Blue White Illustrated

N A T E   B A U E R | N B A U E R @ B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M EAST LANSING, Mich. – Christian Hackenberg did his best to stay positive. His Nittany Lions, pounded to the tune of a 55-16 loss to No. 5 Michigan State, hadn't played that badly. Had they? Penn State had compiled 418 yards of offense against one of the conference's top defensive outfits, and Hackenberg's numbers – 22 completions in 39 at- tempts for 257 yards and two touch- downs – were roughly on par with those of Spartans quarterback Connor Cook. Wideout Chris Godwin was remarkable, hauling in 11 catches for 109 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Even true freshman Saquon Barkley got in on the act, again eclipsing the century mark with 103 yards on 17 carries. Still, surrounded by a mob of reporters in the bowels of Spartan Stadium, Hack- enberg could only shake his head in dis- belief. "We kept coming back," he said, asked what he'd learned about his team. "We kept fighting, but they scored a ton of points. It's a testament to how well they executed when they needed to both of- fensively and defensively, taking advan- tage of our mistakes, and you can't do that against a good team." Leaving no room for debate, the Spar- tans proved themselves to be as good as advertised, and they needed little time to do so. Capitalizing on an out-of-bounds kickoff to start the game, Hackenberg and the Nittany Lions were able to quickly traverse 34 yards to the Spartans' 31-yard line. Sensing an opportunity, Hackenberg looked deep to junior wide- out Geno Lewis down the sideline and into the end zone. He leA the ball to the field side, though, and as a result, his second pass of the aAernoon was inter- cepted by Arjen Colquhoun when Lewis couldn't fight back into the play. It was all the spark Michigan State would need to get going, moving 80 yards on nine plays to take a 6-0 lead. Even so, Penn State harkened back to its struggles the prior two games when it capitalized on a converted fourth down, eventually pushing the ball all the way to the 4-yard line. A Barkley carry and two incompletions later, the Nittany Lions could only reach the 1, settling for a field goal. Said Godwin, "We've got to go out, we've got to execute, we've got to be able to score touchdowns in the red zone. We can't come away with field goals, espe- cially not against a good team like this." As they would demonstrate just two possessions later, they also can't afford to turn the ball over. Trailing 13-3 midway through the second quarter, the Lions picked up three first downs – including another Barkley fourth-down conver- sion – to set up a second-and-10 play at the MSU 33. But aAer completing a pass to senior tight end Kyle Carter over the middle, disaster ensued. Pulling in the ball, Carter turned up- field, only to have it knocked to the turf by Spartans linebacker Riley Bullough and into the arms of Demetrious Cox. Not settling for just a recovered fumble, Cox scooped up the ball, broke to the sideline, evaded Penn State's hapless of- fensive linemen and utilized a final block on Hackenberg to sprint 77 yards for a touchdown. Demoralized by a third-quarter per- formance in which the Spartans held the ball for 10 minutes, 24 seconds, Penn State's situation went from bad to worse when Hackenberg was pick-sixed by Malik McDowell early in the fourth quar- ter, giving the hosts a 48-16 lead. "We shot ourselves in the foot twice with those types of plays, and they took advantage of them," Hackenberg said. "We were able to execute for the most part when we were doing what we needed to do. We just didn't turn it into enough points. That's a top-five team in the country, and they came out and played like it." N O V E M B E R 2 8 , 2 0 1 5 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M 6 TOO MANY MISTAKES Penn State piles up yards but isn't able to turn them into points KEY MOMENT Michigan State's Arjen Colquhoun pulls the ball away from Lewis in the end zone. The first- quarter intercep- tion put an end to what had been a promising Nittany Lion possession. Photo by Steve Manuel

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