Spartans Fall at Penn State Saturday

Saturday, December 12

University Park, PA

12 PM ET

Michigan State University

2-5 , 2-5

Penn State

3-5 , 3-5

Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final F
Michigan State	0	21	3	0	24
Penn State	3	7	15	14	39

12/12/2020 4:10:00 PM | Football

Box Score MSU-PSU Box Score (PDF)Post-Game Quotes Post-Game Notes Mel Tucker Press Conference

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. –– Michigan State fell to Penn State, 39-24, Saturday afternoon at Beaver Stadium in the battle for the Land Grant Trophy.

Michigan State (2-5) rallied from an early 3-0 deficit with a 21-point second quarter to take a 21-10 halftime lead, but Penn State (3-5) countered with a big second half for the win.

"I want to continue to thank our medical personnel and operation staff who continue to work to give us the chance to go out and play and practice, and give us opportunity to compete each week," MSU head coach Mel Tucker said. "Like I've said before, we're building a football team and it's a process, and it's a process driven culture, and as I mentioned earlier this week, we need to play complimentary football and we have to do it for four quarters and it was crystal clear today with what we've been talking about and what we strive for. In the first half we played complimentary football, we did offense, defense and special teams, and guys are playing hard and we had execution and we were able to have success. In the second half, we did not do that. We weren't able to really do anything on offense, defensively, we gave up plays, and then on special teams, we gave up a touchdown which was a huge momentum play, and was a huge play in the game."

Spartan redshirt-freshman quarterback Payton Thorne made his first career start and was 22-of-39 passing for 325 yards and three TDs. The 325 yards was not only an MSU record for most passing yards by a Spartan QB in his first start, surpassing Ed Smith with 324 in 1976, but also a freshman single-game record. Thorne's 325 passing yards are the fourth-most by an MSU quarterback vs. Penn State, and most since Brian Lewerke threw for 400 vs. the Nittany Lions in 2017.

Redshirt-sophomore wide receiver Jalen Nailor had six catches for 100 yards, his second career 100-yard receiving outing, both coming this season. Nailor also had his first career game with two touchdown receptions, a 45-yard scoring strike for MSU's first TD of the day, coming early in the second quarter, and adding a 7-yard TD catch late in the second quarter.

Fellow redshirt-sophomore wide receiver Jayden Reed added six catches for 76 yards. Freshman running back Jordon Simmons returned to action after missing the previous two games with an injury, and rushed for a season-high 72 yards in tying his season-high for the third game with 14 carries.

MSU amassed a season-high 325 passing yards, added 64 rushing yards to end with 389 yards of total offense, its second-highest of the season. Penn State had 405 yards of total offense, with 286 passing and 119 rushing.

Redshirt-senior linebacker Antjuan Simmons led the Spartan defense with 10 tackles, his fourth-straight game in double-figure tackles as part of sixth in the seven games this season. Redshirt-junior linebacker Noah Harvey added nine stops, while senior defensive end Drew Beesley added seven tackles, with Harvey and Beesley each notching one pass break-up.

Although Penn State got on the board first, driving 12 yards on 65 plays over the course of 5:18 on its first possession, capped by a 24-yard field goal by Jake Pinegar, Michigan State scored a season-high 21 points in the first half to take a 21-10 lead into halftime.

The Spartans took a 7-3 lead early in the second quarter as Thorne hit Nailor on a 45-yard scoring strike for Thorne's first career touchdown pass.

Penn State answered right back on its next series to reclaim the lead at 10-7 with 10 minutes left in the second quarter as Nittany Lion quarterback Sean Clifford found the end zone on a 31-yard run.

But Thorne responded with two more touchdown passes in the second quarter. His second TD pass went to Tre'Von Morgan, who made a leaping catch in the end zone through double coverage to come down with not only his first career TD, but his first career reception.

After forcing Penn State to punt, Thorne directed a seven-play, 87-yard scoring drive before the end of the half. He was 4-for-4 passing on the drive for 74 yards and found Nailor for a 7-yard TD with 1:26 left in the second quarter.

The Nittany Lions took their first possession of the second half and went 75 yards on 11 plays in 4:46 to score their second touchdown of the game, an 8-yard pass from Clifford to Parker Washington, and then converted a two-point conversion to cut the Spartan lead to 21-18.

Although MSU had first-and-goal from the 4 late in the third quarter, the Nittany Lions kept the Spartans out of the end zone and forced a Matt Coghlin 23-yard field goal, extending Michigan State's lead to 24-18.

Will Levis' 1-yard rushing TD with two seconds left in the third quarter put Penn State back on top, 25-24, heading into the final quarter.

Clifford's 49-yard touchdown pass to Washington at the 12:18 mark in the fourth quarter and Jahan Dotson's 81-yard punt return for a score at the 11:24 mark pushed Penn State's lead to 39-24.

Michigan State is scheduled to play its eighth game of the season next weekend; the Big Ten Conference will announce the matchups for the games at a later time.