PSU celebrates seniors in regular season finale

Talk about complementary football.

The Penn State Nittany Lions scored touchdowns in all three phases of the game in their 55-10 Big Ten victory at Rutgers on Saturday.

First, freshman running back Nicholas Singleton emphatically broke the ice for the Nittany Lions with a 100-yard kickoff return that gave his team an early 7-3 lead in the first quarter.

Then, after the Scarlet Knights regained the lead with a subsequent touchdown pass, Kobe King propelled Penn State into the lead for good, 14-10, with a 14-yard fumble return for a touchdown with less than a minute left in the quarter.

The Lions’ defense would strike again, this time in the third quarter with Rutgers driving inside the Penn State 30-yard line. On a blitz, DB Ji’Aiyr Brown scooped up a fumble by Rutgers quarterback Gavin Wimsatt and raced 70 yards for the Lions’ second defensive score of the game and one that gave them a comfortable 35-10 lead.

Finally, after a relatively slow start, the PSU offense picked up the pace in the second quarter and ultimately finished the game with 438 yards of total offense that included 237 yards and three touchdowns on the ground.

PSU’s other freshman running back, Kaytron Allen, led the running game with 11 carries for 117 yards and a touchdown, while Singleton carried nine times for 62 yards. Singleton and Allen now have both exceeded 700 yards rushing this year.

Quarterback Sean Clifford was 17-of-28 for 157 yards and a touchdown, while freshman Drew Allar was 5-of-10 for 42 yards and another touchdown.

And when the defense was not scoring touchdowns, it was holding Rutgers to less than 200 yards total and just 32 net yards on the ground.

“Most importantly, we played complementary football,” Penn State head coach James Franklin said.

“Offense, defense and special teams were all doing what we had to do to win. I must admit that kickoff return was a thing of beauty. We’ve just invested so much time on special teams, so I was really happy for Stacey (Collins) and Eric (Raisbeck), as well as our players obviously. To have some success on that, we hadn’t had a whole lot of success on it yet. So that was big for us.

“But we’re playing good complementary football. You know, I think we scored three non-offensive touchdowns, which is special.”

The win was the ninth of the season for the Lions against the two losses to Michigan and Ohio State, and it gives the team a chance for a 10-win season.

The only impediment standing in the way of that will be a visit on Saturday by another arch-Big-Ten rival, Michigan State.

The Spartans have been having a crazy, up-and-down season and presently stand at 5-6 overall and 3-5 in the conference.

MSU began the year 2-0, but then a four-game losing streak seriously dented their plans for the 2022 campaign.

The streak — with losses to Washington, 39-28; Minnesota, 34-7; Maryland, 27-13; and Ohio State, 49-20 — was finally broken with an impressive 34-28, double-overtime win over Wisconsin in Lansing.

Since then, the Spartans are 2-2 with wins over Illinois, 23-15; and Rutgers, 27-21; and losses to Michigan, 29-7; and Indiana last week, 39-31, in another double-overtime game.

MSU scores just over 25 points per game and gains 362 yards, including 241 yards and 22 touchdowns through the air.

Quarterback Payton Thorne has completed 218 of 344 passes for 2,450 yards and 18 touchdowns with an average of 222 YPG. Thorne has also run 55 times for a net of 63 yards, and he’s thrown 10 interceptions.

Jalen Berger is the top rusher with 669 yards and six touchdowns on 141 carries, and receivers Keon Coleman and Jayden Reed have a combined 99 catches for 1,307 yards and 12 touchdowns.

Defensively, MSU gives up 417 yards per game total, with 236 of those and 21 touchdowns through the air. The Spartans have just two interceptions, but they have recovered 10 fumbles and have 68 tackles-for-loss and 26 sacks for 177 yards.

DB Jacoby Windmon has 49 total tackles, 10 for loss, and five sacks.

The Spartans come into Beaver Stadium on the edge. They need a win to become bowl eligible and to avoid a losing regular season.

They have played very well in spots this season, especially on offense with wins over teams like Wisconsin and Illinois, but they have also faltered. The loss last week in overtime to Indiana was an especially tough one to take, with a trip to Penn State coming up the following week.

From the MSU point of view, this will be an all-ornothing day, and the Spartans will show up emotionally keyed up and ready for an upset.

For Penn State, the game is just as important. Ten wins would mean a very realistic chance at an invitation to a New Year’s Bowl game.

It will also be Senior Day, and the school will be thanking its seniors who will be playing their final game in Beaver Stadium and the multitude of fans who show up every week to support them.

So, this will be an electric atmosphere for both sides, but it’s still football and Penn State will be focusing on the things that have made it successful so far — aggressive defense, taking care of the ball, and an explosive offense.

Kickoff is at 4 p.m.