Michigan State Looks Like Team of Destiny After Miracle Win at Michigan

Michigan State beat Michigan, 27-23, on a fluky last-second fumble return Saturday night in Ann Arbor, but the nature of the win does nothing to diminish the takeaway: Sparty looks like a College Football Playoff contender, and MSU is officially this season's team of destiny.

The play that sealed the win will live forever in college football's annals, alongside, if not ahead of, Auburn's "Kick Six" against Alabama two years ago in the 2013 Iron Bowl.

All Michigan needed was one clean punt to run out the clock. Instead, the Wolverines did this:

Punter Blake O'Neill bobbled a low snap and tried to kick it, but he was wrangled, and the ball popped in the air. Defensive back Jalen Watts-Jackson recovered for MSU and weaved for the miracle touchdown, giving Sparty the win as time expired.

"[O'Neill] thought he could get the ball kicked," Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh said after the game, per Mark Snyder of the Detroit Free Press. "He should have just fallen on it…Mistakes were made."

But Michigan's mistake was only half of it. There was also Watts-Jackson's inspired run-back, his ability to stay in bounds and score. 

It was the second time in two weeks Sparty won on its opponent's last-second screw-up—last week, on what could have been the game-tying touchdown drive, Rutgers spiked the ball on fourth down—only this time, instead of sealing a win that seemed inevitable, it salvaged a win that seemed impossible.

"I couldn't believe it," Spartans head coach Mark Dantonio told ESPN's Todd McShay. "I thought we were gonna fall on [the fumble], maybe have a chance for a kick...[but] we scooped it.

"I can't say enough about our football team."

That's good, because the rest of us are speechless.

Even if that last played never happened and Michigan State lost 23-21, this still would have been its best game of the season.

A close home win over Oregon looks far worse in hindsight, and struggles against Purdue and Rutgers looked rough even in the moment.

On Saturday, even though they dug and rested supine in their grave, the No. 7 Spartans outplayed the No. 12 team in the country. Special teams gaffes and secondary breakdowns gave the Wolverines a chance to win, but MSU outgained them by 156 yards (386 to 230) and generally got the better of the action.

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Quarterback Connor Cook was the best player on the field and likely had the best game of his career. The raw numbers won't support that—he finished 18-of-39 passing for 328 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions—but anyone who watched saw the truth.

Cook entered the year with high expectations, but for six weeks, he failed to impress. He made big throws when he needed to, but he also made crippling mistakes. You could see the seeds of an NFL quarterback, but you doubted they would ever bloom.

Against Michigan, they bloomed into something spectacular.

Cook was everything a star player should be. He completed fewer than 50 percent of his passes, but nearly all 18 of his completions were utter dimes. And if not for two big drops by Macgarrett Kings, Sparty might not have needed that miracle gift from Michigan in the first place.

The way Cook played Saturday, he deserved to lead a game-winning drive.

The Spartans still have glaring, pervasive issues. The secondary is running out of bodies, and the special teams (last-second heroics notwithstanding) played its worst game in a season full of bad ones. There's a straightforward blueprint on how to beat them.

But one thing the Spartans have is star power, and star power can drag a team pretty far. Cook is the winningest active quarterback in college football, and when you add miracle finishes like this one to the 2015 Cotton Bowl, where MSU trailed by 20 points in the fourth quarter before roaring back to upset Baylor, it gets hard to call that a coincidence.

Carlos Osorio/Associated Press

Receiver Aaron Burbridge held his own against all-world cornerback Jourdan Lewis, and defensive end Shilique Calhoun set the tone on the other side of the ball. When you blend star players with first-rate coaching, proven experience and, sure, a healthy dose of luck, you wind up with a team that can win a national title.

Auburn had the same blend two years ago, minus the proven experience, and came within 13 seconds of winning it all. Like Sparty, it beat its biggest rival, Alabama, on an iconic last-second special teams play. Earlier that season, it beat one of the other conference favorites, Georgia, on a 4th-and-18 Hail Mary.

Michigan State heads to Ohio State on Nov. 21, and if the Buckeyes know what's good for them, they'll play all 60 minutes like the first. You can't count your chickens against a team kissed by destiny.

And Sparty's neck is flushed with destiny's lipstick.