{"id":15579,"date":"2015-11-22T09:05:28","date_gmt":"2015-11-22T17:05:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/no-9-michigan-state-beats-no-2-ohio-state-17-14\/"},"modified":"2015-11-22T09:05:28","modified_gmt":"2015-11-22T17:05:28","slug":"no-9-michigan-state-beats-no-2-ohio-state-17-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/no-9-michigan-state-beats-no-2-ohio-state-17-14\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 9 Michigan State beats No. 2 Ohio State 17-14"},"content":{"rendered":"

COLUMBUS, Ohio \u2014<\/strong> The last place Michael Geiger, all 5-foot-8 and 185 pounds of him, wanted to end up was at the bottom of a pile of Michigan State football players.<\/p>\n

The junior kicker booted through a 41-yard field goal as time expired and then sprinted away from a swarm of celebrating Spartans after No. 9 Michigan State upset No. 2 Ohio State 17-14 on Saturday to snap the Buckeyes\u2019 23-game winning streak.<\/p>\n

Geiger remembered what happened the last time Michigan State won a huge game on the final play of regulation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want to pull a Jalen Watts-Jackson,\u201d Geiger said, referring to his teammate who ended up with a broken hip after returning a botched punt for a touchdown to beat Michigan in October. \u201cI was trying to stay on my feet as long as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Playing without injured star quarterback Connor Cook on a rainy and windy day at Ohio Stadium, the Spartans (10-1, 6-1 Big Ten, No. 9 CFP) took control of the Big Ten East, barged into the thick of the College Football Playoff hunt and very likely ended Ohio State\u2019s chances to repeat as national champions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know how to win,\u201d coach Mark Dantonio said.<\/p>\n

Michigan State is 6-1 in its last seven games against top-10 teams.<\/p>\n

With a victory next week at home against Penn State the Spartans will clinch a spot in the Big Ten championship game. The last time Michigan State beat Ohio State was the 2013 Big Ten championship game and that broke a 24-game winning streak by the Buckeyes and kept them out of the BCS title game. This time they put Ohio State\u2019s playoff hopes in critical condition and left behind a team in Columbus that seems to have been playoff or bust.<\/p>\n

After the game junior tailback Ezekiel Elliott questioned the play calling and said this would be his last home game as a Buckeye.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean there\u2019s no chance of me coming back next year. I got to make the most of my time left,\u201d said Elliott, who ran 12 times for 33 yards and the game\u2019s first touchdown. He had a streak of 15 straight 100-yard rushing games snapped.<\/p>\n

Buckeyes junior quarterback Cardale Jones also sent some tweets suggesting this was also his last home game.<\/p>\n

Ohio State plays at Michigan next week. As far as the postseason goes, it\u2019s likely the best the Buckeyes will be able to do is the Rose Bowl.<\/p>\n

That was the furthest thing from Ohio State coach Urban Meyer\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, boy, we\u2019ve got to get a couple of first downs and start finding a way to complete a pass and beat our rival,\u201d Meyer said.<\/p>\n

Ohio State (10-1, 6-1) managed just 132 yards against a rugged Spartans defense and lost to a Big Ten team in the regular season for the first time since Meyer became coach four seasons ago.<\/p>\n

Ohio State\u2019s only touchdowns came after Michigan State turnovers gave it a short field. Michigan State responded after each one with a 75-yard touchdown drive. Gerald Holmes reached the ball over the goal line for a 2-yard touchdown to tie it at 14 for the Spartans with 12:03 left.<\/p>\n

The Spartans completed one pass in the second half, but they ran for 203 on 51 attempts and gave Geiger a chance to win it with 3 seconds left by churning out 25 yards on their last drive.<\/p>\n

Geiger had missed from 43 yards in the second quarter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told him earlier in the game make the rest of your kicks,\u201d defensive end Shilique Calhoun said.<\/p>\n

The Buckeyes started the season as the unanimous No. 1 team in the country, an overwhelming favorite to win another national title. They had more quarterbacks then they knew what to do with and potential All-Americans everywhere. Ohio State sputtered some through 10 games but was never really challenged. At least not like this.<\/p>\n

The Spartans relish the role of underdog like no powerhouse program and it seemed to fuel them in the Horseshoe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still think we make a lot of people look foolish,\u201d center Jack Allen said.<\/p>\n

The Spartans were 13-point underdogs coming in and you probably could have gotten another touchdown from the odds makers when Michigan State took the field for its first drive without Cook.<\/p>\n

Cook took a shot to the shoulder last week against Maryland. Michigan State gave no hints as to whether he would play, but when he warmed up cautiously t was obvious something was up.<\/p>\n

Without Cook, the Spartans started Tyler O\u2019Connor, and Damion Terry played, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe coaches had a great game plan,\u201d Terry said.<\/p>\n

The Spartans turned into an option\/quarterback run team. They leaned on an offensive line that was supposed to be a strength this season, but has endured numerous injuries and started six different lineups.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe come in with something to prove,\u201d Dantonio said. \u201cWhen you have that, you have a little chip on your shoulder and play a little bit better.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow Ralph D. Russo at www.Twitter.com\/ralphDrussoAP<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP college football website: collegefootball.ap.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

COLUMBUS, Ohio \u2014 The last place Michael Geiger, all 5-foot-8 and 185 pounds of him, wanted to end up was at the bottom of a pile of Michigan State football players. The junior kicker booted through a 41-yard field goal as time expired and then sprinted away from a swarm of celebrating Spartans after No. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-15579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15579\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15579"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=15579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}