Handing Out the Grades Following Penn State’s 35-16 Win over Michigan State

Penn State beat Michigan State 35-16 on Saturday evening to improve to 10-2 on the year, just a win shy of matching its win total from the previous two seasons combined. It wasn’t always flashy but the Nittany Lions leaned on timely play calling, defense and overall quality to close out the regular season on a high note. Penn State’s postseason destination will become clearer in the next week but for now the Nittany Lions will enjoy being one of the few teams to reach double-digit wins. Here are the grades.

Offense: B
You could argue that this grade should be lower because Penn State spent no small portion of this game seemingly half asleep to the point that Michigan State was able to climb back into the game, but the Nittany Lions scored 35 points, and had 410 yards of offense. This wasn’t the most impressive performance of the year and Penn State’s depleted offensive line struggled, but you get credit for getting the job done. Sean Clifford’s final game in Beaver Stadium was a fairly pedestrian performance (19-24, 202 and four TDs) when it comes to anything flashy, but he managed the game well and made no real mistakes along the way. The running back duo of Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton were effective (160 yards on the ground) but a 3.6 yards per carry total wasn’t their best either. KeAndre Lambert-Smith led the way with five catches for a 83 yards and was maybe the brightest spot in Penn State’s offense all four quarters. Penn State was 8-for-16 on third down and didn’t turn the ball over once. Giving up three sacks hurts and this game felt like it should have been over sooner, but it’s hard to knock the finished product.

Defense: B
It says a lot about this defense that things like “opponents getting first downs and scoring points” feels like a failure of this group. Freshman linebacker Abdul Carter is a star in the making, if he isn’t one already, and his team-high seven tackles and three tackles for a loss only helped that claim. Michigan State didn’t do much well at all and those 16 points were efficiently accumulated on the back of just 254 yards of total offense. The Spartans went 4-for-14 on third down but still managed 9.5 yards per completion and had more than their fair share of incredible catches on long downs. Michigan State had two back-to-back touchdown drives of 70+ yards, which hurt this grade a bit, but otherwise the Spartans had seven drives go less than 20 yards on the field. This grade is mostly hurt by the fact Michigan State put together its best drives right when Penn State couldn’t quite put the game away. Full marks to Michigan State for seizing momentum, but Penn State’s defense is too good to be giving up consecutive long drives. All of that being said, giving up 16 points in Big Ten play is almost always a sign that you won the game, and Penn State did.

Special Teams: C
It’s a shame for the sake of feeling good about things that Jake Pinegar had to miss two field goals on his senior night, but that’s how the cookie crumbled. There’s a chance the first one was tipped (and was maybe illegal via jumping over the center) but that was never clarified after the game. In any case, this group only saves the grade because of a forced fumble on a Michigan State punt return. Otherwise Penn State’s, special teams have been not overly interesting aside from punter Barney Amor, who had two punts go 50+ yards, and the single Nicholas Singleton touchdown return on a kickoff earlier in the year. Other than that this group has not been threatening in the return game and field goals have had moments of light stability at best. There’s something to be said for not making mistakes and while Penn State generally didn’t on Saturday, missing field goals in a game that ended up being much closer than it should have been can be the difference between winning and losing. That said, Penn State’s coverage units have been strong all year, something that tends to get overlooked here, and had a fumble recovery that immediately led to a touchdown on Saturday.

Coaching: B
Mike Yurcich called a good game. Manny Diaz’s defense made plays (thee turnovers, seven tackles for a loss) and there wasn’t really a moment when James Franklin needed to do much of anything important. This grade gets knocked ever so slightly because, for a brief moment, Michigan State looked like it had a path to an upset. Now “a Big Ten game is close” is not a crime, but on paper this game didn’t need to be this close in the moments that it was. Is that a coaching failure? Things are rarely that simple, but certainly if you’re entertaining the idea of losing to a bad team some amount of that has to come back to the coaching staff. That being said, turning on the jets and winning comfortably counts for something too. Penn State was 2-for-2 on fourth down, and both were the right call in the right moment.

Overall: B
Penn State was the better team and eventually won in a fashion that proved that point. it wasn’t the best performance by either side of the ball but it says something about a team that it can play not at its best and still win 35-16. Wins are wins and 10 of them in a year are hard to come by.