Michigan State Football Beats Furman In 2016 Season Opener
Michigan State opened the 2016 football season with a 28-13 win over the FCS Furman Paladins on Friday night.
As expected, the Michigan State Spartans got the win in the season opener against the visiting Furman Paladins on Friday night, although not as convincingly as expected, winning 28-13.
The Spartans took the opening kickoff and marched right down the field, capping off a 7-play, 76-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown run by L.J. Scott. The rest of the half was mostly a field position battle, the Spartans unable to take advantage of short fields and the Paladins unable to move the ball consistently.
Michigan State finally broke through near the end of the half, new starting quarterback Tyler O’Connor completing a 13-yard over-the-shoulder pass to Felton Davis III to put the Spartans up 14-0. Furman responded by launching a drive of their own but stalled out in the redzone and settled for a short field goal to cut the lead to 14-3 at halftime.
A Darrell Stewart Jr. fumble on Michigan State’s first drive of the second half led to another Furman field goal to cut the lead to one possession. The Spartans responded with a 5-play 58-yard drive, capped off by a 21-yard O’Connor touchdown pass to Josiah Price to give the Spartans a two-possession lead once again, 21-6. The Paladins then responded with a touchdown drive of their own which ended with a 6-yard run by Antonio Wilcox to trim the deficit to eight once again, but that would be as close as the Paladins would get.
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An O’Connor interception in the fourth quarter gave Furman the ball in Spartan territory, but Paladins quarterback P.J. Blazejowski turned the ball back over to Michigan State on the very next play, Andrew Dowell making the interception. The Spartans put the game away on the next drive as the fourth quarter wound down. Ending a 12-play, 60-yard drive, Jamal Lyles caught O’Connor’s third touchdown pass of the night with 4:55 left in the fourth quarter to increase the Spartan lead to 28-13.
O’Connor looked competent in his debut as the Spartans’ full-time starter, completing 13 of 18 passes for 190 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. L.J. Scott got the majority of the carries for Michigan State, rushing for 105 yards and a score on 20 carries. Monty Madaris led the Spartans with five receptions and 85 yards. The Spartans committed 12 penalties in the game for 120 penalty yards.
Darius Morehead carried 20 times for the Paladins for 83 yards. Blazejowski completed 15 of 30 passes for 123 yards and an interception.
Spartan All-American defensive tackle Malik McDowell left the game briefly in the first half with an apparent injury. He returned to the game and left again late in the fourth quarter under his own power.
Elsewhere in the Big Ten:
Indiana and Minnesota opened the Big Ten schedule on Thursday night with wins over Florida International and Oregon State respectively. The rest of the conference will play on Saturday, with the most compelling matchup featuring #5 Louisiana State visiting Wisconsin at Lambeau Field.
Northwestern hosts Western Michigan in what could be an interesting matchup between a couple of decent teams. Other than Wisconsin, Rutgers (facing #14 Washington) and Purdue (facing Eastern Kentucky) are the only teams with a chance of losing unless someone pulls off a major upset.
Next: Michigan State Football Game-by-Game Predictions
Up Next for Michigan State:
A rivalry will be renewed in two weeks as the Spartans take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the 50th anniversary year of their famous 1966 “Game Of The Century” clash.