Game Recap: Lions improve to 8-0 following 28-7 win over Michigan State

There was no lightning this time, but Penn State generated enough electricity in the first half of its matchup with Michigan State to build a comfortable lead and coast to a 28-7 victory over the Spartans on Saturday in East Lansing.

Sean Clifford and Pat Freiermuth teamed up for three of the Nittany Lions’ four touchdowns, overcoming the slick, rainy field conditions to connect on scoring passes of 16, 19 and 6 yards. Clifford also threw a 27-yard touchdown pass to K.J. Hamler.

When these two teams met two years ago, they were forced to spend hours in the locker room waiting out a line of thunderstorms. After returning to the field, Michigan State engineered a 27-24 victory on a pair of fourth-quarter field goals. This time, there was no delay, nor was there a valiant Michigan State comeback. By the time the game turned into a quagmire in the fourth quarter, Penn State was up by three touchdowns, and the Spartans never threatened.

“I’m pleased that we got the win in a sloppy game,” coach James Franklin said. “It rained the entire game. I don’t know how it looked on TV, but it was a sloppy game. We were able to score enough early on in the first half before things got too messy. I’m pleased with that.”

He’s also pleased with this: The Nittany Lions are 8-0 overall and 5-0 in the Big Ten, keeping pace with Ohio State in the race for the East Division title. With Oklahoma losing to Kansas State earlier on Saturday, it’s likely that PSU will move up to No. 5 in this week’s polls.

Here’s a look at the good and the bad:

THE GOOD

• Clifford didn’t seem fazed by the poor field conditions, at least in the first half. He completed 12 of his first 17 passing attempts for 127 yards and three touchdowns. The first of those TD passes was especially artful, as he floated a pass in between a trio of Spartans defenders and found Freiermuth in the end zone. The 16-yard touchdown opened the scoring.

In the second quarter, Clifford came back onto the field after landing hard on his left shoulder on a third-down scramble and helped the Lions convert on fourth-and-short. That play set up his third TD pass of the game, the 27-yarder to Hamler.

Clifford cooled off as the game went on and the rain intensified. He finished with 18 completions in 32 attempts for 189 yards, and he added 11 yards on the ground. Said Franklin, “I thought in the first half he played really well. The second half, things just weren’t as clean. Some things showed up that I think are uncharacteristic.”

• The Spartans had no answer for Freiermuth. The sophomore tight end finished with five catches for 60 yards. Three of those catches were for touchdowns, bringing his season total to seven.

Also, Freiermuth’s backup, senior Nick Bowers, had a nice 38-yard catch-and-run to convert a third-and-long early in the fourth quarter.

“A lot of those ones to Pat were RPOs for us,” Franklin said. “We easily could have handed the ball off, but how they defended to stop the run allowed some one-on-ones down the field and on the perimeter, and he was able to execute them.”

• The defense kept Michigan State off the scoreboard until Anthony Williams ran 4 yards in the third quarter. The Spartans had been struggling badly on offense heading into the game; they hadn’t scored since the second quarter of a 34-10 loss at Ohio State on Oct. 5. Michigan State managed only 265 yards on Saturday against Penn State.

• Blake Gillikin had another great day, averaging 44.3 yards on eight attempts and dropping five of his punts inside the Spartans’ 20-yard line. His first punt of the second half was fumbled by Brandon Sowards, giving the Lions’ possession at the Michigan State 6 and setting up a touchdown.

“Obviously, field position, led by Blake Gillikin, was huge in the game,” Franklin said. “That was real positive for us.”

• Shaka Toney foiled Michigan State’s best scoring opportunity of the first half, slicing through the line of scrimmage to block a 46-yard field goal attempt by Matt Coghlin.

• The Lions won the turnover battle handily. They collected four turnovers from Michigan State, the most important being Dan Chisena’s recovery of Sowards’ muff. Meanwhile, their only turnover came on a desperate third-down heave by Clifford that was intercepted by David Dowell. Despite the wet field conditions, their only fumble came on the opening kickoff, and they recovered it.

THE BAD

• Only a few days after Franklin spent time at his weekly presser lamenting the unnecessary penalties that Penn State had been picking up lately, his team was flagged for three unsportsmanlike conduct penalties against Michigan State. They may not have affected the outcome, but they contributed to an unsightly fourth quarter.

“I’m not happy at all with any of those things,” Franklin said. “We just had a very direct conversation in the locker room about those things. It was an emotional game, I’m not going to get into the details with [reporters about] the whole game. I’m not going to make excuses. We’re going to own it all. That’s not who we are. That’s not who we will be. It was addressed today. It will be addressed on Sunday after we watch the tape.”

• The afternoon wasn’t an unqualified success for the kicking units. It began with a fumble by Hamler on the opening kickoff (Penn State recovered), followed by a shanked kickoff, a missed PAT, an offside penalty on a punt that supplied Michigan State with a first down just before halftime.

Also, for the second week in a row, the Lions had a Hamler touchdown called back due to a penalty. Last week, it was a kickoff return vs. Michigan. This time, it was a punt return that was negated by a running-into-the-punter flag on Jesse Luketa. Said Franklin, “We’ve got to eliminate the penalties.”

LOOKING AHEAD

Next up: a bye week, the second bye of Penn State’s season. The Nittany Lions put that first one to excellent use, as they returned to action the following week with a 59-0 rout of Maryland.

This time, the Lions’ opponent coming of the bye will be Minnesota, the surprise leader of the Big Ten West. The Golden Gophers are still undefeated, having improved to 8-0 overall with a 52-10 thrashing of Maryland on Saturday. At 5-0 in Big Ten play, they have a two-game lead over Wisconsin and Iowa with four to play. They will still have that two-game lead when they face Penn State in two weeks, because, like the Nittany Lions, they will be off next Saturday.

Minnesota, which got 103 rushing yards from Rodney Smith in its win over the Terrapins, is 8-0 for the first time since 1941, when it won the national championship. That will make Penn State’s upcoming visit to Minneapolis one of the bigger games in the school’s modern football history.

The Nittany Lions will also face Ohio State on the road in November, and there are home games remaining against Indiana and Rutgers. With the stakes escalating and a couple of division leaders on the upcoming slate, Franklin is grateful to have an off-week to prepare for the home stretch.

“The bye week is coming at a tremendous time for us,” he said. “We’re looking forward to maximizing the bye and taking the next step.”