No dice: Ohio State 17, Michigan State 16

Fifty years earlier to the day, heading the same direction that Michigan State was going in Saturday’s fourth quarter, Notre Dame coach Ara Parseghian made a fateful and controversial decision.

Play for a tie.

That was never in Mark Dantonio’s mind. He knew all week that if the downtrodden Spartans were in a similar situation against No.2 Ohio State, they would go for the win.

“All week long, I said that, hey, if we get close at the end of the game, we’re going for two,” Dantonio said. “We’re going to take an aggressive approach and play to win the football game rather than to tie the football game.”

Ties, of course, are a thing of the past in college football, with overtime rules. But things transpired almost exactly how MSU’s 10th-year coach envisioned.

LJ Scott scored a 1-yard touchdown to put the Spartans within a point with 4:41 left. MSU went for the two-point conversion to try to take a lead instead of a tying extra-point attempt, but Malik Hooker intercepted Tyler O’Connor’s pass intended for Jamal Lyles.

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O’Connor then fumbled and threw another interception in the final 2 minutes as Ohio State held on for a 17-16 victory.

“For me, personally, I kind of play things in my head the way things are going to play out,” said fifth-year senior O’Connor, who was 6-for-16 for 105 yards and two interceptions in his final game at Spartan Stadium. “Obviously, it didn’t go that way. And it’s tough watching them take a knee. You have a lot of time to sit there and just look around and see it all for the last time.”

The loss officially ends any hope for MSU (3-8, 1-7 Big Ten) to receive a bowl invitation. The Spartans finish Saturday at Penn State, with kickoff time and TV coverage to be determined.

It was a valiant effort by the MSU defense to attempt to pull off a second straight upset of the Buckeyes (10-1, 8-1). The Spartans held OSU to 310 yards, forced a turnover and got three sacks — things that, just two weeks ago after their loss at Illinois, didn’t seem possible this season.

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“You always talk about the little here and there, what you could’ve done differently to change that one-point difference,” senior safety Demetrious Cox said. “But, really, I feel like everybody just felt bad how close we were. The seniors really wanted that one.”

Redshirt freshman running back Mike Weber, who ran for 111 yards, made sure Ohio State’s hope for a Big Ten East Division title and a potential berth in the College Football Playoff continued.

Weber went around the right side for 52 yards on the first play of a drive midway into the second half. Three plays later, the Detroit Cass Tech product plowed in for the go-ahead touchdown from 4 yards, making it 17-10 with 5:33 left in the third quarter.

Scott, a sophomore from Hubbard, Ohio, finished with 160 yards rushing and 76 receiving yards.

After Scott’s touchdown capped his own eight-run, 56-yard drive, the offense remained on the field. The play call was for a pass to tight end Josiah Price. When he was covered, O’Connor tried to sneak the ball to fellow senior Lyles in a tight window nearby.

“I felt like we still had an opportunity with 4 minutes to go … to get the ball back and kick a field goal and win the football game,” Dantonio said.

And the Spartans did. Their defense got a late stop and forced an Ohio State punt. MSU took over at its 20. However, O’Connor was stripped of the ball and recovered his fumble on first down. With the clock moving, he hurried back to the line, threw a pass toward Monty Madaris in double coverage down the right sideline. Gareon Conley intercepted it with 1:30 remaining, allowing the 22-point favorite to escape with a road win.

“That was kind of the only deep shot in that play call, that route,” O’Connor said. “I tried to give him a shot and didn’t really think as much about the wind on that play. The wind really knocked down that last ball.”

Contact Chris Solari:csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari.

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