Saturday, October 24
East Lansing, MI
12 PM ET
Michigan State University
0-1 , 0-1
27
vs
38
Rutgers
1-0 , 1-0
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
F
Rutgers
14
14
0
10
38
Michigan State
7
6
7
7
27
Photo by: Matthew Mitchell/MSU Athletic Communications
Spartans Fall in Season Opener
10/24/2020 4:28:00 PM | Football
EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State fell in the 2020 season opener to Rutgers, 38-27, Saturday afternoon at Spartan Stadium. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the game was played in front of only a limited number of family members of football student-athletes and football staff members in Mel Tucker's debut coaching the Spartans.
MSU outgained Rutgers, 369-276, but could not overcome seven turnovers that led to 21 Scarlet Knight points.
"I know that our fans expect more from this football team, more than we showed today, and we expect more from ourselves," said Tucker. "There is a higher standard. We've got work to do. We're going to watch the tape. We've got a lot of corrections that we need to make. We will make those corrections."
Making the fourth start of his career, redshirt junior quarterback Rocky Lombardi threw for a career-high 319 yards and completed 31-of-44 passes for three touchdowns.
In his first game wearing the Green and White, redshirt sophomore Jayden Reed had 11 catches for 128 yards and two scores, becoming the first Spartan to record 100 yards receiving in his debut; Reed transferred from Western Michigan and sat out the 2019 season. Redshirt sophomore Jalen Nailor hauled in a career-best six receptions for 84 yards, including a 30-yard touchdown in the third quarter.
Defensively, senior linebacker Antjuan Simmons led the Spartans with career highs in both tackles (11) and tackles for loss (3 for 8 yards). He also had a fumble recovery and one quarterback hurry. Redshirt junior linebacker Noah Harvey tallied nine stops for MSU, while Drew Beesley had a career-high 2.5 tackles for loss, including a 7-yard sack, with six tackles overall.
Rutgers scored on its opening drive to take a quick 7-0 lead, and took advantage of a Spartan turnover later in the first quarter as Lombardi was sacked and fumbled on the MSU 1-yard line. Johnny Langan's 1-yard rush made it 14-0 in favor of Rutgers at the 6:57 mark in the opening quarter.
The Spartans got on the board at the end of the first quarter, going for it on fourth-and-1 from midfield, and coming up with a 50-yard touchdown strike from Lombardi to Reed.
Rutgers took a 21-7 lead early in the second quarter on quarterback Noah Vedral's 24-yard run.
MSU got a turnover of its own before halftime as Shakur Brown returned an interception more than 30 yards to the end zone, but a Spartan penalty on the return negated the play. The Spartans still ended up with three points off the turnover on Matt Coghlin's 45-yard field goal with 3:13 left in the half.
The Scarlet Knights quickly responded with a 57-yard kickoff return by Bo Melton and a six-play, 53-yard touchdown drive, capped by a 3-yard TD run by Isaih Pacheco, to go up 28-10 with 36 seconds remaining in the second quarter. Coghlin connected on his second field goal, from 48 yards out, as time expired in the first half to trim the deficit to 28-13.
Midway through the third quarter, Chase Kline forced a fumble on a punt, and Simmons pounced on the ball to give MSU excellent position at the 30-yard line. On the next play, Lombardi found Nailor for a 30-yard touchdown to put the Spartans within one score at 28-20.
The Spartan defense forced another turnover just four plays later on Beesley's strip sack of Vedral, and Naquan Jones recovered on the Rutgers 29-yard line; however, the Spartans couldn't capitalize on the takeaway and had their drive cut short on downs.
Rutgers went 14 plays and 54 yards on its next drive, capped by a Guy Fava 44-yard field goal, to take a 31-20 lead.
The Scarlet Knights scored their final touchdown after Nailor fumbled a punt with 6:57 left in the fourth quarter. After recovering the fumble, Rutgers scored four plays later on a 14-yard pass from Vedral to Shameen Jones in the end zone, extending its lead to 38-20 with 4:38 remaining.
MSU cut the lead to 38-27 with 1:52 left in the game as Reed scored his second TD on a 4-yard pass from Lombardi, but the Scarlet Knights recovered the ensuing onside kick.
Michigan State returns to action Saturday, Oct. 31 to face Michigan at noon in Ann Arbor. The game is being televised on FOX.
"You usually make the most improvement between the first and second game," said Tucker. "We've got a big game; we've got Michigan next week. We've got to focus on controlling what we can control. We have go to continuing moving forward. This is the beginning; this is not the end and this is a process. And I know that, and our staff knows that. We know what we have to do to continue to take steps to play the type of football that we expect to play up to the standard that we need to play."
MSU outgained Rutgers, 369-276, but could not overcome seven turnovers that led to 21 Scarlet Knight points.
"I know that our fans expect more from this football team, more than we showed today, and we expect more from ourselves," said Tucker. "There is a higher standard. We've got work to do. We're going to watch the tape. We've got a lot of corrections that we need to make. We will make those corrections."
Making the fourth start of his career, redshirt junior quarterback Rocky Lombardi threw for a career-high 319 yards and completed 31-of-44 passes for three touchdowns.
In his first game wearing the Green and White, redshirt sophomore Jayden Reed had 11 catches for 128 yards and two scores, becoming the first Spartan to record 100 yards receiving in his debut; Reed transferred from Western Michigan and sat out the 2019 season. Redshirt sophomore Jalen Nailor hauled in a career-best six receptions for 84 yards, including a 30-yard touchdown in the third quarter.
Defensively, senior linebacker Antjuan Simmons led the Spartans with career highs in both tackles (11) and tackles for loss (3 for 8 yards). He also had a fumble recovery and one quarterback hurry. Redshirt junior linebacker Noah Harvey tallied nine stops for MSU, while Drew Beesley had a career-high 2.5 tackles for loss, including a 7-yard sack, with six tackles overall.
Rutgers scored on its opening drive to take a quick 7-0 lead, and took advantage of a Spartan turnover later in the first quarter as Lombardi was sacked and fumbled on the MSU 1-yard line. Johnny Langan's 1-yard rush made it 14-0 in favor of Rutgers at the 6:57 mark in the opening quarter.
The Spartans got on the board at the end of the first quarter, going for it on fourth-and-1 from midfield, and coming up with a 50-yard touchdown strike from Lombardi to Reed.
Rutgers took a 21-7 lead early in the second quarter on quarterback Noah Vedral's 24-yard run.
MSU got a turnover of its own before halftime as Shakur Brown returned an interception more than 30 yards to the end zone, but a Spartan penalty on the return negated the play. The Spartans still ended up with three points off the turnover on Matt Coghlin's 45-yard field goal with 3:13 left in the half.
The Scarlet Knights quickly responded with a 57-yard kickoff return by Bo Melton and a six-play, 53-yard touchdown drive, capped by a 3-yard TD run by Isaih Pacheco, to go up 28-10 with 36 seconds remaining in the second quarter. Coghlin connected on his second field goal, from 48 yards out, as time expired in the first half to trim the deficit to 28-13.
Midway through the third quarter, Chase Kline forced a fumble on a punt, and Simmons pounced on the ball to give MSU excellent position at the 30-yard line. On the next play, Lombardi found Nailor for a 30-yard touchdown to put the Spartans within one score at 28-20.
The Spartan defense forced another turnover just four plays later on Beesley's strip sack of Vedral, and Naquan Jones recovered on the Rutgers 29-yard line; however, the Spartans couldn't capitalize on the takeaway and had their drive cut short on downs.
Rutgers went 14 plays and 54 yards on its next drive, capped by a Guy Fava 44-yard field goal, to take a 31-20 lead.
The Scarlet Knights scored their final touchdown after Nailor fumbled a punt with 6:57 left in the fourth quarter. After recovering the fumble, Rutgers scored four plays later on a 14-yard pass from Vedral to Shameen Jones in the end zone, extending its lead to 38-20 with 4:38 remaining.
MSU cut the lead to 38-27 with 1:52 left in the game as Reed scored his second TD on a 4-yard pass from Lombardi, but the Scarlet Knights recovered the ensuing onside kick.
Michigan State returns to action Saturday, Oct. 31 to face Michigan at noon in Ann Arbor. The game is being televised on FOX.
"You usually make the most improvement between the first and second game," said Tucker. "We've got a big game; we've got Michigan next week. We've got to focus on controlling what we can control. We have go to continuing moving forward. This is the beginning; this is not the end and this is a process. And I know that, and our staff knows that. We know what we have to do to continue to take steps to play the type of football that we expect to play up to the standard that we need to play."
Team Stats
RU
MSU
Total Yards
276
369
Pass Yards
170
319
Rushing Yards
106
50
Penalty Yards
66
52
1st Downs
16
23
3rd Downs
6
7
4th Downs
1
2
TOP
31:03
28:57
1st Quarter
RU 7, MSU 0
RU - Pacheco, Isaih 12 yd run (Fava, Guy kick), 10 plays, 75 yards, TOP 3:41
RU 14, MSU 0
RU - Langan, Johnny 1 yd run (Fava, Guy kick), 4 plays, 1 yards, TOP 1:23
RU 14, MSU 7
MSU - Reed, Jayden 50 yd pass from Lombardi, Rocky (Coghlin, Matt kick) 9 plays, 86 yards, TOP 2:59
2nd Quarter
RU 21, MSU 7
RU - Vedral, Noah 24 yd run (Fava, Guy kick), 2 plays, 23 yards, TOP 0:46
RU 21, MSU 10
MSU - Coghlin, Matt 45 yd field goal 4 plays, 3 yards, TOP 2:52
RU 28, MSU 10
RU - Pacheco, Isaih 3 yd run (Fava, Guy kick), 6 plays, 53 yards, TOP 2:26
RU 28, MSU 13
MSU - Coghlin, Matt 48 yd field goal 6 plays, 33 yards, TOP 0:36
3rd Quarter
RU 28, MSU 20
MSU - Nailor, Jalen 30 yd pass from Lombardi, Rocky (Coghlin, Matt kick) 1 plays, 30 yards, TOP 0:08
4th Quarter
RU 31, MSU 20
RU - Fava, Guy 44 yd field goal 14 plays, 54 yards, TOP 6:11
RU 38, MSU 20
RU - Jones, Shameen 14 yd pass from Vedral, Noah (Fava, Guy kick) 4 plays, 26 yards, TOP 2:19
RU 38, MSU 27
MSU - Reed, Jayden 4 yd pass from Lombardi, Rocky (Coghlin, Matt kick) 9 plays, 65 yards, TOP 2:45
Game Leaders
Passing Leaders
CMP
31
TD
3
YDS
319
INT
2
Players Mentioned
DL
/ Football
CB
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K
/ Football
LB
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DT
/ Football
LB
/ FootballQB
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WR
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WR
/ Football
LB
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