Final Score: Michigan State Upset by Indiana 24-21

It was not a Saturday night to remember for Michigan State Spartans fans.

MSU (2-2, 0-2 Big Ten) fell to the Indiana Hoosiers (3-1, 1-0) following a second-half collapse and bizarre overtime. The season is now on life support after back-to-back losses.

The Spartans looked like they’d cruise to a rather uneventful win in the first half. The only real play of note was this:

That’s an 86-yard RJ Shelton strike from the arm of Tyler O’Connor. The closest Indiana got to scoring was a missed field goal, and the Hoosiers had just over half of the Spartans’ total yards as the came cruised into halftime 7-0.

Then the second half happened.

Indiana missed a second field goal in the third quarter (meaning this could have been worse) after driving to the Michigan State red zone. MSU drove the score to 14-0 when O’Connor hit Delton Williams on a 24-yard touchdown.

The Hoosiers scored on a trick play where their quarterback, Richard Lagow, ended up catching a touchdown pass.

Then Lagow led an incredible 90-yard drive and hit Ricky Jones for a touchdown to tie things up. Then Lagow hit Mitchell Paige and just like that it was 21-14 in favor of the home team. Oh, plus Malik McDowell was ejected on the play for a highly questionable targeting call.

The sudden crisis woke up Michigan State’s offense, which quickly drove 75 yards to tie the game. Indiana native Josiah Price reeled in a two-yard touchdown catch for MSU to take the game to overtime.

But if the first half was good and the second half bad, the overtime was a disaster. State saw its quarterback sacked twice and a field goal missed. Indiana missed their field goal too, except they were saved by a penalty called “leaping.” The field goal unit wouldn’t miss again. Game over. Indiana wins 24-21.

With the Old Brass Spittoon now staying in Bloomington for the first time in a decade, an always dangerous BYU comes into town next weekend for a tough non-conference matchup. The Cougars and new head coach Kalani Sitake come in at just 2-3, but those three losses come to good teams by a combined seven points.

Kickoff is Saturday at 3:30.