In the moments immediately after Michigan State's 24-21 overtime loss to Indiana, head coach Mark Dantonio said he thought quarterback Tyler O'Connor turned in a solid performance.

After watching the film Sunday, he was more confident in saying that the fifth-year senior was not the reason for the Spartans' second loss in a row.

Dantonio noted that O'Connor, who completed 21-of-35 passes for 263 yards, threw three touchdowns and no interceptions, made plays with his feet and had some things out of his control go against him.

"He played with courage," Dantonio said of O'Connor. "He had a couple of balls dropped that would have been huge gains. They would have been difficult catches, too, a couple of them. We had some receivers running different routes, weren't matching up with what was supposed to be run, and we had some offensive line issues in protection."

Since the 30-6 loss to Wisconsin, the calls for a change at quarterback have been loud and clear. Dantonio, who said he uses social media but not to look at what others are saying on Twitter, said he spoke to O'Connor last week about dealing with that backlash.

He also made a pretty clear statement about the possibility of MSU going to junior Damion Terry or redshirt freshman Brian Lewerke anytime soon.

"From my perspective -- I'm not going to say he graded winning -- but from my perspective, he played above average, that's for sure," Dantonio said. "I would say low winning. ... The people that sit up with their arms in an arm chair with a big ol' beer can or soda pop there, they're going to have to just wait it out a little bit.

"If you want a quote, there's one for you."

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McDowell suspension done deal

Michigan State will officially be without Malik McDowell for the first half of Saturday's game against BYU.

The star defensive lineman was called for targeting late in the loss to Indiana. Before seeing the replay of the hit, which seemed to be a clean one on Hoosiers quarterback Richard Lagow, Dantonio said he had been told it was "in question." Unfortunately for the Spartans, there's nothing they can do about it now.

"I have seen the hit, or the tackle, and I have talked to the Big Ten office about it," Dantonio said. "There is no appeal process, so he'll have to sit the first half."

McDowell had been dominating the line of scrimmage, recording five tackles, including 0.5 for loss, before getting ejected late in the fourth quarter. On the season, he has 13 tackles and two for loss. Without him, the Spartans will likely start redshirt freshman Raequan Williams and grad transfer Kevin Williams on the interior of their defensive line Saturday.

No injury news is good news?

As everyone knows, Dantonio doesn't talk about injuries, but he will if they're long term, as is the case with linebacker Jon Reschke, who missed the Indiana game with a severe ankle sprain and will be out for a significant amount of time.

So while the Spartans had a few players go down against the Hoosiers, Dantonio didn't have any new information Sunday night.

"I'm not gonna talk about injuries right now until they get further addressed in terms of if it's a season-ending injury," Dantonio said. "Other than that, I won't talk about injuries."

Perhaps the most notable injury was corner Darian Hicks, who landed on the ball while laying out to try and make an interception in the end zone early in the third quarter. Big Ten Network reported it was a hip issue for Hicks, who did not return.

Running back LJ Scott also left the game in the second half favoring his leg but later returned, as did linebacker Chris Frey (arm) in overtime. Defensive tackle Raequan Williams and offensive lineman Brian Allen, who started at center instead of left guard Saturday, also exited with apparent arm injuries.

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