Michigan State Spartans @ Florida Atlantic Owls Football Recap

Michigan State 30, Florida Atlantic 17

This time, Florida Atlantic couldn’t use Ford Field to its advantage.

Edwin Baker led the Spartans’ offense with 15 carries for 183 yards as Michigan State won a “road” game at Ford Field in Detroit.

The game was played in Detroit because FAU’s new stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has not yet been completed. FAU was given the choice of where to play the game, and the Owls tabbed the Detroit Lions’ home stadium. Ford Field happened to be the site of a memorable bowl win for Florida Atlantic, in the 2008 Motor City Bowl against Central Michigan. However, that Ford Field mojo was not replicated this time out against Sparty.

Kirk Cousins completed 9 of 17 passes for 142 yards and a touchdown, and was intercepted once. He was hardly spectacular, but he didn’t commit enough turnovers to override his team’s ground-based dominance.

Michigan State took the lead on a 44-yard field goal by Dan Conroy on its first possession. After the Spartans’ defense forced a three-and-out, a 48-yard punt return by Keshawn Martin gave Michigan State possession at the FAU 24-yard line.  Michigan State needed just two plays to take a 10-0 lead on Le’Veon Bell’s nine-yard touchdown run with 9:28 left in the first quarter.

The Spartans appeared to be on the verge of a blowout victory, but the Owls proceeded to put together an impressive 15-play, 77-yard drive, cutting the Spartans’ lead to 10-7 on a two-yard Alfred Morris touchdown run.

Martin set Michigan State up for another scoring drive with a 15-yard punt return that gave the Spartans the ball on the FAU 45-yard line early in the second quarter.  Five plays later, Cousins hit B.J. Cunningham for a 30-yard score and a 17-7 advantage.

Michigan State led 20-7 at halftime.  Baker gave the Spartans their biggest lead when he rumbled 80 yards for a touchdown with 10:33 left in the third quarter.

This was not an exceptional performance by any means for Michigan State, but then again, no one should have been expecting too much from the Spartans this past Saturday. A team by the name of Notre Dame comes to East Lansing next weekend, and it’s next to impossible to deny the claim that the Spartans – who barely lost to Notre Dame in cruel and teasing fashion last year – were looking ahead to the Fighting Irish at Ford Field. They were playing Florida Atlantic, but they had another football team on their minds. They should be happy that while they didn’t blow out the Owls from the Sun Belt Conference, they were indeed able to take this game without any real drama at all.

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