Five field goals, two touchdowns, one uncomfortable night
Liam Boyd went five for five in East Lansing on Saturday night. Five. That was the margin as Michigan State beat Toledo 30-20 in the season opener.
When a team leans on its kicker to get over the line, that usually tells you plenty. The Spartans led 19-7 at the break and never put Toledo away. Two touchdowns all night. The rest came off Boyd’s boot.
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A Mid-American team went ahead in a Big Ten stadium
Toledo found some life in the third. John Alan Richter hit Adjatay Dabbs from six yards out with 8:57 on the clock. 19-14. The place started to stir.
Then it got worse for Michigan State. Connor Walendzak took a handoff, sliced through the middle and outran everyone for 71 yards. Toledo led 20-19 with 13:47 left.
The Spartans answered with their best drive of the night, 70 yards in seven plays, capped by Alessio Milivojevic’s five-yard pass to Rodney Bullard Jr. The same pair cashed the two-point try. 27-20 with 10:37 to play.
Griffith’s miss from 41 was the whole game
Toledo worked down to the 24-yard line. Reice Griffith pulled his 41-yarder wide with 7:50 remaining. That was the swing.
Boyd tacked on a 51-yard field goal with 1:55 left, his fifth of the night and his longest. Toledo went nowhere on its final possession and the Spartans ran out the clock.
The individual numbers back up the uneasy feeling. Milivojevic completed 26 of 34 for 247 yards and a touchdown. Cam Edwards carried 27 times for 98 yards and a two-yard score in the first quarter. Richter, for Toledo, went 12-for-21 for 196 yards and two touchdowns, one of them a 60-yard strike to Dabbs. The best passer on the field was wearing the wrong jersey.
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