Instant Reaction From Heartbreaking Football Loss to Illinois in OT

What's up, Michigan State fans? This is Jacob Katzenberger back for another episode, post-game edition now, of the Michigan State Spartans Insider Podcast.

Your final score from Spartan Stadium here on Saturday night, or Saturday afternoon I should say, is Illinois 38, Michigan State 37.

Obviously, it all boils down to one play.

It was right here on this side, um, uh, this end zone here if I, uh, if I'm remembering things correctly.

Um, questionable play call, I will say.

Uh, I'm never a big fan of pulling out the trick play, uh, during those do or die two-play conversion attempts.

I understand the decision to go for two.

The defense has been rabid- is ravaged with injuries and this and that.

Uh, th- they hadn't gotten many stops, uh, during the game.

It got better as the second half went on, but you're getting...

You're starting freshman at corner.

Um, earlier in the overtime, Illinois scored on one play, so I understand boiling it down to one play with your offense that had been playing well, uh, especially during that second half.

What I'm not a fan of is moving Alessio Milovetic out at wide receiver essentially, and basically putting up the big neon sign of, "Hey, we're gonna do something weird here." You do the, you know, you do the reverse, the, the pitch to, uh, to Savory, and everyone knows it's a pass.

Like, it was pretty...

Like, I- and Illinois easily snuffed it out, and yeah, like that's, that's a disciplined, that's a disciplined play by an Illinois defense that has struggled quite a bit this season.

Um, but again, there's a lot of plays that happened before that one, but obviously that's the one that is going to stick in the minds of everyone for a while.

And I think it's a shame because besides that play call from Nick Sheridan, I thought he called a good game.

You know, 37 points, 31 during regulation.

That's a heck of a lot better than what Michigan State had been doing before this one.

I know Illinois is a much weaker defense than what MSU has been seeing.

But nevertheless, I liked a lot of the play calls.

I liked what the offense was doing later on in the game once they started picking up some first downs after a slow start to this game.

But again, on the ground it was even, 127.

MSU, I guess you could say by default, wins the rushing battle because they had fewer rushes.

Jazz Patterson was the big performer, uh, here today.