Same team. Just a new season.
In the end, No. 16 Northwestern’s 27-26 win over No. 23 Michigan State had paid homage to the heart-stopping moments from last season. But Saturday wasn’t another Wisconsin, Minnesota or Michigan. The game, like this NU team, had a character all its own.
A defensive struggle for most of the afternoon, both teams traded missed field goals and deep punts for a scoreless 30 minutes, only to put up the deciding 22 points in the final 4:42 – the final 16 coming in the last 29 seconds.
“Craziest game I have ever seen, played in, anything,” Michigan State running back T.J. Duckett said.
But the Cats had been there before.
“It’s definitely up there,” said NU running back Damien Anderson.
Up there, but maybe not at the top.
After the game, players seemed confused about the chronology of events – the punts, kickoffs and extra points – which were critical at the end of Saturday’s game.
The big moments were familiar. A Zak Kustok slant pass that found wideout Kunle Patrick in the end zone to put the Wildcats up 24-20 with 29 seconds left was the same route that Sam Simmons ran to beat Michigan last November. The Hail Mary that brought the Cats (3-0, 1-0 Big Ten) into field goal range with eight seconds to go was the same doomsday device that beat Minnesota last October.
But above all, Saturday will be remembered for a David Wasielewski 47-yard field goal that split the uprights as Ryan Field’s brand-new scoreboard showed double zeroes.
The final moments were frantic. A 64-yard punt return by receiver Charles Rogers with 4:42 left put the Spartans (2-1, 1-0) ahead 20-17. An 84-yard kickoff return by wideout Herb Haygood with 16 seconds left gave Michigan State a 26-24 lead. But both touchdowns were tempered by botched extra points.
Following Haygood’s score, a bobbled kickoff return by Cats’ running back Kevin Lawrence stranded them on their own 13-yard line with 14 seconds to play.
“The way we feel is that as long we’re within one possession, we’re going to win the game,” Wasielewski said.
Kustok saw what few could imagine. Watching the Spartans’ kick off, Kustok told his teammates to be ready.
“(In the huddle) Zak said ‘You know we’re going to get this,'” NU guard Jeff Roehl said. “I said, ‘I know we’re going to get this. It’s going to be interesting to see how we get this.'”
Kustok dropped back and sent the ball on a 54-yard arc that grazed off the fingertips of a Michigan State defender and into the hands of a sliding Jon Schweighardt, who had snuck behind the secondary.
“I saw the ball just zoom over my head, and the first thing I thought was, ‘Wow, Zak threw that pretty good,'” Roehl said.
Kustok kept the ball in his hands on the next play, bringing Wasielewski on with five seconds left and 47 yards from victory.
The players, the band and NU’s fans held hands as Wasielewski stepped forward, swept his right leg through the ball and sent it sailing end-over-end through the uprights.
“There are big kicks and there are big kicks, but that’s about as big as they get,” NU head coach Randy Walker said. “That wasn’t a 3-footer for par, that was big time.”
It wasn’t all that easy. Michigan State held Anderson to 75 yards and the Spartans offense, led by Duckett, rolled against the Cats in during the first half.
Duckett’s 67 first-quarter yards were just short of his total output against the Cats in their last meeting. NU held Duckett to three yards in the second quarter and 104 for the day, a mark just shy of Kustok’s game-leading 105.
“Not to take shots at Duckett – he’s a great back – but we questioned his conditioning,” Bentley said. “He wore down a little and didn’t have the same punch in the fourth quarter that he had in the first quarter.”
The scoring began with a 1-yard touchdown by Duckett, capping a 53-yard drive. The teams then traded leads throughout the first half.
Coming off a fruitless first possession of the game, the Cats quickly returned the Spartans’ fire. After fullback Gilles Lezi recovered a fumbled Michigan State punt return, NU took the ball from the Spartans’ 24-yard line to the one-yard line on four Damien Anderson rushes. NU then tied the game 7-7 on a Kustok sneak.
On their next possession, the Cats went ahead 14-7 on a 22-yard pass to Patrick, capping an 80-yard drive.
Michigan State picked off a Kustok pass intended for Sam Simmons to start the second quarter. Simmons, NU’s go-to receiver who broke his finger last week against Duke and practiced lightly with the team this week, saw little action in Saturday’s game.
Wasielewski nailed a 44-yard field goal on the Cats’ third drive of the second quarter, but Michigan State returned the favor when third-string quarterback Damon Dowdell scrambled for a touchdown on a confused NU defense with 49 seconds left.
The Cats still went into the locker room with a 17-14 halftime lead.
And then, all was quiet.
The Spartans swapped quarterbacks Jeff Smoker and Ryan Van Dyke to shake up the passing attack, leaving Duckett on the sidelines to watch his team struggle.
Bentley, along with linebacker Billy Silva and defensive end Napoleon Harris, put on a show for the Spartans offense that included 32 tackles. The Cats also registered eight sacks on Smoker and Van Dyke.
“They really only scored 14 points on the defense,” Harris said. “The rest was special teams.”
Walker noticed, too.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever been around a more courageous performance (from the defense),” he said.
For 25 minutes, NU and Michigan State marched up and down the field, trading missed field goals and punts until Rogers broke the freeze with his blazing return.
Meanwhile, the Spartans held Anderson to just 38 second-half rushing yards. And although the offense struggled – they couldn’t score when cornerback Brandon Evans recovered a fumbled kickoff that put the Cats on the Spartans’ 18-yard line for their first possession of the second half – Kustok and Co. stepped up when it mattered.
On the drive after Rogers’ punt return, Kustok led the Cats on a gritty 15-play, 70-yard drive where they converted three times on third down and once on fourth down.
“It wasn’t one of the best performances I’ve ever seen from our offense,” Walker said. “But when it’s all said and done, they made two drives to win it.”
Saturday’s wild one might have left Michigan State with their jaws on the ground, but Walker has been there before and has lived to tell the tale.
“Nothing surprises me anymore,” he said.
