The Michigan State Spartans, the second best team in the nation and in VAVEL USA’s Top 25 Poll, felt the pressure from the unranked Purdue Boilermakers in East Lansing today.
From the start of the game, Michigan State was in full control. With 7:11 left in the first quarter, the Spartans struck first with an 18-yard touchdown run from running back L.J. Scott to get on the scoreboard and take a 7-0 lead early on. The Spartans were not done with their scoring in the first quarter. Scott was attacking again, this time with a one yard touchdown rush to cap off an eight play, 94 yard drive to put the Spartans up 14-0 with 28 seconds left in the first quarter and that would be the score at the end of the quarter.
In the second quarter, the Boilermakers could not get on the board while the Spartans were able to put up another touchdown in the quarter, this one a 23-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Connor Cook to wideout R.J. Shelton. This gave the Spartans a 21-0 lead going into halftime.
In the second half, however, Purdue started to get some momentum as Michigan State was struggling to restart their offense. It wasn’t fully evident in the third quarter, as Purdue only scored one touchdown, a two yard pass from quarterback David Blough to wideout Gregory Phillips. Purdue finally got on the board but were still down 21-7 at the end of the third quarter.
In the fourth quarter, Purdue started their comeback. Less than one minute into the final quarter of action, running back Markell Jones got the ball and found a gap to take the ball 68 yards to the house and put the Boilermakers down just one touchdown with plenty of time left in the game. Michigan State responded with a field goal five minutes later to put them up 24-10 but that would not stop Purdue. With 6:44 left in the game, Jones got the ball another time for a three yard touchdown rush, making the score 24-21 in favor of the Spartans. On the next drive for Michigan State, Purdue forced them to punt just six plays into the drive and Purdue had just under three minutes to complete the comeback.
Purdue had the ball at their own 20 yard line and were moving the ball down the field. On fourth and sixth on their own 37, Michigan State committed a holding penalty, giving up 10 yards and a first down on the play, keeping Purdue’s comeback hopes alive. However, on the next set of downs, the Boilermakers couldn’t get anything going and on fourth and nine, Blough couldn’t keep the comeback alive and turned the ball over on downs. Michigan State would knee the ball for the final minute and won the nail-biter 24-21 and now sit at 5-0 on the season.
L.J. Scott finished the game with 146 rushing yards on the day and two touchdowns to accompany it, which helped put Michigan State on top today. Markell Jones helped keep Purdue in the game today and almost put them over the top with his 157 rushing yard performance, along with two touchdowns of his own.
The deciding factor in this game was turnovers. Michigan State did not commit a single turnover today while Purdue turned the ball over three times, which hurt their chances to score on key drives, where two of their turnovers were in Michigan State territory. If Purdue could have kept possession on just one of those, they might have been walking out of East Lansing with their second win of the season over one of their biggest opponents of the season.
Michigan State will travel to Rutgers next week and play under the lights on Saturday and look to extend to record to 6-0. Purdue is now 1-4 on the year and host Minnesota next week as they look for their first conference win of the year.