EAST LANSING — Nursing a 
three-point lead midway through the 
fourth quarter, Michigan coach Jim 
Harbaugh went with the freshman. 
J.J. McCarthy — the former 
five-star backup quarterback — 
trotted onto the field. Throughout 
the game, McCarthy came in for 
specialized packages within the 
Wolverines’ offense, including a 
number of successful read options 
and a touchdown pass to freshman 
receiver Andrel Anthony. The 
starter — junior Cade McNamara, 
who finished the game 28-of-44 
for 383 passing yards and two 
touchdowns — was “working 
through something,” according to 
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh. 
Even so, McCarthy’s last touch 
had ended with a fumble that, 
mercifully for Michigan, went out of 
bounds. 
This one didn’t. 
McCarthy bobbled the exchange 
with 
sophomore 
running 
back 
Blake Corum. Almost as soon as the 
ball hit the ground, Michigan State 

defensive end Jacub Panasiuk fell on 
it. Six plays later, the Spartans scored 
the go-ahead touchdown. 
That turnover and score would 
prove to be decisive, as No. 6 
Michigan (7-1 overall, 4-1 Big Ten) 
fell to No. 8 Michigan State (8-0, 
5-0), 37-33. In every moment where 
the Wolverines — who led by as 
many as 16 points in the second half 
— looked as if they could seal the 
game, mishaps arose that ultimately 
doomed yet another opportunity 
for Harbaugh’s program to pick up a 
signature win over a rival. 
“Sometimes, we shot ourselves 
in the foot and couldn’t punch 
it in,” sixth-year center Andrew 
Vastardis said. “That hurt, first in 
the grand scheme of the game, but 
(it’s) something we have to grow 
from. Something to be better at.”
Crucially, many of those errors 
came in the red zone. On the 
second drive of the game, with an 
opportunity to jump to a 14-point 
lead, an end around to the Spartans’ 
five-yard line by junior receiver 
Cornelius Johnson seemed to put 
Michigan in prime position to score. 
But the run was called back due to a 
holding penalty on Anthony, and the 

Wolverines settled for a field goal. 
Senior kicker Jake Moody, for his 
part, was a perfect 4-for-4 on the 
day, but the short distances on those 
field goals — 26, 38, 35 and 36 yards 
— illustrate just how ineffective 
Michigan was in Michigan State 
territory. 
Those woes continued well into 
the second half. Tied at 30 early in 
the fourth quarter, the Wolverines 
began to assemble a promising drive 
— including a 43-yard pass from 
McNamara to junior receiver Mike 
Sainristil — that set them up with a 
1st-and-10 from the Spartans’ 20. 
But once again, the drive stalled. 
After McCarthy’s fumble out of 
bounds and a short McNamara 
scramble brought out 3rd-and-8, 
Michigan elected to take a shot at 
the endzone, which ultimately fell 
incomplete. 
In a top 10 rivalry matchup, the 
Wolverines needed touchdowns. 
Instead, they were getting field goals. 
“We just came up short, and that’s 
on me,” McNamara said. “I didn’t 
execute good enough for us to win 
this game.”
And while the defense had 
been there to pick up the slumping 

offense earlier in the season, it 
struggled to pick up key stops on 
Saturday. Michigan State running 
back Kenneth Walker III — likely 
a Heisman frontrunner — bounced 
into space and slipped through 
tackles with ease. He scored all 
five of the Spartans’ touchdowns, 
including three rushes that went 
longer than 20 yards and the game-
tying, 58-yard score. 
But 
Michigan 
State 
also 
dismantled 
Michigan’s 
defense 
schematically. Especially on the 
defensive line, the Wolverines under 
first-year 
defensive 
coordinator 
Mike Macdonald have relied heavily 
on rotations to keep players fresh 
and avoid mistakes that stem from 
fatigue. 
The Spartans countered that 
emphasis with tempo, frequently 
hurrying to the line to disrupt 
Michigan’s substitutions. On two 
different occasions, the Wolverines 
were penalized for having too many 
men on the field. Even when they 
weren’t penalized, Michigan State’s 
fast pace prevented Michigan from 
getting set and led to mistakes. Even 
the Wolverines’ best players made 
errors — including junior defensive 

back Daxton Hill, who got beat on 
a 28-yard reception that gave the 
Spartans a first down at the one-yard 
line. 
“Just 
didn’t 
execute,” 
senior 
edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson 
said. “Didn’t execute our gameplan. 
Tackling wasn’t good enough. Just 
let our offense down a little bit. Gotta 
be better.”
Entering the season, nobody 
foresaw Saturday’s game as a 
potential top 10 matchup. Neither 
Michigan nor Michigan State was 
expected to win many games, let 
alone compete for championships.
Such is the reality of college 
football. The Wolverines are a better 
team than they were a year ago, but 
the opportunity for a signature win 
was there. Moral victories about 
how much worse the team could 
have been will do little to mitigate 
the reality of yet another loss against 
a top opponent. Even if expectations 
become unrealistic throughout the 
season, the team still has to confront 
them. 
There’s still a lot of football 
left, but for Harbaugh, the burden 
of unfulfilled expectations still 
remains.

Julia Schachinger/Daily | Page Design by Sophie Grand

BRENDAN ROOSE
Daily Sports Editor

S P O R T S W E D N E S D A Y
S P O R T S W E D N E S D A Y

 TUCKED
 TUCKED
 
 IN
IN

33-37, 
Michigan Wolverines 
fall to Michigan State Spartans

12 — Wednesday, November 3, 2021 

