After three night games and a bye week over the past five weeks, just having a Saturday afternoon Michigan State game feels like an anomaly. What isn't an anomaly is Indiana facing a ranked opponent, their 4th in 4 games. Throw in their non-conference game against a suddenly impressive 5-1 Virginia team, and it's tough to argue Indiana hasn't had the toughest Big Ten slate. The back half is easier, but still includes a visit from Wisconsin, so at some point the Hoosiers need to pull an upset, or their margin for error against Illinois, or trips to College Park, Champaign or West Lafayette if they want to get to a bowl. Michigan State's defense is arguably playing as well as it has since 2013, but the back end still creates cause for concern, and in a rarity for this year, they are facing a team that can exploit it. Bowling Green and Michigan have no quarterback; Western Michigan's quarterback didn't have the deep throw to stretch them; and Minnesota didn't figure out who their quarterback should be until it was too late. Brandom Wimbush torched the Spartans, but they did hold Nathan Stanley in check, namely because their run defense was so dominant, they weren't forced to overcommit their linebackers. But they clearly have not faced a receiver as good as Simmie Cobbs. Cobbs put on an absolute show in the opener against Ohio State, but has been uneven since then while going through the ups and downs with freshman quarterback Peyton Ramsey, who clearly became THE guy last week against Michigan. Ramsey got absolutely battered in that game, but still hung around, and brought the Hoosiers back from a late 10 point defecit to force overtime. What we are slowly seeing out of Ramsey is a development in his ability to read his progressions. Michigan overcommitted on Cobbs, so instead he found Luke Timian 7 times for 95 yards and Mike Majette 5 times for 49 yards, both career highs. The Spartans, after struggling all year to get sufficient run blocking may have figured something out last weekend, running toss sweep after toss sweep as L.J. Scott piled up a career high 194 rushing and 220 offensive yards. Was that something the Spartans figured they can do well, or was it a major defensive deficiency for Minnesota? With film on it now, we may figure that out quickly. Brian Lewerke is just happy to see that the weather forecast Saturday in East Lansing is 70 and sunny. He was completing 63% of his passes, averaging 241 yards per game, and totaling 8 touchdowns to 2 interceptions through 4 games. In a pair of rain soaked games the past 2 weeks, he had 107 ypg on 50% completions with a touchdown (on a screen pass) and a pick. Probably could have had a couple more picks against Minnesota if not for defenders struggling to catch a wet ball. Michigan State needs him to prove that the last two weeks were a product of the weather, and have him pick up where he left off in September, because this is the best offense they've faced since Notre Dame.
MICHIGAN STATE 28, INDIANA 17
