Graham Couch column, 2012 Nebraska-Michigan State football
Graham Couch, [email protected]
EAST LANSING The question was blunt, from a local television reporter.
Mark Dantonio’s eyes were already red, his tone reflective, he’d been repeating words as he searched for something meaningful to say in the wake of his team’s latest crushing loss, this time 28-24 at home to Nebraska.
And then …
Do you start wondering how many times you can get your gut ripped out?
For a minute, Dantonio turned on his Dantonio autopilot.
“All I can tell you is you’ve got to just keep pushing. You can’t flinch,” he said, perhaps trying to remind himself.
But this was too much. MSU had this game won. Its season turned around. The negative vibe from September and early October somewhat washed away with two weeks of notable performances.
And then, in 90 seconds, that sick feeling returned. This one again courtesy of its own shortcomings in critical moments, with Nebraska’s dizzying quarterback Taylor Martinez and a bewildering pass interference call doing the Spartans no favors.
“I see life every day for people,” Dantonio continued, returning to human mode, pausing once when it appeared to sink in most. “Life’s tough for everyone. In the end, this hurts … this hurts, this hurts a lot of people. But you’ve got … I think you’ve got to just keep pushing. I don’t know what else to say about it.”
There’s no emotional bounce-back from this one. Not this season, at least not until a bowl game. Dantonio knows it. So does defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi.
Both were emotional after the game, Narduzzi a bit more angry at a few devastating calls.
The players sounded almost numb, outside of the handful who took their own shots at the officials.
MSU is off the radar. It has a bye week and then Northwestern and Minnesota.
Its celebrated and vaunted homes chedule is over(other than a visit from the Wildcats). Its faint hopes of a division title are now a mathematical impossibility.
Even junior receiver Bennie Fowler, who held onto this season’s once-lofty goals longer than maybe anyone, understands the Spartans’ depressing reality.
What’s left to gain?
“Still experience, for everybody,” Fowler said. “Because we’ve got a lot of people coming back next year.
“We can still get better and go to a great bowl game and have a great time. We’ve still got two more games.”
In other words, building toward next year becomes the focus. MSU’s slightlye merging offense arrived too late to save this season. Its defense, worthy of a BCS bowl game, will be mostly wasted.
Saturday night, in the interview trailer just north of Spartan Stadium, one could feel the impact of four Big Ten losses by a combined 10 points.
“There are certain things we can’t control on thefield,” runningback Le’Veon Bellsaid, lashing out at the last-minute pass interference call on cornerback Darqueze Dennard, whichallowed for Nebraska’s game-winning score two plays later. “If guys want to throw flags, there’s nothing we can do. That’s great ‘D’ by Darqueze. Great‘D.’”
It was great “D.” A horrendous call, given the impact on the game and the fact that it wasn’t pass interference — an opinion supported by the former vice president of NFL officials, Mike Pereira, who shared his thoughts on his Twitter account.
The personal foul on Johnny Adams, which negated Dennard’s 95-yard interception return for a touchdown in the fourth quarter — a would-be game-clincher — appears almost as baffling.
But, like so many times this fall, the Spartans left it too much to chance. They didn’t come up with the critical stop, or one more first down, or one less penalty among their half-dozen legitimate lapses in discipline.
That’s now the story of the season. However it plays out from here.