Michigan State Football: 5 reasons the Spartans will beat Northwestern in Week 9
4. LJ Scott will have a big day
Two games removed from the best game of his three-year Michigan State career, LJ Scott is going to have yet another elite showing on the road in the Big Ten — this time against Northwestern. The Wildcats come into the game with the 25th-best run defense in the country, but the Spartans are going enforce the run game early on.
Scott may not get the start, again, but the junior running back will come in and dominate when he’s called on. He’s going to get stuffed on his first few carries between the tackles, but the play-calling will surprisingly improve.
In fact, he will get more pitches to the long side of the field like he did against Minnesota, giving him more room to figure out where he wants to run and which holes to hit. That’s the one play that continued to work against the Golden Gophers and the Spartans will go back to it.
Run plays up the middle on first and second down consistently don’t seem to work anymore, so mixing things up will lead to another 100-yard performance from Scott.