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GAME NOTES: Intrastate Big Ten Conference rivals square off in East Lansing on Saturday afternoon, as the Michigan State Spartans play host to the 22nd- ranked Michigan Wolverines.

Michigan is a perfect 4-0 on the season, already surpassing its win total from all of last year, and the Wolverines opened conference play last weekend with a hard-fought 36-33 win over visiting Indiana. This is UM's first road game of 2009 and the team will play at Iowa next week before returning home for a pair against Delaware State and Penn State.

Michigan State has dropped three in a row after opening the season with a 44-3 win over Montana State. The most recent setback occurred last week in its conference lidlifter as the Wisconsin Badgers took care of the Spartans in a 38-30 final. Beginning with this game, MSU will play three of its next four at home where it is 1-1 thus far.

This game is being played for the Paul Bunyan Trophy, with Michigan owning a 34-20-2 edge in that series. The Wolverines lay claim to a 67-29-2 all-time series advantage. Michigan State won last year's meeting in Ann Arbor, 35-21, but Michigan has won three straight in East Lansing. The home team has won 13 of the last 17 meetings.

Despite some obvious flaws, Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez was proud of his team's overall effort in the recent win over Indiana. "It was a tough battle, and we did not play well at times. They had something to do with that. They have a good team, and they played pretty well. We had a lot of unforced errors too, but we got the win. I'm proud of the guys. We've talked all year that we're going to have to play every game for 60 minutes. We have to get out and battle, and we did that."

Freshman QB Tate Forcier hit Martavious Odoms for a 26-yard TD with 2:29 left in regulation to give UM the three-point win. Forcier threw for 184 yards and two TDs in the game. The Michigan ground attack was productive as well, accounting for 149 yards and three TDs, one each coming from Carlos Brown, Brandon Minor and Forcier.

Rodriguez tempered his enthusiasm when speaking about his young signal- caller's efforts in leading the team to the come-from-behind win. "Tate [Forcier] wasn't sharp all the time, but he made some plays at the end."

So far this season, Forcier is completing 62.1 percent of his passes for 167.8 ypg with seven TDs and only two INTs. Odoms leads the team with nine receptions, but it is the UM ground game that seems to be the team's more effective offensive tool with Brown pacing the club with his 321 yards and three TDs. Denard Robinson, Minor and Forcier have combined for seven rushing TDs, the team as a whole generating a Big Ten-best 240.2 rushing ypg. The Wolverines also lead the conference in scoring at 37.5 ppg.

The Michigan defense is allowing 22.8 points and 385.8 total yards per contest this season, with foes producing 142.0 ypg on the ground and 243.8 ypg through the air. The Wolverines had their problems with the multi-faceted Indiana offense last week, as the Hoosiers generated their most yards (467) and points (33) ever against the Maize and Blue.

Indiana had to settle for some field goals after being held out of the end zone by the UM defense, and Rodriguez realized his team dodged some bullets. "We had to force some field goals. It was disappointing that they got a couple big plays especially that one at the end. They kept fighting. We forced some field goals when our offense was struggling to keep us in the game. If those had been touchdowns, it would have been tough. But they kept it close, and we pulled it out at the end."

Jonas Mouton and Obi Ezeh were both credited with double-digit tackles in the IU contest with 11 and 10, respectively, while Ryan Van Bergen finished with six stops, including a sack, and he broke up a pair of passes as well. Ezeh leads the team with 34 tackles on the season.

The Spartans played catch up the whole day against Wisconsin, needing a pair of late TDs just to make the final score more respectable. The MSU offense was credited with 486 yards in the game, but was on the field for just 22:31, was a mere 3-of-10 on third down conversion attempts, and turned the ball over four times, including three INTs.

Michigan State QBs Kirk Cousins and Keith Nichol combined to throw for 396 yards (matching the second-highest total in school history) and four TDs, two of which went to Keshawn Martin, who finished with four grabs for 139 yards. The Spartans picked up just 90 yards on the ground, with Glenn Winston carrying the ball nine times for 52 yards.

MSU is averaging 32.8 points and 438.5 total yards per game this season, with the pass being the more effective mode of attack (320.8 ypg). Cousins is hitting the mark on 60.6 percent of his tosses, doing so for 212.5 ypg with seven TDs and only two INTs. Nichol adds 100.8 ypg with five scores and two picks. Blair White is the leading receiver with his 23 grabs for 350 yards and four TDs, while Caulton Ray and Larry Caper have combined for 286 rushing yards and all three of the team's rushing TDs.

The Michigan State defense yielded 436 total yards (193 rushing, 243 passing) to Wisconsin, was on the field for 37 and a half minutes and allowed the Badgers to covert 11-of-18 third down tries.

Coach Mark Dantonio was disappointed in the overall effort of his team. "I think that you can't win a football game if you can't get off the field on third down on a consistent basis, and you can't turn it over four times."

He was succinct in his analysis of the defense. "When you say what's wrong, we have to stop teams on a more consistent basis."

Three Spartans finished the UW game with double-digit tackles, as Greg Jones, Roderick Jenrette and Trenton Robinson combined for 38 stops. Jones has logged at least 10 tackles in 10 of his last 11 games and he currently leads the team by a wide margin, making 52 total stops -- 22 more than his closest teammate.

As has been the case more times than not when these two teams hook up, expect a physical clash with numerous lead changes and plenty of big plays on both sides of the ball. That said, Michigan is the better team and should be able to win its road opener and keep its perfect record intact.

Sports Network Predicted Outcome: Michigan 27, Michigan State 23