a double-pass that started with a lateral from Petty to Jay Lee, who threw to a wide-open Corey Coleman. Petty also launched a 74-yard scoring pass to KD Cannon.
But with Langford pounding out 162 yards and three touchdowns on 27 carries, and Cook steadying himself after a throwing a costly late interception to finish with 314 yards and two touchdowns on 24-for-42 accuracy, and the defense holding the Bears to minus-20 rushing yards, the Spartans again found a way to win.
"It was just sort of crazy," said Dantonio, uttering what may hold up as the understatement of the season. "I really probably can't put it in words. We just kept pace. We didn't panic. When they made a play, we regrouped and kept trying to play.
"In the end, I just credit our team's belief system. I keep saying over and over that we win because of the chemistry on our football team and chemistry is something that is almost magical at times. It's intangible; I guess is what I'd say. It's a belief in each other, and that's what we have. We don't give up on each other and consequently they don't give up on the game and just keep playing hard."
Even so, other teams with exceptional mental toughness have folded under less dire circumstances. The Spartans were holding on against a current of momentum generated by a quarterback who seemingly could hit any target from any distance on a whim while their own passer struggled with control at times.
"Obviously, I would have like to played a little bit better," Cook said. "You never want to turn the ball over in the red zone like I did two times, but it's really not about how you start, it's how you finish. It sounds so clichéd, but it really is.
"Credit to the defense for coming up so big at the end. Credit to our offensive line who kept me protected the whole game and J-Lang for running his butt off. I never lost belief and never got down on myself or our team. When you get down against a potent offense that's pretty much scoring at will, it didn't look too good, but I never had doubt and I never lost belief.
"It's just a true statement, to never give up."
Michigan State ends the season with a Cotton Bowl Championship, an 11-2 record, 42 victories by the seniors to tie the mark set by the Class of 2013 and a host of "what might have beens."
First and foremost, Baylor felt it had a legitimate claim on being included in the CFP and playing for the National Championship. So in one respect, MSU defeated a team many considered to be the best in country and theoretically can make even a stronger case for being left out of the CFP.
Having just finished one of the greatest games the Spartans have ever played, Dantonio wasn't interest in playing and additional round of, what if?
"Right now, I would not be anyplace, anywhere, more happy than I am right now," he said.
