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MSU 24, Northwestern 14: Afterglow Thread

The Spartans beat the Wildcats on homecoming, 24-14.  MSU played a miserable first half, and was lucky to be down only 7-0 at halftime, but the team somehow got energized, and the 17 points MSU scored in the third quarter turned out to be enough.  The Spartans capitalized on turnovers, scoring 14 points off of 2 Wildcat fumbles.

Your three (well, maybe four) stars of the game:

  • Blair White had the best game of his career: 12 catches for 186 yards and two touchdowns.  Additionally, whenever MSU needed a big third down conversion, White was there: by my count, he converted three third downs and came very close on two others.  A remarkable performance.
  • Kirk Cousins started slowly (to steal from mgoblog, Tacopants was quite busy in the first half), but he put it together in the second half and finished with excellent numbers: 21/31 for 281 yards, 2 touchdowns and no interceptions.
  • Greg Jones/Eric Gordon: 29 tackles, 3 sacks, and several clutch second half plays (including hurrying Mike Kafka in key situations) indicates a highly productive day at the office for the heart of our linebacking corps.

Spartans win, and losses by Ohio State (!) and Wisconsin mean that next Saturday night's tilt against Iowa, amazingly, is for the conference lead.  Your thoughts on the State game, or any of the day's other games, go below.