Penn State falls to Michigan State, 28-22

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - Penn State teased its fans all season. Sometimes the Nittany Lions showed flashes of greatness. Sometimes they looked as if they didn't belong on the same field with their opponent.

It averaged out to a regular-season finish at a level slightly above mediocrity.

The Lions played uninspired football for much of a cold, blustery Saturday against Michigan State at Beaver Stadium, atypically hurt themselves with penalties, and fell too far behind to capitalize on a frantic three-touchdown fourth quarter.

So the chilled spectators in a crowd announced generously as 102,649 ran to their cars and warmed up to lament a 28-22 Senior Day defeat by the 11th-ranked Spartans, who won here for the first time in 45 years and captured a share of their first conference championship since 1990.

That left Penn State with a 7-5 overall mark, including 4-4 and a tie for fourth with Iowa and Illinois in the Big Ten, going into what appears to be a Gator Bowl matchup, perhaps against Florida, on Jan. 1. The bowl bid officially will be announced next Sunday.

"You've got to learn to play a full game," said sophomore Matt McGloin, who became the first quarterback in school history to post back-to-back 300-yard passing games.

"Today we came out flat and we ended good. At Ohio State, we came out good and we ended flat. We were so close to beating a good team. That's an 11-1 football team we played there, co-Big Ten champs, and it's real frustrating right now."

The Lions did not defeat a ranked team all season. Doing little on offense and trailing, 21-3, after three quarters Saturday, it looked as if they would suffer the same kind of one-sided loss to the Spartans (7-1 Big Ten) they did at Alabama, at Iowa, and at Ohio State.

Somehow, the Nittany Lions found a spark in the fourth. They got a 10-yard run by Evan Royster and a pair of touchdown passes from McGloin, the second one going to Derek Moye with 56 seconds to play, before the Spartans recovered an onside kick and ran out the clock.

McGloin threw for 173 yards in the final 15 minutes. For the game, handling gusts that neared 30 m.p.h. at times, he went 23 of 43 for 312 yards and one interception.

Before the near-comeback, the Nittany Lions insisted on self-destructing. After Michigan State scored on its first possession, the Lions drove to the Spartans' 10 but were called for a delay-of-game penalty and had to settle for Collin Wagner's 34-yard field goal.

The national leader in terms of fewest yards penalized, the Lions were socked with 67 yards on eight flags Saturday. A roughing-the-passer penalty against defensive tackle Devon Still aided Michigan State's first TD drive.

A more significant flag came after McGloin's 25-yard scoring pass to Joe Suhey on the third play of the final quarter got Penn State to within 21-10. On the Spartans' next play from scrimmage, safety Malcolm Willis was called for a late hit out of bounds, fueling a drive capped by a 3-yard toss from backup quarterback Keith Nichol to tight end Charlie Gantt.

"Once again, we beat ourselves with a penalty," linebacker Nathan Stupar said. "That's another seven points we could have taken away from them, and those seven points would have won us the game."

Penn State coach Joe Paterno admitted the mistakes "had an impact" on the game.

"Sure, the penalties hurt us," he said. "You want to look at one or two of them. But I don't want to take anything away from Michigan State. They are a good, solid football team."

Some players attributed the Lions' slow start to being flat, a head-scratching development considering the fact that 11 seniors were playing their last game at Beaver Stadium.

"We may have been a little flat at the beginning of the game on that first drive," defensive end Pete Massaro said, "but I think we picked it up a little bit as the game went on. Although we didn't make very many plays when we needed them, we fought hard the whole game."

But in the end, the Spartans, not the Lions, were dancing on the field.

"Their crowd was cheering and things like that, and that's frustrating," McGloin said. "To see another team on your field celebrating a Big Ten championship, that's something you really don't want to see."