Michigan State Downs Wake Forest 27-21 In The Pinstripe Bowl
Yankee Stadium
Bronx, New York
In what’s been a disappointing season for Michigan State, the Spartans were in New York on Friday afternoon to take on Wake Forest in the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium, looking to end a down year on a high note.
In a game that had an all too familiar feeling for the Spartans throughout, Michigan State overcame an up and down first half and rode an impressive performance from senior quarterback Brian Lewerke and a strong second-half effort from the defense to pick up a 27-21 win over the Demon Deacons.
With Wake Forest out to a 7-0 lead after scoring on its opening drive, Michigan State put together a promising drive on its second possession, going 75 yards in 16 plays, but would eventually sputter as the Spartans settled for a 23-yard Matt Coghlin field goal to make it 7-3 with 2:44 left in the first quarter.
On the ensuing Demon Deacons’ drive, Michigan State defensive end Jacub Panasiuk would bat a Jamie Newman pass attempt up in the air and into the hands of his older brother, Mike Panasiuk, who returned the interception for a 14-yard score, giving the Spartans their first lead, 10-7 with 2:01 left in the opening quarter.
After Wake Forest regained the lead on a 16-yard touchdown pass from Newman to Donavon Greene, the Spartans would come through with another answer on its next drive.
A 64-yard pass from Lewerke to red shirt freshman tight end Trent Gillison would put the Spartans inside the Wake Forest 10-yard line, setting up an 8-yard touchdown run by Lewerke, putting the Spartans back on top, 17-14, with 8:13 left before halftime.
But the Wake Forest offense continued finding plenty of success against the Michigan State secondary as the Demon Deacons recorded their third passing touchdown of the first half, this time a 44-yard touchdown from Newman to tight end Jack Freudenthal, putting Wake Forest back out in front, 21-17.
Michigan State would cut the deficit down to 21-20 before halftime with a 44-yard field goal from Coghlin with 49 seconds left in the second quarter.
The second half saw far less offense from both teams, as Michigan State kept Wake Forest off of the scoreboard in the third and fourth quarters while doing the bare minimum offensively to have a chance to win.
The Spartans would score on their first drive of the second half as Michigan State used 10 plays to go 73 yards to find the end zone. A 31-yard run by Elijah Collins moved the Spartan offense into the red zone, helping set up a 10-yard touchdown pass from Lewerke to Cody White giving Michigan State the lead once again, 27-21, early in the third quarter.
Making his final start of his college career, Lewerke completed 26 of his 37 pass attempts for 320 yards and a touchdown and also rushed for 46 yards on 11 carries. With his performance, Lewerke passed Connor Cook (9,403 yards as Michigan State’s all-time leader in total yards, finishing his career with 9,580 yards of total offense.
Following a first half where the Wake Forest moved the ball with ease against a usually stout Spartan defense, Michigan State managed to shut out the Demon Deacons in the second half, keeping Wake Forest under 100 yards in the second half after allowing 250 total yards of offense in the first half.
Despite taking the lead on the first drive of the second half, the Michigan State offense had several opportunities to put the game away but repeatedly failed to do so, coming away with zero points on three trips to the red zone over the final 25 minutes of the game.
The Spartans would drive deep into Wake Forest territory late in the third quarter, but a drive that looked almost guaranteed to produce points instead ended abruptly as Lewerke’s pass went off the hands of red shirt freshman Elijah Collins and into the hands of Wake Forest’s Ryan Smenda.
On the very next possession for Michigan State, the Spartans again drove into the red zone, but a shovel pass from Lewerke to Gillison that would have moved Michigan State inside the 10-yard line was wiped out by a fumble, keeping it a one-score game with 11:40 left to play in the fourth quarter.
After the Spartan defense forced another Wake Forest punt, the Michigan State offense drove 80 yards in 11 plays, using nearly five minutes of game time, trying to set up a game-sealing score. But instead, Michigan State went back to its conservative play-calling that plagued the Spartans so many times throughout the year and settled for a 28-yard chip shot attempt for Coghlin that he would miss wide to the left, again giving life to the Demon Deacons.
But Michigan State’s defense forced a turnover on downs on Wake Forest’s final possession, preserving a 27-21 win to end the season.
The Spartans now head into an off-season that will be again be surrounded by questions regarding the future of the Michigan State coaching staff. Spartan Nation can report some breaking news on the Spartans’ coaching staff as sources say that offensive line coach and longtime Mark Dantonio assistant Jim Bollman is expected to retire this offseason.
But questions regarding other members of the offensive staff still remain as the Spartans continued to struggle offensively and the majority of the issues with play-calling from past years remained throughout the 2019 season.
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