The seventh-ranked Michigan State Spartans defeated the 12th-ranked Michigan Wolverines 27-23 in Ann Arbor early last Saturday evening.
The casual observer may label this outcome as expected given the Spartans’ slight advantage in the national poll, but to those who watched the whole game, such as Calvin students Daniel Blakemore, Jordan Smith and Jake VandeZande, the final score was anything but expected.
The game started out slow in the first quarter with both teams punting on their first drives, and Michigan State turned the ball over on downs deep in Michigan territory on their second possession.
Michigan drew first blood early in the second quarter on an eight play, 72 yard drive that ended when Sione Houma ran two yards for a touchdown.
The next three quarters were back and forth, which produced a 23-21 game, with Michigan in front, at the 8:56 mark in the fourth quarter.
The score remained the same until there were 10 seconds left on the clock. All Michigan had to do was punt the ball into Michigan State’s end of the field and they would have won the game.
An entire nation of Spartan fans sighed as the ball was snapped, sure that this was the nail in their coffin.
But the snap was low.
And punter Blake O’Neil dropped it.
The ball careened off his leg, into the hands of red-shirt Spartan freshman Jalen Watts-Jackson, who returned it 38 yards for a touchdown as time expired.
Blakemore, a junior at Calvin, said that his living room exploded into unintelligible shouts of joy and relief. Other Spartan fans celebrated alone, but that did not stop them from expressing their pride. Sophomore Jordan Smith was watching in her dorm room.
“I screamed so loudly that six people from my hall came to see if I was okay. … I almost cried, I was actually shaking.”
While Spartan fans celebrated, Wolverine fans were left speechless.
“I’m still extremely depressed,” said junior Jake VandeZande the day after the game. “It was the most heart breaking sports moment of my lifetime.”
Understandably, there were many upset Michigan fans after the loss, and some took to Twitter to voice their frustration.
These frustrations took a dark turn in the form of death threats, and suggestions of suicide against punter Blake O’Neil who, the fans believe, cost them the game by not falling on the loose ball.
The threats increased in intensity until the University of Michigan’s athletic director, Jim Hackett, posted a letter online saying, “I am asking that our community not lose this game twice by condoning thoughtless comments” and describing himself as “shocked” by the severity of the comments.
Interestingly, O’Neil’s seemingly odd reaction to the lost ball makes some sense when his background is taken into account. He grew up playing Australian Rules football, and he habitually tried to get rid of the ball instead of falling on it.
Despite the memorable outcome, both teams now have to gear up for the second half of the season as Michigan State (7-0) faces the University of Indiana on October 24 and Michigan (5-2) enjoys a week off.
