Michigan looks great, Michigan State looks not so great. They play next week!

The gap between Michigan and Michigan State seems to be growing by the week, just not in the way we expected at the beginning of the season. While the Spartans were busy struggling with conference bottom-feeder Rutgers — a week after struggling with fellow bottom-feeder Purdue — Michigan had just finished up its third straight shutout, this time a 38-0 win over No. 13 Northwestern.

MSU escaped again, as it has done all of this year. The Spartans got a late touchdown to beat the Scarlet Knights, and they’ll move to 6-0 and likely stay in the top five of the national rankings. But that won’t fly next week, as MSU visits its downstate rival, which is possibly the biggest juggernaut in the land right now.

Michigan, the host of next week’s in-state rivalry, might not be ranked as high as MSU, but the Wolverines will likely be favored, and how could you bet against them? After losing at Utah in Week 1 — a loss that doesn’t look bad at all in hindsight — Michigan has gotten better each week, culminating in a complete domination of No. 13 Northwestern. The streak of three straight shutouts, against NU, BYU and Maryland, is the first of its kind in 20 years, and it’s enough to believe that UM is truly a College Football Playoff contender. And the hype will be at an all-time high next week, with ESPN’s College GameDay in town.

Michigan’s performance Saturday night was tantalizing. And dare I say, it was damn near Michigan State-like — that is, the Michigan State of old. But after so many injuries to its offensive line and its secondary, MSU is a shell of its former self. The Spartans have underachieved on offense, and they don’t pound teams like they used to — like Michigan did against Northwestern, earning a deafening “defense” chant from the crowd in appreciation of the performance.

In the past, Michigan has been the team we’ve laughed at on the national stage — the one that somehow lets Rutgers (which accidentally spiked the ball to end the game) and Purdue hang around — while MSU has been the dominant force that we’ve all accepted as a power. It’s been that way almost every year since the turn of the decade. This year, it is starting to reverse.

“We’ve gotta get better,” Mark Dantonio said after the win.

That better happen quickly, because heading into Week 7, Michigan State has the better record and the better national ranking, and the Spartans have won six of the last seven in this series, but all signs are pointing to the win Jim Harbaugh’s Michigan team needs to truly prove it is “back” on the national stage.