Northwestern Football: Wildcats have Michigan State on upset alert

Northwestern football upset Michigan State in Evanston last season and is on their way to another upset in East Lansing, leading the Spartans early.

As the whistle from halftime blew the Michigan State Spartans found themselves in a familiar position. For the third straight season, the Northwestern Wildcats had colored a somewhat one-sided rivalry with shades of purple and grey.

From 2008 to 2013 Michigan State won four of five. Since then, Northwestern has won three of four, and is looking for their third straight victory on Saturday. Northwestern led at halftime in 2016, winning 54-40. They were tied 10-10 with the Spartans last year before winning in triple overtime, 39-31. In this year’s contest, the Wildcats took a 14-6 lead into the break.

Northwestern took their early lead on two big plays, both on the arm of quarterback Clayton Thorson. He connected on a 77-yard touchdown pass to K. McGowan at the end of the first quarter and started the second quarter with a 34-yard touchdown to J. Jefferson. Both drives consisted of two plays and put the Spartans in a hole before they knew what had happened.

The Michigan State defense has been steady, outside of those two big plays. They’ve held Northwestern to 1-for-6 on third down and -2.5 yards per carry on the ground. It’s the offense that has struggled the most. Quarterback Brian Lewerke is 14-of-25 for 159 yards and an interception. If he doesn’t turn things around, things are only going to get worse for the Spartans

Michigan State entered the game as a 10.5-point favorite (per Oddshark). There’s still a lot of football to be played, and the game is close enough at halftime for the Spartans to cover the spread with a strong second half. The spread, though, is the last thing on the minds of the Spartans. They just want a win, otherwise, a once-promising season could be over on the first weekend of October.