Lions’ ‘retribution year’ stays on track with win at Michigan State
As they raced up the Spartan Stadium tunnel, eager to get out of the rain and into a dry locker room, several Penn State players shouted, “This is our house now!” One said, “We have three cribs now,” denoting the Lions’ three Big Ten road victories this season.
Later, linebacker Micah Parsons described a preseason conversation players had that wove its way through the weekly pronouncements of going “1-0.” They had a goal in mind, and Saturday’s 28-7 win over Michigan State was another step toward accomplishing it.
“It’s a retribution year,” Parsons said. “We’re trying to redeem all the close ones we lost. I think we’re a better team right now than in previous [years], and we’re just going to keep gaining and growing. The sky’s the limit for us right now.”
Penn State came to East Lansing without fear of seeing the ghosts of the past two seasons, when Michigan State pulled voodoo victories by a combined total of seven points. Quarterback Sean Clifford looked at the weather forecast Friday at the team hotel and told his teammates, according to receiver KJ Hamler, “no matter if it’s raining or snowing or pouring, I’m still going to throw the ball and we’re still going to march down the field.”
“After he told us that,” Hamler said, “we knew he was capable of doing it.”
For the second consecutive week, Penn State cleansed a 2018 memory and stayed unbeaten in the process. In both games, including last week’s win over Michigan, the Lions took a 21-0 lead, flailed a bit, but ultimately converted a satisfying victory.
Penn State (8-0) got through the most difficult three-week stretch of its schedule with victories over opponents that had tormented it at times over the years. Afterward, Penn State coach James Franklin pointed out how aware he was of this concentration of road.
The Lions adjusted elements of practice last week, limiting reps for players who had been through two grueling night games. They made recovery as important as film study. And they completed perhaps the most impressive three-week stretch of victories in Franklin’s six years as head coach.
“As much as I want everybody to take it one game at a time, every single one of our 700,000 alumni, every single one of you guys [in the media] looked at this three-game stretch on our schedule,” Franklin said. “We all knew this was going to be a challenge, so for us to able to get through it and get into our bye week is really important.”
Last week, Franklin said that Penn State’s coaches declared “enough is enough” regarding the team’s back-toback losses to Michigan State. Saturday might have been gilded with too much octane, considering the uncontrollables.
It was raining in East Lansing. Again. The Spartans, with bye weeks before and after the game, had only Penn State to focus on essentially for three weeks. Meanwhile, the Lions had been through physical gauntlets, including a road trip to Iowa. Last week, Hamler said he “hurt all over” after the win over Michigan.
But this team, for all its youth, seems to have a shorter memory. Or perhaps a shorter fuse.
“It wasn’t hard to get ready,” Parsons said. “We thought about last year, then we thought about where we’re trying to go as a program and as a team.”
The Lions made strong plays across the field Saturday. Tight end Pat Freiermuth, who celebrated his 21st birthday with three shots of cherry juice, caught three touchdown passes. The Lions forced four turnovers, including two interceptions, and chased Michigan State quarterback Brian Lewerke from the game in the fourth quarter.
Jayson Oweh was a missile at defensive end, getting a pair of strip-sacks. Penn State held the Spartans to 83 yards rushing.
And yet the Lions gave their coach reason to get angry. The team committed three unsportsmanlike-conduct penalties in the fourth quarter, with defensive end Antonio Shelton getting ejected.
Franklin said the game was “emotional,” owing in part to its history, but that didn’t stop him from making a locker-room speech.
“We’re going to own it all,” Franklin said. “That’s not who we are, that’s not who we will be. And it was addressed today and it will be addressed on Sunday after we watch the tape and at our team meeting. The worst thing you can do, and I’ve made this mistake earlier in my career, is go into the locker room after a tough win or a tough loss and you don’t handle things well. It was addressed very clearly, very directly.”
Penn State has a bye week before playing what has become a fascinating game. The Lions will visit Minnesota, which also is 8-0 and headed to a bye, for a showdown of unbeaten teams Nov. 9 in Minneapolis.
Earlier this year, that game didn’t carry the same intensity as this stretch Penn State just cleared. But now the Lions have raised the bar on a memorable 2018 season.
“Our confidence is still there,” Hamler said. “Now, we have to invest in this bye week.”