Well, that's how you do that. Michigan State jumped out to a 35-0 lead at halftime, took the foot off the gas a bit in the third quarter, but came back to finish the game with a 5-TD lead, 49-14.
Ashton Leggett is your breakout star with 110 rushing yards and 4, count them: 4, touchdowns. (Kudos to Rick, BTW.) Kirk Cousins put up a nearly flawless stat line: 22-25, 353 yards, 2 TDs. Keith Nichol didn't do much with his playing time: 6-10, 30 yards, 1 TD.
The defense held Western to 211 yards, 80 of which came on one play.
Elsewhere, losses by Michigan and Minnesota would seem to help our bowl positioning (to a lesser extent, the Northwestern win hurts). We're now tied for sixth in the league in overall wins and tied for 5th in conference wins. I, for one, wouldn't mind playing up in a bowl game this year. We know we have the ability to compete with higher-ranked opponents. And a solid bowl match-up would provide some renewed meaning to this otherwise racked-with-regret season.
Full game recap later today or tomorrow. Until then, here's the place to discuss all of today's big-time football action.