Couch: Michigan State QB Brian Lewerke shows us where he's headed with play at Michigan

ANN ARBOR – For a brief second, as the football bounced off the turf late Saturday night, Brian Lewerke was in danger of being remembered differently in the Michigan State-Michigan rivalry, perhaps taking his place next to Blake O’Neill, who two years earlier on this same field, bobbled a punt snap and … well, you know the rest.

Instead, Lewerke will be thought of as the offensive catalyst in a significant win for the program, 14-10, over the Wolverines. His play Saturday was deft and tantalizing, mature and plucky.

Michigan State’s sophomore quarterback picked up that wet football and ran to the left — where the play had been designed to go — diving and rolling over his own pulling center, Brian Allen, for a first down at midfield with 1:33 left, nearly finishing off the Wolverines. The play itself wasn’t a thing of beauty. Just a gutty moment of survival in difficult weather conditions.

Before Lewerke guided the Spartans carefully through a blustery and, for a while, monsoon-ish second half, he was dynamic, better than ever — as should be the case with an emerging young QB. Growth isn’t always so visible on such a large stage.

It might be greatest performance I’ve ever seen by a quarterback in a pro-style offense with just 94 yards passing.

Through the first month of the season, much has been made of Lewerke’s feet and potential as a passer. He’s been characterized as an odd mix of the best of Kirk Cousins and Connor Cook. Saturday night, we saw why Lewerke could turn out to be more feared by opponents than either of them, the two best QBs in MSU football history. And why it could happen soon enough to make the Spartans Big Ten contenders this year. Maybe. 

Michigan will have a hard time beating MSU over the next couple of seasons. Whomever the Wolverines line up under center in East Lansing in 2018 isn’t likely to be in Lewerke’s league.

This was best I’ve seen of Lewerke in all three phases — feet, arm and head. 

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Just two weeks ago against Notre Dame, Lewerke locked on to receiver Darrell Stewart and let it fly, throwing behind Stewart and into the arms of an Irish defense back, who returned the interception for a touchdown. Lewerke had telegraphed the pass, deciding where he was going to throw, rather reading what was in front of him. That mammoth gaffe negated all of the positive plays he made that night. At Michigan, however, Lewerke routinely looked off his first option and threw elsewhere, sometimes moving his eyes to the other side of the field.

“I think his decision-making has been better. You do notice that,” MSU coach Mark Dantonio said Sunday night.

“As each game goes, I'm getting more comfortable just with everything,” Lewerke said a night earlier.

It’ll be interesting to see where he is as a QB by the time November hits and Penn State and Ohio State are on the docket in consecutive weeks. At this rate of progress, given the growth also from MSU’s defense, the Spartans might be a real threat in this Big Ten race. One of Lewerke’s greatest strengths is his noticeable week-to-week improvement, both in the few games he played last season and now. It’s a sign he isn’t close to his ceiling.

Lewerke didn’t turn the ball over or take a sack Saturday. Some of the credit there belongs to his offensive line. Michigan, on the other hand, coughed it up five times and saw its quarterback sacked four. That was the difference in the ball game, as it was against Notre Dame.

Physical talent only takes a quarterback so far. Lewerke has plenty that. His arm has a liveliness to it that allows him to throw into a fierce wind with enough zip to complete passes 15, 20 yards downfield. We saw that Saturday. We can all see he has good foot speed, as well. But against Michigan, it was when he ran and how he sped out of trouble that stood out.  

On MSU’s first scoring drive, just as two Michigan defenders closed in, Lewerke took off for 9 yards, leaving them both sprawled out on the turf, their grasping dives coming up empty. Michigan linebacker Mike McCray, whose job it was to keep his eyes on Lewerke, couldn’t get to him, either. The quickness of Lewerke’s first few steps is the difference.

Three plays later, seeing McCray tied up in coverage, Lewerke darted 14 yards for the end zone, taking a couple of hits as he threw his body headfirst across the goal line. It’s the sort of hit he can’t afford to take every week. This week, on that drive, it was the right play. 

In terms of understanding situations, Lewerke was extraordinary Saturday. 

“His ability to be able to run the ball creates plays for our offense that we haven’t had in the past and gets out of situations that we put ourselves into,” said Allen, who felt something but didn’t know Lewerke was rolling over his back on that crucial late third down. “It’s awesome to see him save us really, when things go wrong. It’s awesome, the confidence he has as a redshirt sophomore.”

What’s awesome for the Spartans is they’ve found a dual-threat pocket passer with rare abilities and, it appears, sensibilities. The next seven games, the next 2 1/2 seasons could be something to watch.

Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.