Monday Michigan State Reading Room: Not the Same Old Spartans

Michigan State successfully pulled off a fake punt in its 35-27 win at Northwestern Saturday.

Like Iowa against Wisconsin a few hours later, the Wildcats should have been a little more alert to the fourth-down trickery.

Wrote Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune in this story:

The team with future doctors in its offensive huddle was fooled by a fake punt it should have seen coming.

Had the Wildcats stopped that fourth-and-11, they would have maintained a 10-point lead with about 13 minutes to play. Instead the Spartans duped them on what coach Mark Dantonio called a "Mouse Trap" and rallied for a stinging 35-27 victory.

Trailing 24-14, eighth-ranked Michigan State (8-0, 4-0) faced fourth-and-6 from the NU 31. The Spartans took a delay-of-game penalty in an apparent attempt to lull the Wildcats to sleep.

(Northwestern Coach Pat) Fitzgerald said he had prepared his players for a fake punt, reminding them holder Aaron Bates had fired a touchdown pass on a fake field goal to beat Notre Dame.

"But did we expect that fake punt?" Fitzgerald said. "No, we'd never seen 'em do it before. Kudos to them."

Bates hit receiver Bennie Fowler on a 21-yard pass for a first-down, and the Spartans scored on the next play. The momentum was Michigan State's.

Joe Rexrode of the Lansing State Journal offered this regarding MSU's depth.

Depth keeps showing itself in Mark Dantonio's fourth season, which has reached 8-0 overall and 4-0 in the Big Ten - with a gigantic game at Iowa next on the schedule. The best MSU start since 1966 and best shot at a league title since the Spartans' last in 1990 continues behind an assortment of timely plays and the arm of junior quarterback Kirk Cousins.

"You want to know how do you go 8-0? You go 8-0 with players that can lead," Dantonio said after coaching from the sideline for the first time since his Sept. 19 heart attack. "You go 8-0 when you build a program and the people in the program, there's a ripple effect, top down, throughout our football program that people believe in what's going on.

"And Kirk Cousins is an unbelievable leader, he does an outstanding job not only on the field but off the field. And you know, players follow him."

Cousins led an 11-play, 88-yard drive for the winning touchdown, a 9-yard pass to B.J. Cunningham with 2:00 left in the game. Cunningham stayed with a tipped pass and clutched it as he hit the turf in front of thousands of MSU fans in the south end zone.

Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press says it's time to stash the SOS (Same Old Spartans).

These eighth-ranked Spartans blend a nice combination of talent, derring-do and stubborn persistence. They needed every ounce against a Northwestern team that resembles so many other underdogs on a typical college football afternoon in October -- committed to playing its "A" game on its turf against a highly ranked, unbeaten team.

The Spartans' impressive 35-27 comeback triumph confirms the evolution of a program that not too long ago hoped for a road victory under such duress, but now knows it can win such games. Three fourth-quarter touchdowns and a defense that made the late stands when pushed hardest unearthed the survival instinct imperative for any team that desires to stay undefeated.

Let there be no doubt now. This is a good team.

Sharp also offered this tribute to Cousins:

"I think that great teams in special seasons find ways to win," Cousins said, "and we found a way. I really don't know how. I'll have to go back and watch the game to figure that out, but I just know that we ended up with more points on the scoreboard when the clock said zero."

This was the first time that the junior quarterback truly looked like the guy some felt at season's beginning might be the best quarterback in the Big Ten.

It's sounding like last year with Iowa, when the Hawkeyes started the season 9-0 with a junior starting quarterback.