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

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.

Forcier came back on to the field for Michigan and subsequently hit Darryl Stonum for a big gain; however, the ball was stripped from him as he came down.  Fumble, Michigan State ball.

So much for that idea.

On MSU’s next drive, Kirk Cousins did what he had done to Michigan all game long—killed them with his legs.  Cousins took off on a 42-yard burst, taking him all the way down to Michigan’s 38-yard line.  It looked like the game was over.

Then Michigan’s defense stepped up for really the first time all game.  They stuffed the Spartans' offense three times, and when they elected to go for it on fourth down, Michigan stuffed them again.

It would remain a two-score game, and that was of paramount importance.

It would finally be here, the moment Michigan had been waiting for all game, the clutch moment of the fourth quarter, when Forcier would cease to become just a freshman quarterback, but a legend.

Call it luck, call it whatever you want, but Forcier hit Darryl Stonum out in space, and he took that ball and transformed into Barry Sanders, weaving through defenders, spinning and juking, before breaking free for a 59-yard touchdown run.

The Wolverines were now within a touchdown, but there were only four minutes left to go in the game, and Michigan State had embarked on time-consuming drives all game long.

Again, Michigan’s defense would rise to the challenge, though, forcing a quick three-and-out while burning their last timeouts.

There would be just under three minutes left on the clock when Michigan would get the ball back.  Plenty of time.

Tate Forcier dinked and dunked down the field on a drive marred with incompletions and close calls, and when Michigan finally entered MSU red-zone territory, there were mere seconds remaining on the clock.

No problem, though.  From there, Forcier would take matters into his own hands, rushing down to the eight-yard line, before finally hitting sparingly used receiver, Roy Roundtree for a touchdown with under ten seconds left on the clock.  Forcier was visibly exhausted, breathing heavily and aching from the punishment his body had taken.

The freshman sensation had done it again.  His third fourth-quarter comeback in just his first five games.  In a game that Michigan State had dominated, Forcier and the Wolverines had erased the deficit in two last-gasp drives at the end of the fourth quarter.

The game would go to overtime and Michigan State won the coin toss, electing to defer.

It looked as if Forcier would complete the victory in overtime.  He began where he left off in the fourth quarter, rushing up field and hitting Martavious Odoms.  Then on Michigan State’s eight-yard line, Forcier dropped back to throw what would have been the possible game-winning touchdown, and was picked off.

Forcier fell to the ground.  He just didn’t have anything left in the tank.

Michigan State only needed a field goal to end the game, but the life was sucked out of Michigan.  Cousins handed off to the freshman Capers, who rushed 24 yards down the sideline.  Touchdown.  Michigan State had won the game.

It was a victory well earned for the Spartans.  They controlled the majority of the game, and they were well balanced.  Michigan was not.

The Wolverines rushing game was non-existent for nearly the entire game.  They chose to live and die by the true freshman quarterback, Tate Forcier.

As good as Forcier was, you can only ask so much of a freshman before he reaches his breaking point.  He is only human after all.

So the Spartans earned their first two-game win streak over Michigan since the 1960s, and through it all, are still just a 2-3 football team.

Michigan can recover from this.  They are still in a brilliant position to play in a decent bowl game, but they will need a much more balanced effort to beat Iowa on the road.

Rich Rodriguez has now seen how his young team can handle a big game on the road, and all things considered, they played well enough to give themselves a chance at the end.

Sometimes, with an inexperienced team, that’s all you can ask for.