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EVANSTON, Illinois (Ticker) -- Plaxico Burress caught five passes for 164 yards and three touchdowns as No. 17 Michigan State increased its chances for a New Year's Day bowl bid with a 34-0 romp over Northwestern in a Big Ten Conference game. Burress had a pair of 35-yard touchdown receptions and his 84-yard TD completed the scoring 2:10 into the fourth quarter. "Plax played a good game today," said Michigan State coach Nick Saban about the 6-6, 229-pound junior. "The way they played us with everybody up on the line and lots of blitzing, both wide receivers probably should have had some opportunities to make some big plays. Plax had a couple and he made two or three big plays." Michigan State (8-2, 5-2 Big Ten), which concludes its regular season against Penn State next Saturday, has won eight games for the first time since 1987 and the fifth time since 1965. "Our goal was to come in here and take care of businees today and I guess we did that." Saban said. "I know if you want to go to a New Year's Day bowl game you probably need to win nine games." Ryan Van Dyke replaced Bill Burke in the second quarter and completed 7-of-15 passes for 153 yards and two touchdowns for the Spartans. Burke left with a pulled pectoral muscle. He was 3-of-7 for 39 yards, including a 35-yard strike to Burress that gave Michigan State a 10-0 lead just over five minutes into the second. Lloyd Clemons rushed 16 times for 85 yards for the Spartans, who have won eight of the last 11 meetings with the Wildcats. Michigan State limited Northwestern to just 151 yards in total offense and 11 first downs. Damien Anderson had 78 yards on 23 rushes for Northwestern (3-9, 1-6), which has lost six of its last seven games. Anderson has 1,005 yards on the year, becoming the fourth Wildcat in the last five seasons to surpass 1,000 yards. "We did have some scoring opportunities," said Northwestern coach Randy Walker. "We had three possessions in the first half in what we think is a scoring zone and that gives yourself a chance. They're a good football team. We were playing a very talented football team. I thought halfway through the football season they were the best team in our league." Safety Aric Morris had 10 tackles and defensive end Hubert Thompson had three of Michigan State's eight sacks. The Spartans missed field goals on two of their first three possessions, but took the lead when Paul Edinger kicked a 32-yard field goal 3:29 into the second quarter. T.J. Turner had a 26-yard fumble return to push the lead to 17-0, 61 seconds into the second quarter. Michigan State began its second drive of the third quarter on the Northwestern 46 and three plays later Van Dyke found Burress over the middle for a 24-0 lead. Edinger booted a 42-yard field goal to make it 27-0 with 3:16 remaining in the third.
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