Michigan State football upsets Northwestern, 29-20, to turn Big Ten race upside down
EAST LANSING — Just when you thought you had Michigan State football figured out, it goes all 2020 on you.
Can’t run the ball and facing a Northwestern defense that is one of the nation’s best? Doesn’t matter.
Rocky Lombardi struggling at quarterback and it looks like he’ll be replaced? Not a chance, he’ll just fling the ball around for touchdowns instead.
A defense overmatched in two straight games by Iowa and Indiana appearing heading for a third straight meltdown? Nah, not this time.
The Spartans shocked the 13th-ranked Wildcats from the outset Saturday, used a 49-yard field goal from Matt Coghlin with 3:35 to play and got some timely runs from Lombardi in the fourth quarter to pull off a 29-20 upset.
Kalon Gervin recovered a fumble as time expired to give MSU coach Mel Tucker his second win in his debut season, both against ranked opponents.
Lombardi’s third-and-10 run set up Coghlin’s game-winner, and his 10-yard run on 11 of 27 passing for 167 yards and two TDs with an interception, but he also ran 10 times for 65 yards, while junior Connor Heyward had 96 yards on 24 carries. The Spartans outgained the Wildcats, 362-294, and forced three Wildcat turnovers, two of them Shakur Brown interceptions.
It was the first game since a 24-0 loss to the Hoosiers on Nov. 14 for the Spartans (2-3), whose road contest against Maryland last week was canceled due to COVID-19 issues within the Terrapins’ program that shut them down for two weeks.
Next up is No. 3 Ohio State, now also dealing with a coronavirus outbreak. The Buckeyes’ schedule game for Saturday at Illinois was called off a day earlier when coach Ryan Day tested positive for COVID-19 and other cases forced OSU to halt the trip.
Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith told reporters Saturday the rate of positive COVID tests within the football program had hit a “concerning level,” prompting the decision to cancel the weekend's game at Illinois according to The Columbus Dispatch. Day told reporters the Buckeyes would need to be back to practice Thursday at the latest to make the trip to East Lansing for next weekend’s noon kickoff ().
“The approval process is us,” Smith told reporters. “It's not like we got to get approval from the Big Ten or anyone else. It's us. So what we have to do is watch our environment. Certainly got to watch to see that we don't have continued spike in the positivity rate. But we'll collaborate and make a decision.”
While the Buckeyes (5-0) spent Saturday wondering if it will be able to play in the Big Ten championship, the Spartans sent the Big Ten West-leading Wildcats (5-1) to their first loss by dominating the division leader from the outset.
MSU entered averaging 73.8 yards per game on the ground to rank 124th out of 127 Football Bowl Subdivision teams playing this fall, in large part buoyed by a season-high 126 in its win at Michigan on Oct. 31. The Spartans had 60 or fewer in each of their other three games.
Against the Wildcats, who came in allowing 100.6 yards a game to rank 13th nationally against the run, MSU came out and imposed its will at the line of scrimmage and eclipsed its season high with 134 rushing yards in the first half. Heyward ran 12 times for 71 yards, while Lombardi had five carries for 43.
That ability to move the ball on the ground helped Lombardi open things up through the air. He launched a 75-yard bomb to Jalen Nailor for a touchdown on MSU’s second possession, then early in the second quarter hit Jayden Reed on a 15-yard fade from the slot for a second scoring strike on the first play of the second quarter to cap a 13-play drive. A Shakur Brown interception after the first TD set up a 22-yard Matt Coghlin field goal, and the Spartans had scored the first 17 points of the game in just over 15 minutes of football.
The Wildcats got a pair of field goals late in the half, then opened the third quarter by quickly moving through the air into MSU territory with 55 yards from Peyton Ramsey’s arm, another 12 on a trick throwback pass from receiver Riley Lees. Then Ramsey capped it with a fourth-and-goal 1-yard TD run on a naked bootleg.
Northwestern took its first lead thanks to short field set up by a punt catching interference penalty on MSU’s Julian Barnett. Cam Porter took a Wildcat snap and ran it in for a 3-yard score with 13:54 to play to put the Wildcats ahead, 20-17.
The two teams traded turnovers, a Lombardi pick immediately followed by a Northwestern fumble recovered by MSU’s Jack Camper. That led to Coghlin’s 43-yard tying field goal with 10:11 remaining.
With 6:22 to play and Northwestern facing third-and-7, MSU’s Shakur Brown picked off Ramsey’s throw to Berkeley Holson and knocked the Wildcats receiver to the ground. Holson had to be carted off the field, but the Spartans got the ball to set up Coghlin’s eventual winning kick.
Ramsey finished 20 of 42 for 219 yards and two interceptions with no TDs.
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Read more on the Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Read more on the Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football upsets Northwestern, 29-20, at Spartan Stadium
