8-Sports
8A — Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
“They played their guts out,” said
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh.
“We played winning football, over-
came so much … we messed up that
play at the end.
“(I) told them to have resolve, put
steel in their spines, and we’ll move
forward.”
For much of the game, little went
right for the 12th-ranked Wolver-
ines (2-1 Big Ten, 5-2 overall). Few of
the eight reviews were overturned
in their favor, and they lost one of
their captains, senior linebacker Joe
Bolden, to ejection following a con-
troversial targeting call.
But still, behind strong per-
formances on special teams and
defense, Michigan never trailed and
was about to hold off the Spartans
for a 23-21 win.
That is, until the last play.
In a play that will be remembered
in the state of Michigan for genera-
tions, O’Neill’s frantic fumble was
recovered by safety Jalen Watts-
Jackson with 10 seconds left. A
swarm of Spartans protected the
redshirt freshman as he scrambled
38 yards into the end zone and
Michigan State lore.
Though the game grew more
hectic by the quarter, it began as a
prototypical Big Ten slugfest. Mich-
igan mustered just three plays in the
first quarter and 92 yards in the first
half, but held a 10-7 lead at the break.
The first review of the game
came on senior fullback Sione Hou-
ma’s two-yard touchdown run to
make it 7-0 early in the second quar-
ter. The play stood, but the Wolver-
ines weren’t as lucky on the second
review just minutes later, when
Bolden was ejected from the game
for a controversial targeting call
that Harbaugh later called “hard to
fathom.”
Michigan State scored its first
touchdown just two plays later.
The third quarter saw a more
open playbook for the Wolverines —
the highlight of which came when
redshirt freshman safety Jabrill
Peppers took his first offensive
carry 28 yards to Michigan State’s
3-yard line.
Junior running back De’Veon
Smith appeared to find the end zone
on the next two plays, but both were
called back upon review. Houma
found the end zone again on the
next play, though that play, too, was
reviewed. That time, the call was
not overturned.
The Spartans outgained the Wol-
verines, 386-230, and looked stron-
ger than any team had in the passing
game against Michigan.
Instead, strong special teams
kept Michigan on top. Former walk-
on and senior kicker Kenny Allen
tallied a career-high three field
goals, Peppers compiled 116 return
yards and O’Neill averaged nearly
45 yards on seven punts.
“The guys brought big play to a
big game,” Harbaugh said. “There
were calls that were made, calls
that weren’t made, but the guys kept
fighting.”
But it was O’Neill’s eighth punt —
the one that never was — that will go
down in infamy.
Eventually, after the Spartans
had finished the celebration and
the officials ruled the game over,
the fans that were frozen in the
moment got up. As they filed out
of Michigan Stadium, the stunned
silence lingered in the cool October
air. Any Spartan fans daring enough
to break the silence were treated to
screams to be quiet.
They weren’t the typical shouts
heard at stadiums. They were bro-
ken hearts screaming out of des-
peration, still in denial of the game’s
final play. What began as a typi-
cally loud, rambunctious intra-state
rivalry between two top-15 teams
had become a war zone.
What was supposed to be Michi-
gan State’s demise had become a
miraculous moment. What was
meant to be a Michigan win had
become a loss.
To the stunned fans, it wasn’t fair.
But it didn’t matter.
“We played winning football and
didn’t get the result,” Harbaugh
said. “Welcome to football.”
MICHIGAN
From Page 1A
ALLISON FARRAND/Daily