LINCOLN, Neb. — That fantastic finish against Wisconsin sure seems like a long time ago to Michigan State.
The No. 11 Spartans had a chance to build an almost insurmountable lead in the Big Ten Legends Division on Saturday against No. 14 Nebraska, but the Spartans’ road demons cropped up again in a 24-3 loss.
The Spartans were held to 187 total yards and quarterback Kirk Cousins couldn’t get anything going in the passing game against Nebraska’s swarming defense.
After throwing for 290 yards and three touchdowns at home in last week’s crazy 37-31 victory over Wisconsin last week, Cousins missed on 12 of his first 16 passes and finished 11 of 27 for 86 yards. He was sacked four times.
Cousins was intercepted on the Spartans’ first possession, was nearly picked off three other times and often threw into double coverage.
“We’re a much better team than we showed today and we still have a lot of things in front of us to accomplish,” Cousins said. “It’s important to push on and understand that so much of what happens to us this season is not what happened to us but how we respond.”
The Cornhuskers (7-1, 3-1) moved into a tie with Michigan State (6-2, 3-1) and Michigan for the Big Ten Legends Division lead. The Huskers own the tiebreaker with Michigan State and are yet to play Michigan and Iowa.
Rex Burkhead scored three touchdowns and ran 35 times for 130 yards as Nebraska won for only the second time in 17 games against a top-10 opponent.
In other games involving Big Ten teams, Dan Persa and Kain Colter combined to throw a school record-tying five touchdown passes, four to Drake Dunsmore, as visiting Northwestern (3-5, 1-4) defeated Indiana (1-8, 0-5) 59-38. Indiana running back Stephen Houston (Little Rock Fair) ran for 151 yards and 2 touchdowns on 19 carries. ... Fitzgerald Toussaint ran for a career-high 170 yards and 2 touchdowns to lead No. 18 Michigan (7-3, 3-1) to a 36-14 victory over visiting Purdue (4-4,2-2). ... MarQueis Gray scored on a 2-yard touchdown run in the closing minutes to lift host Minnesota (2-6, 1-3) to a 22-21 victory over Iowa (5-3, 2-2). ... Joe Paterno broke Eddie Robinson’s record for victories by a Division I coach with No. 409 as Penn State (8-1, 5-0) defeated Illinois (6-3, 2-3) 10-7.
BIG EAST
West Virginia rallies
PISCATAWAY, N.J. - Geno Smith threw two second-half touchdowns and scored a go ahead score on a fourth-down, 1-yard run with 6:18 to play as No. 25 West Virginia rallied for a 41-31 victory on Saturday in a game played in a wet, snowy pre-Halloween storm.
Smith sandwiched touchdown passes of 19 yards to Stedman Bailey and 20 yards to Tavon Austin around his dive into the end zone in rallying the Mountaineers (6-2, 2-1) from a 10-point halftime deficit to their 17th consecutive victory over Rutgers (5-3, 2-2).
In another game involving Big East teams, Teddy Bridgewater passed for three touchdowns and Victor Anderson rushed for 93 yards and a touchdown to lead host Louisville (4-4, 2-1) to a 27-10 victory over Syracuse (5-3, 1-2).
Sports, Pages 40 on 10/30/2011