'Mousetrap' ensnares NU
Remember a month ago when Michigan State knocked off Notre Dame in overtime with the fake field-goal play known as “Little Giants?”
No. 7 Michigan State rallied to knock off Northwestern 35-27 at Ryan Field with a lot of credit going to “The Mousetrap.”
Here was the situation, for those who didn't live the heartache that was NU's second fourth-quarter implosion in as many games:
With MSU trailing 24-14 early in the fourth quarter, the Spartans looked like they were going to go for it on fourth-and-6 at Northwestern's 31.
They had their offense on the field and everything. Then MSU decided to call a timeout, which seemingly didn't make sense. Then MSU sent its punt team on the field and deliberately took a delay of game, which really didn't make sense because why would Sparty waste a timeout only to take a delay penalty and punt?
“We had to get them to take the cheese,” Dantonio said with a smile.
As it turned out, MSU was baiting the trap with its whole fourth-down charade. The Spartans had noticed on tape that NU junior cornerback Jordan Mabin, when he guarded gunners in “safe punt” situations, would chuck his man for about 10-15 yards and then peel toward the sideline to avoid having the coffin-corner punt bounce off him.
So, on fourth-and-11 following the delay penalty, punter Aaron Bates lined up deep and MSU gunner Bennie Fowler (No. 13) lined up wide right in his usual spot.
Northwestern kept its regular defense on the field just in case Michigan State tried something funny, but it turned out the visitors only needed to fool one guy.
Just as the Spartans figured, Mabin chucked Fowler for several yards and then headed toward the sideline to avoid disaster. That explains why Mabin went in a circle and couldn't recover as Bates lobbed a pass downfield to Fowler for a 21-yard gain and first down.
“Normally we chuck the guy for 10-15 yards and then let him go just because we don't want to get him by a punt on a safe punt, that is,” Mabin said. “I did that and then they faked it. It was a good play on their (part). It was clutch. Their guys just made a play.”
Because Mabin had guarded Fowler on every punt throughout the day, Mabin never thought anything was amiss. “I wasn't really thinking fake at the moment,” Mabin said. “It was just a good play call on their part.”
“I've always been risky,” said Dantonio, who coached from the sideline for the first time since suffering a heart attack after the Notre Dame game on Sept. 18. “We're going to take calculated risks.”
NU coach Pat Fitzgerald didn't think Dantonio would gamble at that point.
“Well, no,” Fitzgerald said. “You've got to give credit where credit's due...we knew Bates could throw it, so we talked all week that there was going to be a fake punt and they were going to probably throw it, but did we expect that fake punt? No, because we'd never seen them do it before. So kudos to them.”
On the play after the fake punt, quarterback Kirk Cousins drilled a 15-yard touchdown pass to Mark Dell to ignite MSU's 21-point fourth quarter.