EAST LANSING, Mich. -- When Michigan State decides to try a fake punt, only a few people on the team's sideline actually know about the plan ahead of time.
The rest are kept completely in the dark, like Javon Ringer, a Spartans running back. When Michigan State's punting team took the field in the fourth quarter, Ringer thought his teammates were going to politely hand the ball back to Penn State.
They weren't.
"I didn't know they were faking it," Ringer said.
Maybe Ringer didn't know it at the time, but he was about to see the play that he will remember as the most important part of Michigan State's comeback win on Saturday. The fake punt resulted in a 17-yard Jehuu Caulcrick first-down run. Eight plays later, Caulcrick was in the end zone and the Spartans had a fourth-quarter lead they would not relinquish.
That drive completed a comeback run in which Michigan State's offense repeatedly refused to hand over a victory to Penn State. And it was the beginning of a new round of questions for Penn State's defense, which went into the game as one of the best in the Big Ten, but allowed a 17-point lead in the third quarter to evaporate by the game's final minutes.
"It's not the way you want to go out," linebacker Dan Connor said after the game. "It's tough on the team and it's difficult, to say the least. You try to learn from it...Hopefully, we'll make a statement in a bowl game."
Penn State went into the locker room at halftime ahead 17-7. A Kevin Kelly touchdown on a fake field goal early in the third quarter gave the Lions their biggest lead of the game, 24-7.
It was a situation the Lions' defense had been in six times this season -- leading by two touchdowns or more in the third quarter. None of those opponents made any realistic charge at a comeback. Still, members of the defense insist that they weren't getting comfortable.
"I was thinking, 'We gotta really press, and try to put them away right here,' " Connor said. "And we didn't."
During the Spartans' next two drives, quarterback Brian Hoyer completed all six of his passes for 99 yards. Hoyer's favorite receiver this season, Devin Thomas, caught a 33-yard touchdown pass late in the third quarter that closed the Lions' lead to three points.
A sense of urgency grew along Penn State's sidelines. Unlike the first two quarters, the Lions' defense could no longer watch and rely on its offense to put together lengthy drives. Instead, the defense had to rush back onto the field after quick three-and-outs by the offense.
"You just know that you gotta try to buckle down," linebacker Tyrell Sales said. "Go out there and keep playing hard. You keep hitting them, you hope something goes your way. Nothing really changes."
Even when Penn State was able to put together a scoring drive early in the fourth quarter, the Spartans were able to answer back right away -- keeping the Lions' lead to a field goal.
Standing among a small crowd of reporters in a trailer outside Spartan Stadium Saturday night, Sales recalled how the Lions' defense had prepared for any fake punts or trick plays that the Spartans might try.
The linebacker was asked if he regarded that play as a turning point in the game, when a win began to slip out of Penn State's reach. He exhaled deeply and paused for a few seconds before responding.
"We had a good idea it was coming," Sales said. "We just didn't stop it."
