East Lansing — The canon of the Michigan-Michigan State football rivalry is full of controversial calls. Add another one from Saturday night, when referees made a game-altering call on a non-reviewable play.
Shortly after halftime on third down just outside Michigan State’s red zone, MSU cornerback Malcolm Bell nearly timed a snap and stripped the ball out of Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood’s hand. Linebacker Jordan Hall recovered the fumble, but an unreviewable offsides penalty called on Bell wiped it off the board.
One play, however, didn’t lose the game for Michigan State. That came on the 49 runs that its defense proved unable to answer. Backed by its running game, Michigan won its fourth straight in the rivalry, 31-20, at Spartan Stadium.
Michigan running back Justice Haynes ran for 152 yards on 26 carries and a pair of touchdowns. His backup Jordan Marshall ran for 110 yards on 15 carries, including a 56-yard touchdown to ice the victory.
“We got a good running back tandem back there that plays physical. They’ll wear you down,” Michigan coach Sherrone Moore said. “I thought the offensive line played physical today, and it’s a young, young group. … To watch that run game today, it was really exciting.”
Bolstered by the return of Haynes, who missed last week’s game against Washington, Michigan (6-2, 4-1 Big Ten) outgained Michigan State 362-305. Until the Spartans’ final drive, Michigan rushed for more yards (278) than Michigan State gained as an entire offense.
BOX SCORE: Michigan 31, Michigan State 20
Michigan State (3-5, 0-5) took 12 penalties for 105 yards, while Michigan took six penalties for 60 yards. The biggest call came on Bell’s third-quarter play. After the offsides call, Haynes capped the drive with a 5-yard touchdown to put Michigan up 17-7 just 3:10 into the second half.
“(I) was told he was offsides, and I’ve seen that call go either way,” said Michigan State coach Jonathan Smith, who drops to 8-12 overall over the course of two seasons, 3-11 in Big Ten play.
Michigan State could hardly afford for a call like that to go the other way. Its offense looked disjointed for much of the game, scoring three times but punting seven away. Twice, Michigan State turned the ball over on downs trying to inch closer in the second half.
Aidan Chiles completed 14-of-28 passes for 130 yards, and scored a first-half rushing touchdown. He lost 7 yards on running plays, sacked four times for 41 yards and flushed from the pocket often on improv acts.
“As a D-line, we kind of hate hearing all week that they got this mobile quarterback and he’s gonna run around everywhere,” Michigan defensive end TJ Guy said. “So I think we take pride in facing those mobile guys.”
Underwood completed 8-of-17 for 86 yards with his own rushing touchdown.
Michigan took over the game in the first quarter, outgaining the Spartans 113-14 in that span and scoring twice. A 21-yard field goal by kicker Dominic Zvada opened the scoring 4:53 into the game after Chiles fumbled away MSU’s opening drive to UM linebacker Jimmy Rolder.
Michigan scored one more time in the first half as Underwood scrambled 13 yards to the end zone to go up 10-0 with 3:58 to play in the first quarter. Chiles snuck in a touchdown for Michigan State on a 10-play, 73-yard drive that made the score 10-7 at halftime.
After Bell’s big play was called back, Haynes continued to take the game over. He had rushed for 48 yards over two carries to open the half, then finished it with his 5-yard touchdown run. Before the end of the quarter, he ran in another rom 14 yards out for a 24-7 lead.
It wasn’t the worst performance from Michigan State’s defense, which has often looked like its great weakness. The Spartans recovered a fumble and forced four three-and-outs. But they had few answers for Haynes, who ran for just 3 yards shy of a career high.
“We did a lot of good today,” MSU linebacker Jordan Hall said. “Just didn’t do well enough when it mattered most.”
Michigan State’s offense mustered another scoring drive out of Chiles’ arm, which hit Nick Marsh just short of the right pylon before running back Brandon Tullis punched it in. A two-point conversion ended in an incompletion, and Michigan State trailed 24-13 with 12:34 to play.
“Chasing points at that point,” Smith said of the decision. “The analytics, where the score was at.”
Michigan State got to UM’s 27-yard line on its next drive, but a play action rollout thrown to Jack Velling fell incomplete off coverage from Rolder. And he made his mark again with a stop on the next drive, stuffing a hurry-up fourth-and-1 try on which Michigan State’s offense was hardly set.
After Marshall broke off his 56-yard house call with 2:48 to play, Michigan State tight end Michael Masunas caught a 21-yard touchdown from backup quarterback Alessio Milivojevic for the game’s final score with seven seconds to play.
Michigan State has not won a game in the rivalry since 2021, when the teams met at Spartan Stadium as top-10 foes. Michigan’s four-game winning streak is the longest streak in the rivalry since MSU won four straight under Mark Dantonio from 2008 to 2011.
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