So, third post of the day. (scroll down. The other two are still there.) Anyway, the most important thing I can say in this post is drop by for the game thread tomorrow. Two weeks ago, for the road game, we had a genuinely good discussion between five or six of us that generated about 150 comments, so let's try that again. I can say pretty confidently that I'll never have the best Northwestern sports blog out there - lookin at you, LTP - but I do hope to make the game threads here bangin', because the fact that your comments update automatically is just too good.  So even if you hate everything else I ever do, comment along tomorrow.. It should be good.

By the way, check out SBNation's MSU blog, The Only Colors, for an MSU perspective. (those only colors are green and white by the way, in case you were wondering. 

Anyway, on to the previewin'.

Oh, goodness, we're screwed, aren't we.

When we got the ball: Pass. Pass pass pass. Pass pass pass, pass pass pass.

We might have Stephen Simmons back, but, let's be real. Mike Kafka is our only hope for a productive offense. It's not so much that I don't trust our running backs - although, I don't - it's that Michigan State's run defense is absolutely stout, and our running attack, quite frankly isn't. Blame injuries, blame our o-line, blame Tyrell Sutton if you want, but we can't trust us to get us a W at this point in the year against a good team. 

When they got the ball: I know that I know nothing about football, but I also know that we're not a good enough defense to do anything good if we're not aggressive, and never will this be truer than against a team with two rookie injured quarterbacks and a running back who is essentially out there by himself for the very first time. Blitz early, blitz often. 

People I'm watching: 

Offense: Andrew Brewer. Brew started off the year as our #1 target, but he's sort of disappeared as of late. Since Syracuse, I don't remember him making any big play outside of drawing some downfield pass interference calls. We're going to be passing a lot, and although Markshausen and Dunsmore have been great for that short stuff, who's our big play target? Last week, it was, uh, Jacob Schmidt. Get open, big man.

Defense: Brian Peters. Duh. We're playing our biggest opponent yet, and one of our three best defensive players is out with an injury. Peters has looked meh up until last week against Miami - last week was the first time I've ever seen him tackle somebody, let alone make multiple great defensive plays. If he doesn't get burned deep once, I'll consider his performance a success, and we might have ourselves a game.

Pick in a mascot fight to the death: The Spartan has two arms, two legs, lots of armor, a shield, a sword, a spear, and decades of military training. The Wildcat is a cat with sharper teeth than those of your average domestic house cat, but whose diet still consists of small rodents. Game, MSU. (mascot death fight records: MSU, 7-0, NU, 2-5. It should be noted that they're 4-0 on the field in games I've said their mascot would lose the mascot death fight, so that's a good sign.)

Prediction:

After the jump!

Michigan State, 34, Northwestern, 24

You remember that one scene in 300 where the guy is like "Hey, dude from that other city, what is your profession?" and that other guy is like "well, sir, I'm a potter." and then he turns to the Spartans and they're way more jacked and then he's like "you see, I did bring more soldiers!"

I have a funny feeling we're the potters here. We haven't really played any good opponents. I mean, not one. MSU is our first real toughy, and they really want this win to prevent from sinking below .500, plus it's at home, plus it's homecoming, plus they seem way better than us. This is the first time I've picked the other team, so let's hope they prove me wrong.