Michigan State Spartans: A trifecta of wins makes for the perfect Saturday

It was the Saturday of all Saturdays for the Michigan State Spartans as their basketball, football, and hockey teams all pulled off wins.

What a Saturday for the Michigan State Spartans!  It’s not very often when fans get the basketball, football, and hockey team all on the same day. Not only did they all play, but they all also won. Both the hockey and football teams beat top-ten ranked teams respectively in their contests.

All three teams squared off, and all three would come away victorious on a Saturday that left Spartans fans with something to cheer for, across the board. Meanwhile, the Michigan Wolverines are sitting there, coming to grips with the fact that they lost to an 0-5 Penn State Nittany Lions team.

Michigan State Spartans football upsets #8 Northwestern Wildcats.

Let’s start with the football team since their game started first. Michigan State hosted #8-ranked Northwestern, who was coming in with a 5-0 record trying to continue their perfect season.  Michigan State came out firing on all cylinders, getting out to a 17-0 lead early in the second quarter. As the game went on, Northwestern came back and even took the lead at one point, but the Spartans overcame it and won a huge game against a top-ten ranked team.

Michigan State was able to do this by running the ball and controlling the clock. They had a season-high 195 yards on the ground on 47 carries. The offense found a way to stretch the field as well when quarterback Rocky Lombardi was able to complete a 75-yard touchdown pass to Jalen Nailor.

On the other side of the ball, the defense held Northwestern to only 63 rushing yards on 37 carries. They also kept Northwestern in check on third-down, only allowing them to convert on six of their 18 tries.

First-year coach, Mel Tucker,  is 2-1 against top 15 teams and 0-2 against unranked teams.  If that sentence does not sum up 2020, then nothing will. Michigan State is hosting Ohio State on Saturday. Needless to say, that will be their toughest test of the season by far.

It may not be the result they want so far in this 2020 season, but this Saturday’s victory was a good one and could be a building block for their upcoming match-up. It may even offer some extra motivation as the Spartans will be taking on the Buckeyes in a tough matchup.