N'western crushes Michigan State; Lions beat Purdue

EAST LANSING - No fluke. No overtime necessary.

Northwestern beat a ranked team for the second straight week Saturday - this time a 37-17 victory over Michigan State. The victory follows a riveting 47-44 overtime win at Wisconsin, then ranked No. 7.

No one was better Saturday than Damien Anderson, who ran for two long touchdowns and 219 yards on 25 carries. Tim Long added three field goals for the Wildcats.

Northwestern (4-1, 2-0 Big Ten) used its spread offense to keep Michigan State (3-1, 0-1) off balance early. The Wildcats then shifted to a ground game in the second half to eat up time.

"We have a long season to go. We have to stay focused, "Williams said. "We just have to rally the troops, reload, and remain within the system."

Michigan State was unable to convert several big plays into scores, and the Spartans had two costly fumbles.

The game was tied at 10 after the first quarter, with Northwestern's Teddy Johnson a 39-yard scoring strike from Zak Kustok, and Michigan State's T.J. Duckett countering with an 11-yard touchdown run.

Long kicked two field goals in the second quarter, and Andersen raced 32 yards for a touchdown.

Northwestern ran for 201 yards in the half, to only 63 for Michigan State as both teams used their pass attacks to register big gains and pose scoring threats.

Anderson scored again in the third quarter, breaking loose up the middle for a 41-yard run.

Penn State 22, No. 22 Purdue 20 - This one was for Adam Taliaferro.

Penn State, off to its worst start in 36 years, took advantage of three special teams errors by Purdue and beat the Boilermakers 22-20 on Saturday.

The Nittany Lions dedicated the game to Taliaferro, a freshman cornerback seriously injured his spinal cord last week against Ohio State.

"When you play with heart and emotion, this is what happens," senior Justin Kurpeikis said. "Adam had a hand in it somehow. We ca''t help him back. But we can make his road easier."

Taliaferro remains in a Philadelphia hospital after successful spinal fusion surgery Monday in Ohio. The Nittany Lions wore No. 43 on the back of their helmets to honor their fallen teammate.

"As a coach, it was my toughest week," said Joe Paterno, who moved within five victories of breaking Bear Bryant's Division I-A record of 323 wins. "It was a struggle not knowing how to handle the squad."

Travis Dorsch missed a 46-yard field goal that would have given Purdue the lead with 2:32 left, allowing Penn State to beat a higher-ranked opponent for the first time since 1996.

Earlier, two botched punts by Dorsch led to two short Penn State touchdown drives.

"Special teams have to think about it for us to have a better chance of winning," Purdue quarterback Drew Brees said. "Special teams have to clean it up. Guys need to start taking pride."

Brees tied the Big Ten record with his 74th touchdown pass and also caught a touchdown, but failed to beat Penn State for the third time. His desperation pass fell as time expired. Purdue (3-2, 1-1 Big Ten) hasn't beaten Penn State since 1951.

Minnesota 44, No. 24 Illinois 10 - Minnesota's Tellis Redmon was a backup one week ago, bounced from the starting lineup by a fumble and the promise shown by the redshirt freshman who replaced him.

Redmon made quite a case for his permanent return to the starting job by accumulating nearly 300 yards in the Gophers' 44-10 victory over Illinois on Saturday.

He ran for 183 yards on 31 carries, gaining 151 of them in the first half, and caught three passes for 116 yards.

Minnesota coach Glen Mason had settled a quarterback controversy this week by replacing Asad Abdul-Khaliq with Travis Cole, who passed for 170 yards and ran for 82 in three quarters against the Illini.

Mason wasn't ready to choose between Redmon, who was removed from the field after fumbling at Baylor, or Thomas Tapeh, who rushed for 183 yards in that game but was limited Saturday by a foot injury.

The Gophers (3-2, 1-1 Big Ten) overwhelmed the Illini (3-2, 0-2) much as they did in a 37-7 victory last season, by running between the tackles. They gained 364 yards rushing, just 3 fewer than in that game last season.

Mississippi St. 47, No. 3 Florida 35 - Steve Spurrier couldn't understand all the fuss about Mississippi State beating his third-ranked Florida Gators.

"Mississippi State ought to be embarrassed tearing down the goal posts after beating this team," the Florida coach said.

But down they went, both of them, after Mississippi State beat the defenseless Gators 47-35 on Saturday.

Florida scored on the game's last play but couldn't even attempt a conversion.

Spurrier openly questioned his defense's effort after last week's poor performance against Kentucky, and saw no improvement against the Bulldogs.

Dicenzo Miller ran for 172 yards and Dontae Walker had 156 for Mississippi State.

Mississippi State gained 517 yards, 351 on the ground. Miller and Walker each had a touchdown run, and Wayne Madkin ran for two scores and threw for one.

It was the most yards rushing and points allowed by Florida since a 62-24 loss to in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl. The Gators (4-1, 2-1) had minus-78 yards rushing, the lowest ever under Spurrier.

Defensive coordinator Jon Hoke was left to explain the second straight game filled with missed tackles.

"I can't tackle for them," Hoke said. "But the communication on how to tackle is not getting taught."

Louisiana St. 38, No. 11 Tennessee 31 - For a night, Rohan Davey and the Louisiana St. Tigers met every challenge.

Davey threw a 25-yard touchdown pass - his fourth of the game - to Robert Royal on the first play of overtime to give Louisiana St. a 38-31 victory over No. 11 Tennessee on Saturday night.

It was the first overtime game in Tiger Stadium history, and sent the victory-starved Louisiana St. fans swarming onto the field, where they quickly toppled both goal posts.

After Louisiana St. scored, Tennessee drove to the 3, but third- and fourth-down passes to the end zone were broken up by cornerback Damien James.

"They weren't doing anything unexpected," said Tennessee defensive back Teddy Gaines. "We came out kind of flat and it took us a while to realize we had a ball game on our hands. "

Tennessee did not score a touchdown until the third quarter, then scored 25 second-half points. The Vols, who overcame an 18-point deficit, tied it at 31 with 1:30 left in regulation on A.J. Suggs' 16-yard scoring pass to Cedrick Wilson, and Suggs ' pass to Eric Parker on the 2-point conversion.

"This is one of the most hostile environments we 've been in, " Suggs said. "I thought we played well considering that."

AP PHOTO

The Spartans were the second-straight victim of Northwestern's surprise Big Ten start. The Wildcats easily defeated Michigan State, 37-17.