No. 14 MI State beats Maryland despite injury to Cook

The 13th-ranked Spartans (9-1, 5-0 Big Ten) used three different quarterbacks and forced a season-high five turnovers to defeat the Terrapins (2-8, 0-6) before a crowd of 73,406 at Spartan Stadium. With winnable road games at Maryland and Purdue to finish, the bowl shot is still there no matter what, but beating MI would make the season special. And it coped all along with Maryland’s punting troubles, with two punters sending off unsightly first-half flutterers that covered 32, 11, 19, 31 and 35 yards, making field position especially inconvenient.

Maryland responded, holding Cook to 6-for-14 and 77 passing yards and O’Connor to 6-for-11 and 44 yards.

While Connor Cook’s situation is obviously important to watch, MI State may have finally found an answer to the running back carrousel. Rushing leaders included De’Veon Smith, who had a TD and 73 yards on 15 attempts, and Drake Johnson, who had a TD and 27 yards on 7 attempts. Such was the Terps longest drive of the year.

Tyler O’Connor, in at quarterback for Connor Cook, threw an interception on a play-action – with Maryland’s Anthony Nixon picking it off around the Terrapins’ 1, and then before he went down, he pitched a lateral to Sean Davis, who raced the ball up around the 30. That play was reviewed and overturned to put the Terps at the one-yard line, but Brandon Ross punched in the touchdown on the next play.

After going from presumably healthy and out of the game, Connor Cook came back in just to come out. Cook sat the second half. Cook returned but was then hit hard and injured his shoulder. Cook would come back into the game and target Likely’s replacement (no injury just rest), Darnell Savage, for a big third-down conversion. A bigger concern is the doomed fake field goal that got him blasted in the second quarter. Iowa and Wisconsin account for four of the six West wins, against struggling Maryland (twice), IN and Rutgers. The Spartan offense put up a season low (265) yards of offense against a Maryland team ranked 79 in total defense. That’s something that MI State head coach Mark Dantonio told reporters after the game.

This was the fifth game that Rowe threw multiple interceptions. The Spartans would go on to convert a 35-yard field goal courtesy of Michael Geiger to give MI State a 17-7 lead just before halftime.

So the Spartans defense has stepped up to retake the lead over Maryland.

Maryland went up-tempo on its second drive, and MSU’s defense was flustered. For reference, MI State has 38 turnovers since the start of the 2013 season. Gerald Holmes ran the ball very well for the Spartans racking up 83 yards and a touchdown while averaging 4.6 yards per carry. All of this came with Connor Cook back sitting on the bench with his shoulder injury. Copeland played two games before he was lost for the season because of a fractured vertebra, and Williamson played five games before having surgery on a torn bicep. These rivals have now both suffered painful losses, albeit to teams of different talent levels, but man, the revenge is sweet.