Too-many-men penalty costs No. 19 Michigan State in loss to Arizona State

EAST LANSING, Mich. — A record will have to wait for another day.

Michigan State football coach Mark Dantonio must wait for Big Ten play to find some offense.

Eno Benjamin’s 1-yard touchdown run with 50 seconds left and a wild finish gave Arizona State a 10-7 victory over the 19th-ranked Spartans on Saturday at Spartan Stadium.

It prevented Dantonio from moving ahead of Duffy Daugherty into the program wins lead. They remain tied at 109 victories as the Spartans (2-1) open Big Ten play next week at Northwestern.

MSU had a chance to send the game to overtime, as QB Brian Lewerke moved the Spartans into scoring territory with help of an ASU penalty, followed by a 25-yard pass to Darrell Stewart.

Matt Coghlin appeared to tie the game with a 42-yard kick after MSU’s offense and special teams units struggled to figure out which was supposed to be on the field with 11 seconds left.

But the kick was overruled after replay review showed the Spartans had 12 men on the field.

Coghlin’s ensuing 47-yarder sailed wide right. Though on the play, it appeared Arizona State's Cam Phillips jumped over the center to try to block the kick, which should have been a 15-yard penalty for leaping, according to Fox Sports rules analyst Dean Blandino. Per Blandino, leaping is not a reviewable play.  

It was the junior kicker’s third missed field goal of the game.

“We were gonna try a shot down there, and then I said, ‘Hey, we need to kick it,’ because if we catch the ball and we’re not in the end zone, the game’s probably over. ‘Line up and kick it,’ ” Dantonio said. “Our field goal kicker was a little late, sort of watching. So he runs out, the clock’s ticking down, and he still makes the field goal. But I’m not sure how — I mean, we had injuries on the offensive line, I think we had one guy stay in. I’m not sure, I haven’t seen the film. I know they reviewed and said there was no foul, then they reviewed it again. I’m not sure. Maybe you guys have seen it.

“Then we line up again to kick a field goal, they try and hurdle us. That should be a penalty, call it a penalty. It’s not reviewable. But that’s just to get to overtime. We had a lot of opportunities prior to that, that would have won us the football game. So I think that (they) need to take a good, hard look at the officiating. That’s all I’ll say. Because there was some disputes out there. That’s all I’ll say about that. Just gotta play the game.”

Lewerke finished 24 of 38 for 291 yards. Collins had 72 rushing yards. MSU had 404 yards of offense.

“I was ready to go to overtime,” said Lewerke. “I don’t think that team would have been able to hang with us in overtime. I was fully ready to do that. It just sucks that we had to get a penalty. … Just the fact that it could have been Coach D’s record-breaking win, my senior year I could beat Arizona State and to start off 3-0, it just sucks that wasn’t what happened.” 

Daniels had 140 passing yards and ran for 37, including a critical 15-yarder on the final TD drive with the Sun Devils facing fourth-and-13. The true freshman also had a 40-yard pass to wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk, after MSU defensive back Josh Butler stumbled in coverage, at the outset of the drive. 

“Somber. It’s somber in (the locker room),” Dantonio said. “Nobody likes to lose, nobody wants to disappoint anybody. … As far as a message to our football team, it’s just life — another life message, man. You gotta get up, you gotta get off the ground.”