Late rally falls short in 27-22 loss to Spartans

EAST LANSING, Mich. - At one point, Nebraska was down 24 points and was completely dead in the water. But a furious fourth-quarter comeback saw the Huskers chip away and bring it to within one touchdown in the final minute with a chance to knock off No. 10 Michigan State.

Nebraska would fall just short of pulling off what would have been its biggest rally in school history, as quarterback Tommy Armstrong was intercepted with 30 seconds left on the final drive to seal the 27-22 defeat. In a game that could have potentially vaulted NU into the national spotlight, the Huskers refused to go down without a fight, but in the end it was too little, too late.

Outside of the late flurry, Nebraska was held to by far its worst overall offensive performance of the season in the defeat against a Spartan defense that looked as good as ever. The Huskers were held to just 47 rushing yards, their lowest total since gaining 31 in a loss to USC in 2007. Star running back Ameer Abdullah, who had a chance to skyrocket his standing in the Heisman Trophy race with a strong performance, finished with 45 yards on 24 carries.

Michigan State's offense wasn't spectacular by any means, but quarterback Connor Cook (11-of-29 passing, two touchdowns and an interception) made enough plays to overcome three MSU turnovers in the victory in front of a crowd of 75,923.

"Obviously I'm disappointed," head coach Bo Pelini said. "We didn't play well enough to win the football game. I give (Michigan State) credit. They played well. We didn't play well, and therefore the outcome was what it was. We had our opportunities. We had plenty of opportunities, and we couldn't maximize our opportunities. When you go on the road, you've got to take advantage of those things. We didn't do that, so we didn't win the football game."

Nebraska's defense did come to play to open the game, taking just two plays to force the first turnover of the night when Vincent Valentine tipped Connor Cook's pass at the line and Randy Gregory hauled it in at the MSU 30-yard line. The Huskers came away empty handed, though, after oddly deciding to punt from the 31 and ending up with a touchback for a net difference of 11 yards of field position.

Two series later, Michigan State struck first with the first big offensive play of the game, as Cook hit Tony Lippett down the left sideline for a 55-yard touchdown pass with 8:22 left in the first quarter. Starting cornerback Daniel Davie left the game with an injury on the previous play, and the Spartans went right after his replacement, Jonathan Rose.

Later in the second quarter, Michigan State returned a Nebraska punt out of its own end zone to the NU 31, and running back Jeremy Langford took it to the house on the ensuing play for a touchdown run to make it 14-0 with 13:48 left in half.

The Spartans seemingly did all they could to get the Huskers back in the game, as NU recovered a Langford fumble near midfield and then Macgarrett Kings muffed a punt return and Josh Faulkenberry recovered at MSU's 29. But Nebraska was unable to capitalize on either break, including giving the ball right back to Michigan State on Abdullah's first lost fumble of the season at the 6 just when it looked like the Huskers could finally reach the end zone.

Michael Geiger knocked in a 29-yard field goal following Abdullah's fumble to extend the lead to 17-0 with 4:32 remaining in the second quarter, and that score would hold on into halftime. When the first half finally came to a close, the Huskers had amassed just 85 yards of total offense to to 257 by Michigan State, including 21 yards on 13 carries from Abdullah. Of Nebraska's 37 plays in the half, only five went for more than five yards, and 25 were for two yards or less.

"It was just lack of execution," Armstrong said. "We had turnovers here and there, and that's something we talk about each and every week is protecting the football and being able to just run our offense. We were just out there, and honestly, we just scrambled. We just didn't know what we were doing."

Nebraska finally got something going offensively midway through the third quarter, but the drive stalled in MSU territory and the Huskers had to settle for a 40-yard field goal from Drew Brown that barely cleared the crossbar but still got NU on the board.

Michigan State put the nail in the coffin on the very next drive, though, as Lippett took a double reverse 32 yards for a touchdown to push the lead back up to 27-3 with just over two minutes to go in the third.

Quarterback Tommy Armstrong was knocked out of the game after taking a big hit on a scramble, and backup Ryker Fyfe came in to lead Nebraska to its first touchdown on a two-yard run by Abdullah with 12:49 remaining. The ensuing two-point conversion attempt failed, leaving NU down 27-9.

Abdullah scored again with just over four minutes left to make the score a bit more respectable at 27-16, and then freshman De'Mornay Pierson-El took back a punt 62 yards for a score to suddenly cut it to within a touchdown. Nebraska once again failed to convert on the two-point conversion, leaving the deficit at 27-22.

"That's just us playing our football. The first three quarters we struggled. Up front we struggled. Out wide we struggled. Myself, I struggled. We just couldn't get the groove, couldn't execute, and that came back to haunt us."

The Huskers then couldn't recover the following onside kick, but Michigan State missed a 37-yard field goal attempt, giving NU the ball back with 1:07 to play at the Spartan 19. Armstrong then hit Alonzo Moore on a 43-yard strike down the sideline to get the ball into MSU territory.

Armstrong missed Moore on a similar route in the end zone, and then made his final, biggest mistake of the night when he was picked off by Trae Waynes with 30 seconds to go.

"We lost the football game," Pelini said "I don't care if was by 30 or by whatever it was, five. I'm not into moral victories. We lost the football game, and we need to get better."

Nebraska, which dropped to 5-1 with the loss, will have two weeks to get ready for its second Big Ten road trip when it travels to take on Northwestern on Oct. 18.