Post-Game Notes: Northwestern

Oct. 15, 2016

Recap | Final Stats | Quotes | Photo Gallery 1 | Photo Gallery 2

• Michigan State fell to Northwestern, 54-40, Saturday in Spartan Stadium . . . the 94 points were the most in series history (previous: 90 in 1989) . . . MSU leads the all-time series, 37-18, including an 18-8 mark in East Lansing . . . Mark Dantonio is 5-3 in his career against Northwestern.

• Brian Lewerke became the first Spartan freshman to start at quarterback since Stephen Reaves (Sept. 11, 2004 vs. Central Michigan) . . . Lewerke finished the game 12-of-19 passing for 99 yards and one touchdown, a 15-yard pass to Josiah Price in the first quarter.

• Tyler O'Connor relieved Lewerke in the third quarter and finished with a career-high 281 yards passing . . . he also tied his career high with three touchdown passes (59 and 86 yards to R.J. Shelton; 9 yards to Donnie Corley) . . . O'Connor completed 13 of his 21 passes . . . the 86-yard scoring pass to Shelton tied his career long (86 yards to Shelton vs. Indiana on Oct. 1).

• R.J. Shelton recorded a career-high 190 receiving yards on seven catches . . . the 190 receiving yards were the most by a Spartan wide receiver against Northwestern (previous: 186 by Blair White in 2009) . . . he tied his career long with an 86-yard touchdown pass from Tyler O'Connor in the third quarter. . . he also had a 59-yard touchdown reception in the third quarter.

• O'Connor (281 yards), Lewerke (99), and wide receiver R.J. Shelton (2-of-2 for 44 yards) combined for a school single-game record 424 yards passing (previous: 400 vs. Michigan in 1999).

• Donnie Corley had a season-high five catches for 73 yards, including a 9-yard touchdown reception in the fourth quarter.

• Josiah Price caught the 19th touchdown of his career with a 15-yard catch from Brian Lewerke in the first quarter . . . Price has the most TD catches by a Spartan tight end in school history.

• Michael Geiger scored a season-high 10 points (four PATs, two field goals) . . . Geiger moved into third all-time on the MSU scoring list with 311 points . . . Geiger has 45 career field goals, tying him for seventh all-time in MSU history with Morten Andersen.

• Freshman cornerback Justin Layne, in his first career start at cornerback, returned an interception 43 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter to give MSU a 14-0 lead . . . it marked the first defensive TD of the season for the Spartans.

• Malik McDowell recorded a career-high 11 tackles and also had two tackles for loss (11 yards).

• Montae Nicholson led MSU with 13 tackles . . . he has 30 tackles in the last two games (17 vs. BYU) and is first on the team with 54 tackles for the season.

• Riley Bullough, in his first game since Notre Dame on Sept. 17, tallied a season-high 12 tackles.