Only Human: Tate Forcier and Michigan Lose Heartbreaker to Michigan State

(Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

Tate Forcier really brought this upon himself.  When you have a first four games like the Wolverines' young freshman quarterback has had, the expectations tend to eventually reach unattainable levels.

So on a chilly fall Saturday, when the Wolverines would play their first road game of the season against their in-state rivals from East Lansing, all eyes were on Forcier.

What heroics would he unleash today?  What big plays would we all be talking about for the next week?

There would be big plays, and there would be heroics indeed.  However, in the end, it finally became apparent that young Tate Forcier is, in fact, human after all.

It was a game in which, through the first three quarters, Michigan did little right, while Michigan State put on a clinic.

During the Spartans' first offensive series, quarterback Kirk Cousins threw an interception to senior, Stevie Brown.  Michigan would begin their first offensive drive in Michigan State’s red zone.

However, Michigan went three-and-out, losing yards on the drive, and settled for a field goal.  From there, it was all Michigan State.

Cousins and the Spartans embarked on an 80-yard touchdown drive, which was actually more like 120 yards.  Twice, Michigan State committed personal fouls after the play, pushing them back 15 yards.  Multiple times, Michigan put the Spartans in a long third-down situation, only to be burned by the legs of Cousins.

It was embarrassing, frankly.  When you have a team that is beating themselves by taking foolish penalties, and you have a defense that puts the opposition in long third-down situations, you have to capitalize and get the ball back for your offense.  Michigan failed on all counts.

This is how much of the game would go.  Michigan’s running attack, ranked first in the Big Ten coming into this game, would be completely ineffective.  Michigan State stuffed the run all game long, but ran the ball effectively themselves.

Michigan State’s secondary, shell-shocked all season long up to this point, would step up, breaking up passes and making life tough for Michigan’s offense.

Through the first half, the time of possession wasn’t even close; the total yards weren’t even close.  Michigan State flat-out dominated the Wolverines in every aspect of the game.

However, despite that, Michigan State only carried a 10-6 lead into halftime.

Things would not get better in the third quarter for the Wolverines, though.  Late in the third quarter, Michigan would recover a fumble from the Spartans' freshman running back, Capers, and would assume possession deep in Wolverines territory.

Three plays later, Michigan was looking at fourth and inches and elected to punt.  Here’s where things went wacky.

Zoltan Mesko came out to take the punt, but then elected to take the ball and run with it.  He was stopped well short of the first down, and Michigan State would take over deep inside Wolverine territory.

Did Rich Rodriguez call that play?  Or did Mesko decide to run on his own?  Obviously, being behind your own 20-yard line is not the ideal situation to try a fake punt.

Fortunately, Michigan’s red-zone defense rose to the challenge and held Michigan State to a field goal.

As the fourth quarter started, Michigan was still within a touchdown of Michigan State, but the Spartans seemed well in control.

This was emphasized when, late in the third quarter, Michigan State embarked on what would be another long drive.  Starting from deep within their territory, the other Spartan quarterback, Keith Nichol would lead the Spartans downfield.

Michigan was at a loss to stop the big passing plays and well timed running plays from running backs Glenn Winston and Larry Caper.  The drive was punctuated by a 16-yard touchdown rush by Winston.

Things looked grim.  Up to this point, Michigan’s running attack was stuck in neutral, Tate Forcier and Michigan’s potent passing attack had not gotten going, and Michigan State had a 20-6 lead with the fourth quarter just beginning.  What a crazy fourth quarter it would be too.

Michigan got the ball back and backup Denard Robinson came in at quarterback, in hopes of sparking the offense.  At this point, however, opponents have gotten wise to the use of Robinson.  If he comes into the game, he’s going to run the ball, because as we have seen, Robinson still cannot throw the ball well.

After a quick three-and-out, Michigan would punt again, but there was hope!  On Michigan State’s next drive, Kirk Cousins was sacked by Brandon Graham and fumbled the ball.  The ball bounced around between defenders before linebacker Obi Ezeh finally came down with it.  Michigan ball.

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