Michigan State avenges loss to Oregon in top-10 clash

EAST LANSING, Mich. High-scoring or low-scoring, run-heavy or pass-heavy, day or night, any game between two top-flight football teams is going to come down to a few critical plays made in pressure moments.

Saturday at packed and rocking Spartan Stadium, with No. 7 Oregon visiting No. 5 Michigan State, Connor Cook made them. Then his quarterbacking counterpart, Vernon Adams, made them.

And then, in a wild second half that followed a low-scoring first, it was on MSU’s defense to preserve victory in the first top-10 matchup in this stadium in 49 years.

That’s what the Spartans did with Lawrence Thomas and Chris Frey combining on a sack of Adams on the Ducks’ final drive, and the Spartans forcing an incompletion on the resulting fourth-and-17 to get out with an enormous 31-28 win.

The Spartans (2-0) are now squarely in the College Football Playoff discussion until someone knocks them off. And this win avenges a 46-27 loss at Oregon a year ago.

The Spartans did it with 192 yards passing and two touchdowns from Cook, whose fourth-down completion for 30 yards to Aaron Burbridge (eight catches, 101 yards, one touchdown) was a key moment.

They did it with a 100-yard game from redshirt freshman running Madre London and a 38-yard touchdown sprint from true freshman running back LJ Scott. And they did it with a defense that, despite giving up 432 yards, made huge plays all night.

This one started where last season’s meeting ended, with the Ducks slicing through MSU’s defense for an easy touchdown drive. It was all dinking and dunk, 13 plays to travel 75 yards, and Royce Freeman’s 2-yard run made it 7-0.

Then the Spartans answered Oregon’s MSU-like methodical drive with an Oregon-like sprint down the field � 75 yards in three plays, the first of which was a 62-yard run from London in which he stiff-armed Oregon safety Reggie Daniels to the ground.

Cook hit tight end Josiah Price for an easy 12-yard touchdown, and the shootout that everyone with so much as a passing interest in college football predicted this week was officially happening.

Except it didn’t happen. There was one more touchdown in the half, a 17-yard catch-and-run from Burbridge on a short Cook pass.

The Spartans blew one chance with a missed 28-yard Michael Geiger field-goal attempt, then missed another when Cook and Macgarrett Kings Jr. miscommunicated on a route and Cook sailed a pass.

Oregon marched 82 yards on its fifth possession, but then MSU’s front seven came up huge � Riley Bullough stopping Adams at the 1, then Bullough and Joel Heath stopping Freeman at the 1, then Thomas and Jon Reschke stuffing Freeman again on fourth down.

Adams (22 for 39, 309 yards, one touchdown) also threw two picks, one to MSU sophomore safety Montae Nicholson on a bomb attempt and one to senior safety RJ Williamson. MSU corners Demetrious Cox and Vayante Copeland stifled long Adams pass attempts from MSU territory on Oregon’s final drive of the half.

But leave it to MSU’s coverage units to give the Ducks points. MSU’s kickoff coverage team had yielded returns of 100 and 70 yards at Western Michigan, and 49 yards in the first half to Oregon, when the punt coverage team got involved giving up an 81-yard tying touchdown to Bralon Addison after the opening possession of the second half, with Nicholson whiffing badly in the open field.

So it was on MSU’s offense. It was on Cook. Both were out of rhythm, but on third-and-6, he hit Kings for 7.

Five plays later, with the Spartans stalled at the Oregon 34 and facing a fourth-and-6, Mark Dantonio opted to go for it.

It had the feel of an early, season-defining kind of play, and Cook calmly dropped back, spotted Burbridge down the sideline and rifled a pass to him for 28 yards. Scott took care of the last 6 yards on the next play, and MSU was back up, 21-14.

The Spartans got another stop, responded with another drive, this time forced to settle for a Geiger field goal from 36 yards. It was 24-14 and the Ducks were still sitting on one offensive touchdown � but they responded as well.

The key play in a 12-play, 78-yard drive was a gutsy fourth-and-7 pass from Adams, finding Byron Marshall in tight coverage for 25 yards to the MSU 5. Adams got in two plays later and it was a one-score game again.

And then it wasn’t. For the third time, MSU answered an Oregon touchdown with one of its own, this one on a tackle-breaking 38-yard race to the end zone from Scott.

Oregon moved again, converting another fourth down, but on fourth-and-1 from the MSU 43, Heath just got enough of Adams on a diving play to keep him inches short of a conversion.

But MSU stalled and the Ducks got it rolling again, finally scoring with 3:25 left on an Adams 15-yard pass to Marshall, over MSU reserve corner Arjen Colquhoun. That set up the final sequence, stops from both defenses and the Spartans celebrating with their fans.

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