MSU won at point of attack

MSU won at point of attack

BY DREW SHARP
FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER

This will not sit well in Ann Arbor.

And it shouldn’t.

Michigan State has surpassed Michigan in football.

The indisputable evidence of this stunning transition lies in the tread marks stretched across the backs of a Michigan team not just humbled Saturday, but pummeled.

Had the Spartans survived a high-flying, scoreboard-tiring shootout on the game’s final drive, it might be more easily acceptable as a memorable classic that somebody had to lose. But this was a philosophy that triumphed.

Daring is necessary. Speed is an absolute in football, but nothing can replace the basic credo of physically winning at the point of attack.

Michigan got a harsh reminder that it cannot sustain success in the Big Ten through finesse. There inevitably comes a time when either you smack the guy lined up across from you in the mouth or you stand there and get smacked yourself.

Michigan exhibited a glass chin Saturday.

Don’t talk to me about the last 30 years. All that matters are the three years under Rich Rodriguez, and he’s now 0-3 against the Spartans. It’s the first time that the Spartans have won three straight against their primary rival since 1967 in the closing years of the Bump Elliott era when the Wolverines often played before a half-empty Michigan Stadium.

Sparty rules the state for the time being.

One of the MSU assistant coaches told me following the game that it was as though destiny had smiled upon this team considering the tribulations they’ve endured the last three weeks. They’ve played at an incredibly high level since head coach Mark Dantonio’s mild heart attack following the Notre Dame overtime victory.

The stakes increase for them now. They travel to Iowa in two weeks in the game that will determine Ohio State’s most serious challenger for the Big Ten championship.

The Spartans are now officially bowl eligible at 6-0. They’ve guaranteed themselves a trip to Ford Field and the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl at the very least already, but nothing short of nine wins now is acceptable considering what they’ve accomplished and the fact that their schedule doesn’t include the soon-to-be No. 1 ranked Buckeyes.

Dantonio always preached that he envisioned a program that would intimidate instead of being the intimidated.

It was Michigan that looked scared Saturday, a feeling never more accurately applied than when Rodriguez opted to punt the ball trailing 17 points with around six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.

It made no sense trusting a defense that had proven itself incapable of standing up to Michigan State’s dominating offensive line. Rodriguez acknowledged afterward that he probably made a mistake in not trusting his team’s lone strength – its offense.

The Wolverines’ season is far from over although they’re probably the unhappiest 5-1 team in the country because they believed the national hype that Superman was their quarterback. But Michigan State just gave every future Michigan opponent the blueprint for defending Denard Robinson – a physical defensive front and linebackers who smartly didn’t over-pursue Robinson, staying in their lanes and waiting for him to come to them.


This loss will sting for awhile. Someone draped a banner outside Michigan Stadium following the game that read “Little Brother Just Kicked Your (Butt) Again.”

Little brother hasn’t just grown up. It’s passed big brother.