EAST LANSING - Michigan State is 2-5, and that part hurts no matter how the losses pile up. A blowout, a heartbreaker, a one-score finish - the record still looks the same. What makes this stretch sting even more is how many times the Spartans have been sitting right on the edge of something better.
That was the message floating around the program on Friday night, when MSU’s social media team posted a trailer that opened with Pat Fitzgerald saying, "We're this close! Don't stop now!"
It fit the mood after another narrow defeat, a 24-21 loss to Northwestern that turned on a handful of moments the Spartans did not cash in on. This wasn’t one single snap deciding everything the way last week’s overtime loss to Illinois did, but it still felt like a game where Michigan State kept leaving the door cracked open and never quite walked through it.
The offense had plenty of chances to change the story. Michigan State finished with 21 points, but there were multiple spots where that number could have climbed to 28 or 35, and a different result might have followed. Alessio Milivojevic had three separate chances to connect with Rodney Bullard Jr. for a touchdown, and none of them hit.
The first came on MSU’s opening drive on third down. Bullard had a step or two on his defender and Milivojevic seemed to have him in view, but the throw never came. The play ended up as an incompletion to Chrishon McCray, and Michigan State then failed on fourth down one snap later.
The second miss showed up in the second quarter on another fourth down. Milivojevic had two receivers who could have been in position to score, with Fredrick Moore and Bullard both open. With a clean pocket, he delivered the ball, but the pass sailed a few feet too far.
The third was the most glaring. With a little more than six minutes left, Bullard got loose again on a go route, this time on third down.
Milivojevic overthrew him badly enough that Bullard never even reached for the ball. The incompletion forced another fourth down, and Michigan State punted.
"I think besides completing it, like, the read was right, the route was right, I just got to put it on his body," Milivojevic said after the game. "All I've got to do is give him a chance to go make a play, and that's what I have to do better."
Milivojevic did have some bright spots. He threw a deep touchdown strike to Bryson Williams, and he also delivered a pair of seam or middle-of-the-field throws that produced explosive gains and had the look of high-level passes. But the misses were the kind that linger.
Michigan State also had opportunities to manage the game better late. The Spartans were one first down away from making the final play of regulation a field-goal attempt, but they ran the ball on first and second down into heavier boxes. Northwestern burned both of its final timeouts after those snaps.
Then came the setback on third down. A possible pass play on 3rd-and-7 disappeared after an illegal snap penalty on center Trent Fraley, which left MSU in a tougher spot and essentially forced another run on third-and-12.
There was also the special teams wrinkle. Michigan State did not center the ball for Liam Boyd’s potential go-ahead field goal, which was blocked.
Boyd likely wanted the ball on the right hash, but leaving it there gave Northwestern a chance to overload the left side of its block unit. The Wildcats had already caused problems for MSU’s special teams this season with blocked kicks and punts, and this time the setup worked for them again.
Even so, a 33-yard field goal is usually a make. Most of the time, it goes through. This time it didn’t.
One play away.
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