I agree With Dantonio, “I didn't think the officiating lost us the game." Critical Coaching Error Did

Memorial Stadium Lincoln, Nebraska Mark Dantonio’s Spartans said all of the right things coming into the contest with the Nebraska Cornhuskers when many

Memorial Stadium

Lincoln, Nebraska

Mark Dantonio’s Spartans said all of the right things coming into the contest with the Nebraska Cornhuskers when many thought they were slighted at #7 in the first college football playoffs. They echoed the truthful yet boring, “our goals are all in front of us,” mantra, and other basic staples. BUT no matter how boring, they were accurate.

Spartan Nation has bemoaned MSU's conservative play calling that has haunted them all year. It has allowed bad teams to stick around, and that is how you lose games.

Dantonio came out admitting after the Indiana game, “it’s my call,” on the conservative play calling, and let his soon to be #1 NFL draft pick QB throw the ball and play a wide open pass to run attack tonight. Cook rewarded him with an amazing performance going 23-37 with AT LEAST six drops by his targets.

The Spartans amassed 491 yards in offense and 348 of those yards came with the ball in the air. It was THE BEST play calling of the year for the Spartans and the only complaint was player execution early on. So no matter how painful it is, please come back here with me to Memorial Stadium as I walk you through the biggest mistake of the game. The season, for that matter.

MSU had converted on eight consecutive third downs, all of them via the aerial attack. It was working. MSU had the lead 38-33 and the ball with 1:46 standing between them and 9-0. They would remain in the driver’s seat of their destiny and feel good with a rejuvenated offense, and Maryland coming to East Lansing next week.

Then it happened. Forgetting what had worked the entire game MSU failed to keep playing to win the game and started playing not to lose. Dantonio admitted afterwards by saying that they were playing to give the Huskers as little time as they could. That mindset paints a clear picture that they weren’t playing to get the first down and win, but instead playing NOT to lose.

On first and ten from the Nebraska 44 after a failed Husker onside kick MSU ran over right tackle for a one yard gain with Gerald Holmes. Timeout Huskers. With 1:40 on the clock Holmes ran right up the middle for one yard. Timeout Huskers. On 3rd down they had to go to the air. The Huskers hadn’t stopped them. A first down at this point and Nebraska was out of timeouts and the game was over.

Rather than trust their future 1st round NFL QB who had set the all-time record for a Spartan QB in career touchdown passes earlier that night, they decided to run…again, with a Tight End. This time, with the Huskers lined up close, they didn’t even use a back or a speedster wide out, they gave it to tight end Jamal Lyles who ran it for no gain.

All of the momentum from great play throughout the game was lost on that drive.

So think about this. Mark Dantonio trusted his battered defensive backfield that hadn’t stopped the Huskers all night (320 yards passing) over his future first round NFL QB who is the greatest QB in Spartan history.  He also trusted his Defense that got zero sacks all night up to that point over that same decorated MSU QB.

The same coach famous for rolling the dice with big plays at critical times rolled the dice again by betting on a downtrodden defensive backfield over his own "en fuego" passing attack.

I got nothing.

It isn’t logical, it doesn’t make sense, but I said after the 24-21 over Purdue that, “Spartan conservative play calling could come back to cost this team a game they should win, if it doesn’t change.” Sadly tonight it did.

Dantonio said of the end around to Lyles on third down that, "If you throw the ball it can stop the clock if it's incomplete. That's always the risk. We ran on that just because we didn't think they would be expecting it, plus it was going to take a bit longer time to run that play rather than a direct run. I think we had like a 40-second clock and because of the penalty they moved us back, but actually they declined. I can't even remember the sequence of that. It went to a 25-second clock and we immediately lost 15 seconds on the clock. The two plays leading up to it, we've just got to make a play and we were out of position. Players make mistakes along with coaches, especially coaches."

Dantonio went on to add moments later, “Mistakes are made out there whether it's not calling the right defense or not calling the correct offensive play. Everybody is going to take responsibility for this, I can tell you that our offense will take responsibility, the coaches will take responsibility, the defense will take responsibility, every individual player will so there's plenty to go around. With that being said you have to credit the people we played against and I didn't think the officiating lost us the game."

When we asked Connor Cook after the game if he tried to encourage his coaches to let him throw, he wasn't going to do that tonight.  A few years ago when asked after the loss at Notre Dame for his thoughts on play calling after being benched in favor of Andrew Maxwell for the final drive, he said, “I wish they trusted me."  That quote sent his coaches through the roof at that time.  He learned from that mistake was not set to repeat it.

Tonight he simply said, “You can’t ask me that question.” Of course he wanted to throw. He was on fire and Cook is a competitor that wanted to go win it! He wanted the Spartans on his shoulders and his coaches didn’t.

Sure, the Huskers had a controversial touchdown that will be debated for decades, but the Spartans also dropped an interception and had other opportunities like players failing to execute early. The refs missed calls on both sides tonight, but in the end the MSU coaches cost the team tonight.

Dantonio said it, “I didn't think the officiating lost us the game." Captain and OLB Darien Harris echoed his coach’s comments about officiating not costing MSU the game. “Absolutely it didn’t,” he said.

A defensive backfield that played eight different players and started three true freshmen wasn’t up to the task when their multiple future NFL defensive linemen couldn’t get a sack to help them. This loss rests in the upstairs of the Duffy Daugherty Building, on the coaches.

That isn’t a slam. Spartan Nation wouldn’t trade anyone for Dantonio. What he has done at MSU is amazing. But it doesn’t let him off the hook for the loss, and the Spartans now move on.

Even MLB Riley Bullough said of the Huskers winning drive, “We were playing prevent defense and obviously it didn’t work.”

Dantonio said of his defense and their struggles that, "we didn't get Tommy Armstrong on the ground tonight, that's the bottom line. We got beat on that post all the way to our hash and then the last one depends on how you see it, we'll see what happens there. The two other plays leading up to that they just need to be prevented. We've got to tackle the quarterback one time. They've got no timeouts left so we need to keep the clock rolling so we max pressured him, he stepped up and got rid of the ball."

I wrote of conservative play calling four years ago and again this week in my cover story for Spartan Nation Magazine. Here is what I said addressing the Spartans conservative play calling:

When Michigan State prepared to play the Alabama Crimson Tide in 2011 Nick Saban said something about stopping the Spartans that stood out to me. I wrote about it at the time and you can search the archives and find it from January 1, 2011, when I quoted Saban before the game as saying, “They (MSU Coaching Staff) are stubborn and will keep trying to establish the run.” Saban, who is famous for holding his cards close to his chest, was open that the MSU staff (Dantonio) was going to be stubborn and keep trying to run against his NFL defensive line even when they were stopped and couldn’t do it.

This one should hurt and it does. I was in the room as the players came off the field and the tears flowed. I saw guys distraught at the loss. They care. For the first time in the Dantonio era he and his staff will huddle knowing they cost their team a win.

Just like Saban learned in the above quote, they must learn from tonight. If they do, MSU is fine and will be better off for the long term.

MSU should be leaving here with the win, but they aren’t. They rolled the dice and chose to play NOT to lose rather than win. That approach hounded them all year, and tonight it finally caught them. Like a shadow just out of reach. Tonight they had a chance to, “Reach higher” tonight, but didn’t.

The sky is not falling. Dantonio is still an amazing coach and I bet he learns from this and becomes a better coach. After nine years the man has earned a mulligan, and if the Spartans win out they still will be Big Ten Champions. That is the goal from the beginning.

The season didn’t end tonight, it just got more difficult.  But since when has it been easy? Be disappointed, but don’t be despondent Spartan Nation. MSU has all goals ahead of them with no margin of error left.

It’s time to Reach Higher.

CLICK RIGHT HERE TO WATCH ALL OF THE POST GAME VIDEO OF THE COACH D AND THE PLAYERS.