A trio of former Michigan State stars made game-winning plays for their respective NFL teams on Sunday afternoon but only one of them didn’t finish their college career in East Lansing.
Kirk Cousins and Cody White connected for the game-winning touchdown against the New Orleans Saints just one week after doing the same to the Los Angeles Chargers and Derrick Harmon recorded the game-sealing strip-sack against Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals.
Harmon finished his career at Oregon but got his start at Michigan State.
The Detroit native had a career year with Oregon after three solid seasons with Michigan State and ended up going in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft. As a rookie with the Steelers, he had 27 tackles and three sacks and now he’s off to a strong start to the 2026 campaign.
On Sunday, he made the biggest play of his career with a game-winning strip-sack on Joe Burrow with under a minute left and the Bengals looking to drive down and kick the tying field goal or score the game-winning touchdown.
DERRICK HARMON FORCES THE FUMBLE AND THE STEELERS RECOVER! pic.twitter.com/SkxOYgftkQ
— NFL (@NFL) September 27, 2026
The Bengals were already in field goal range with 53 seconds left so there was a legitimate chance that Cincinnati was going to go down and score the game-winning touchdown but Harmon had other plans.
On the biggest play of the game, Harmon bull-rushed a blocker, swum right past him, and took Burrow down while jarring the ball loose. This sack won the Steelers the game, making Harmon the third former Spartan who made the game-clinching play on Sunday.
Tough day for the “Michigan State doesn’t produce NFL talent” crowd.
Derrick Harmon is quickly coming into his own
Harmon’s game-winning strip-sack was just the latest instance of him handling would-be blockers and making plays in the backfield, but he would even tell you he hasn’t even scratched the surface yet.
The former Spartan defensive lineman had three sacks in his rookie year and he already has 1.5 sacks in Year 2. He’s currently on pace to have about 8.5 sacks this season which is impressive for a second-year defensive lineman in the NFL. Clearly the Steelers could use this type of complementary boost for Cam Heyward and TJ Watt because this game-winning play on Burrow was their first sack of the game.
Starting on the defensive line for one of the AFC’s top playoff contenders and already being halfway to his sack total from last season through three games is a good sign that a breakout is coming.
Add us as a preferred source on Google