Penn State football completes 2nd-half comeback to beat Michigan State 39-24 on Senior Day
The Penn State Nittany Lions continued to build off the momentum of their past two weeks of play by beating the Michigan State Spartans 39-24 on Saturday afternoon in Beaver Stadium. This marks the Nittany Lions’ third consecutive victory and their first at home in 2020.
Penn State came out flat and found itself down 21-10 at halftime. The Spartans had totaled 242 yards of offense at the break, compared to the Nittany Lions’ 173 yards. Michigan State’s first-time starting quarterback Payton Thorne played with a lot of confidence early on — totaling 202 yards (11-13 completions), three touchdowns and one interception in the first half. Redshirt junior quarterback Sean Clifford, on the other hand, had completed nine of his 14 passes for just 92 yards.
But for the first time all season, the Nittany Lions successfully executed a comeback after being down at halftime.
Clifford finished 17-27 passing for 232 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions, while adding 48 yards and a touchdown on the ground on nine carries.
Penn State improves to 3-5, while Michigan State falls to 2-5.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
WR Jahan Dotson: After two quiet outings in Penn State’s last two wins versus Michigan and Rutgers, junior receiver Jahan Dotson provided a major spark to the Nittany Lions’ offense on Saturday.
He had just three catches for 30 yards against the Wolverines and had four catches for 30 yards against the Scarlet Knights. But against the Spartans, the 5-foot-11, 182-pound Nazareth native again looked like the top target he was for Clifford through Penn State’s first five games — he finished with eight catches for 108 yards.
On Penn State’s first drive of the second half, Dotson caught three passes (for 16, 12 and nine yards) to help the Nittany Lions eventually find the end zone on an eight-yard touchdown grab from freshman receiver Parker Washington.
Dotson had his biggest play of the afternoon early in the fourth quarter. After Penn State forced Michigan State to go three-and-out, Dotson returned a punt 81 yards for a touchdown to give the Nittany Lions a 15-point lead with 11:24 to go in the game.
PLAY OF THE GAME
QB Sean Clifford’s fourth-quarter TD pass to WR Parker Washington: On Penn State’s first drive of the fourth quarter, Clifford dropped back and pump-faked before hitting Washington near the right side of the field. Washington made a defender miss and out-ran another en route to a 49-yard touchdown that gave the Nittany Lions an eight-point lead with about 12 minutes to play.
Washington’s touchdown was his sixth of the season, after he had his fifth of the year early in the third quarter.
The 5-foot-10, 205-pound Sugar Land, Texas, native has shown up in big moments throughout this season. It was much of the same for the true freshman on Saturday against the Spartans.
BIGGEST SURPRISE
Penn State coming back from a halftime deficit: Prior to Saturday’s contest with Michigan State, the Nittany Lions had trailed at halftime five times this season and had gone 0-5 in those games.
It looked like Penn State would fall in this one again after finding itself trailing by 11 points at the break. But it was different against the Spartans — the Nittany Lions made a complete turnaround after halftime to take control of the game early in the second half.
Penn State scored 29 points in the final two quarters of the contest — some of those points came of off huge plays — while it held Michigan State to just a field goal after the break.
UP NEXT
vs. TBD: After winning its first three games of 2020 in the last three weeks, Penn State will now have to wait to figure out which Big Ten West team it will be matched up with for the Big Ten’s Week 9 crossover game.
If the Nittany Lions can win that matchup next week to finish the regular season with a 4-5 record, they could potentially make a push for a bowl bid with the NCAA having waived bowl eligibility requirements earlier this season. That would mark quite the turnaround for a team that started the year 0-5.
This story was originally published December 12, 2020 at 3:32 PM.
