Northwestern’s defense played well Saturday.
“Much better than the 34-0 score indicates,” coach Randy Walker said.
But Michigan State’s defense was even better.
The Spartans limited NU to an average of 2.2 yards for each of its 68 plays and erased what coach Nick Saban apparently thought was an embarrassing blot on his record.
“We have winning records against a lot of teams, but I didn’t have a winning record against Northwestern,” Saban said after the game. “I’m the only coach in Michigan State history not to have a winning record against them. I was 1-1. So I asked the players to please do something about that.”
“We said we needed a goose egg and we got it,” said strong safety Aric Morris, who made two of his team’s 13 tackles for losses. “It feels good to win eight games. Now we have bigger and better things to come.”
The Spartans sacked Northwestern quarterbacks Zak Kustok and Nick Kreinbrink eight times for minus-57 yards. End Hubert Thompson had three of the sacks.
Running man: Wildcats tailback Damien Anderson rushed 23 times for 78 yards, exceeding 1,000 yards for the season. In the first half, however, he gained only 23 yards in 14 carries, for a 1.6 average). On six straight carries he lost one, lost one, lost three, got nothing, gained two and lost five yards. Each tackle was by a different defender.
“They blitzed a lot and had a guy on me on every play,” Anderson said. “Usually a linebacker followed me. For me to rush 1,000 yards behind our young line is definitely a positive thing. We’ll all be back next year.”
Northwestern had 110 yards rushing, but the total would have been 167 if sack yards were not subtracted from the rushing total in college football. NU’s longest run was 18 yards from punt formation by J.J. Standring.
Milestones: Saturday’s loss was NU’s first shutout defeat since Indiana blanked the Cats 24-0 on Oct. 23, 1993. . . . Wildcats defensive back Harold Blackmon broke up two passes Saturday to give him 16 for the season and 25 for his career. He passed previous record-holder Rodney Ray, who had 23. . . . Plaxico Burress’ three touchdown catches gave him nine for the season, bettering his school-record eight of last season.
