After the Spartans marched down the field on their first offensive possession, capping a 9-play, 75-yard drive with a 5-yard touchdown run by Elijah Collins to take a 7-0 lead, sophomore kicker Cole Hahn sent the ensuing kick-off out of bounds.

Then, when Michigan State's defense forced a punt by the Wildcats on their first offensive possession, Cody White put the ball on the grass while trying to make a move, setting Northwestern's offense back up in MSU territory.

“We work at it very hard, but we need to clean that end of things up," Dantonio said. "A lot of times you got younger players playing on those teams. As far as the kick out of bounds, he kicked it off, I thought we were going to be fine and then the wind just blew it. Those things will happen."

In the second half, Matt Coghlin extended his missed field goal streak to four after making his first seven attempts of the year, when he missed a 40-yard field goal midway through the third quarter. He finally ended the drought when he connected on a 26-yard attempt to give MSU a 24-3 lead.

Despite Coghlin's recent hiccups, Dantonio said he hasn't lost confidence in his junior kicker.

“I think we have to be positive, first of all," Dantonio said of Coghlin. "Nobody is working harder at it than he is. His head came up right after the kick, he needs to keep his head down. I think when you have something that occurs that's unusual for yourself, you go back to technique. We still believe in Matt.

"We expect him to kick very well. ... He is going to miss at times. It's uncharacteristic of him, but he did hit seven in a row before he missed the one, and he missed a couple others. You know, we had some problems with delay of game on one and a problem with personal on the other. ... But just keep going in that direction, we have a lot of confidence in him, and he’ll be fine.” 

After a homecoming match-up against Indiana this Saturday (3:30 p.m., BTN), Michigan State begins a grueling three-game stretch where it travels to Ohio State and Wisconsin in back-to-back games before hosting Penn State. And as games get harder — and more meaningful — the Spartans may not be able to afford to continue to hurt themselves with special team blunders.

"They have put us behind the 8-ball, whether it's been a penalty or something of that nature, so we have to clean it up. As we go forward, it will only get tougher as far as competitive nature of the conference and who we play and the consequences. The importance of each game grows as we go forward," Dantonio said.  

Production points prowess

There is one record that went overshadowed in Michigan State's win Saturday afternoon and it belongs to senior linebacker Joe Bachie. It was for production points, a stat that Dantonio uses to get an idea of a defensive player's impact on a game.

“Joe Bachie had an unbelievable game," Dantonio said. "You know, we have production points when you get so many tackles, so many assists, interceptions, pass breakups — you get a certain amount of points. Usually if you have 20 points, you had a very good game. Seventeen points, you had a very good game. He had 53 production points, which gives you an idea of how well he played.” 

Bachie led Michigan State with 14 tackles against Northwestern. He added two tackles for loss, one sack, two pass breakups and an interception off of backup quarterback Aidan Smith that sealed the game.

Bachie also came up with one of the tackles in Michigan State's crucial first quarter goal line stand that kept the Wildcats off of the scoreboard after White fumbled a punt.

“That's the highest one I have ever had," Dantonio said. "I started doing this when I was with Nick Saban in 1995, so that’s the highest production points that I have ever seen.” 

Familiar freshman

Freshman receiver Julian Barnett hasn't had an eye-popping performance yet in his young college career. But with more opportunities, one may come at some point this season. And Dantonio guaranteed that his playing time won't be coming to an end.

Barnett has played sparingly in each of Michigan State's four games this season. If he plays in one more game this year, Barnett will forfeit his redshirt season option. Dantonio made it clear that MSU has zero plans to sit Barnett for the remainder of the season.

“We’ll play Julian the whole year," Dantonio said. "I think that he’s only going to get better. Big catch yesterday.” 

Barnett finished with one catch for 15 yards Saturday afternoon in Michigan State's 31-10 win at Northwestern. His only other catch this year came against Arizona State and went for 29 yards. True freshman long snapper Jude Pedrozo is in the same boat as Barnett. Out of necessity, due to the season-ending injury to Ryan Armour, Pedrozo was fluxed into action and has played in all four games this year. And just like Barnett, there is no plan to sit him.

Dantonio mentioned other freshmen receiver Tre Mosley and offensive linemen J.D. Duplain, Devontae Dobbs and Nick Samac as guys who will continue to see some time this year — but not all of them will burn their redshirt season. Mosley hasn't played this year. Samac and Dobbs have each played in two games — against the Wildcats and Western Michigan, while Duplain got his first snaps Saturday afternoon in Michigan State's Big Ten opener.

"If they aren’t going to play regularly, we don’t want to take their redshirt," Dantonio said. "But I do think Julian will play regularly.”