Blue White Illustrated

College Football Playoff. "We've done a great job making adjust- ments at hal@ime," coach James Franklin said. "We've got to try to make those ad- justments a little bit earlier. I think part of it is [having] a young team. I think for this game, we traveled 13 [offensive] line- men to the hotel, and of those 13, I think nine of them were freshmen. We're young. We're not getting as much move- ment as we need to in the run game. We're seeing a lot of interior blitzing… and we didn't do a great job getting movement early in the game. But we stuck together, settled down, and did a great job in the second half making plays." The win came at a cost, and that cost had not been fully ascertained as of Sat- urday night. Standout sophomore run- ning back Saquon Barkley suffered what appeared to be an ankle injury in the third quarter and didn't return to the game. Michigan State suffered some losses of its own, as starting quarterback Damion Terry was knocked out in the first half a@er experiencing concussionlike symp- toms, and leading rusher L.J. Scott was forced out temporarily with a knee in- jury. But the Spartans' biggest problem was a fired-up Penn State defense that produced four sacks and 10 tackles for loss. Here's a look at the good and the bad: THE GOOD • With the Spartans focused on stop- ping Barkley, the Nittany Lions needed Trace McSorley to have a big night throwing the ball, and he delivered. Boy, did he deliver. McSorley finished with 17 completions in 23 attempts for 376 yards. He threw touchdown passes of 34 and 59 yards to Chris Godwin, along with a 45- yarder to Mike Gesicki and a 40-yarder to Andre Robinson. "Trace has got a really good feel in the pocket, stepping up, knowing when he needs to run, knowing when he has a lit- tle bit more time and can keep his eyes down the field and make big plays," Franklin said. "It's been fun to watch. It's been fun to watch those guys make plays and watch Trace grow up in front of our eyes." • The defense clamped down hard in the second half, holding the Spartans scoreless a@er giving up points on all four of their first-half possessions. And even when the defense was struggling initially, it held strong in the red zone, forcing field goals on those four Michigan State scoring drives. "They kept us in the game [with the red zone stops], to be honest," Franklin said. "And then in the second half, we were able to get some negative-yardage plays and sacks and things like that and kind of got them off schedule, and we went from there." • The Lions weren't penalized until the fourth quarter (a pass interference call on John Reid), and that was the only time they were flagged in the game. Consid- ering all the upheaval their offensive line has suffered in recent weeks, that de- serves a shout out. • Penn State also won the turnover bat- tle, falling on a Spartan fumble while committing no turnovers of its own. THE BAD • Barkley's injury didn't dampen the postgame celebration, but it will be a topic of major concern this week in the run-up to the Big Ten Championship Game. He's the Big Ten's third-leading rusher with 1,219 yards, and even when SCORING SUMMARY 1ST 8:13 MSU Geiger, Michael 28-yard field goal 12 plays, 76 yards, TOP 4:33....................................................... 3-0 2:44 MSU Geiger, Michael 36-yard field goal 11 plays, 49 yards, TOP 4:19........................................................ 6-0 2ND 13:11 PSU Davis, Tyler 35-yard field goal 10 plays, 60 yards, TOP 4:24...................................................... 6-3 7:17 MSU Geiger, Michael 33-yard field goal 13 plays, 59 yards, TOP 5:54.......................................................9-3 2:14 PSU Barkley, Saquon 1-yard run (Davis, Tyler kick) 10 plays, 78 yards, TOP 4:57......................................................9-10 0:10 MSU Geiger, Michael 21-yard field goal 14 plays, 72 yards, TOP 2:04.................................................... 12-10 3RD 11:02 PSU Godwin, Chris 34-yard pass from McSorley, Trace (Davis, Tyler kick) 5 plays, 52 yards, TOP 2:11.........................................................12-17 7:03 PSU Gesicki, Mike 45-yard pass from McSorley, Trace (Davis, Tyler kick) 5 plays, 69 yards, TOP 1:51.......................................................12-24 2:05 PSU Godwin, Chris 59-yard pass from McSorley, Trace (Davis, Tyler kick) 2 plays, 62 yards, TOP 0:49......................................................12-31 4TH 6:33 PSU Robinson, Andre 14-yard run (Davis, Tyler kick) 4 plays, 42 yards, TOP 1:49..................................................... 12-38 3:40 PSU Robinson, Andre 40-yard pass from McSorley, Trace (Davis, Tyler kick) 4 plays, 83 yards, TOP 0:46....................................................12-45 N O V E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 6 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M 2

• Cover