Lions roll past Spartans
PSU ends regular season at 10-2
DETROIT — Nick Singleton couldn’t guess how many yards he and Kaytron Allen, his roommate and running mate, gained Friday night at Ford Field.
When he was told they combined for 340 yards from scrimmage, he couldn’t believe it.
“Together? That’s crazy,” Singleton said. “It just shows that we compete in everything we do.
“Kaytron pushes me every day. We push each other.”
Penn State pushed Michigan State all over the field in a Big Ten regular season finale, pummeling the Spartans 42-0.
The 11th-ranked Nittany Lions (10-2, 7-2) completed their fifth 10-win regular season in eight years and all but clinched a berth in a New Year’s Six bowl. They finished with a season-high 586 total yards and enjoyed their largest margin of victory over the Spartans (4-8, 2-7) since a 61-7 blowout in 2002.
“It was definitely rewarding to see all those explosive plays,” quarterback Drew Allar said. “I know we had a decent amount of them on the ground, too
“The O-line did a great job of opening holes for Nick and Fat (Allen). And those guys did a great job of making the unblocked guy miss and carrying guys with them.”
Allen finished with a career-high 137 yards on 15 carries and caught three passes for 17 yards and one score.
Singleton, a Gov. Mifflin grad, ran 18 times for a season-high 118 yards and one TD and made two catches for 68 yards.
“Nick could do the same thing I could do,” Allen said. “It feels great. We’re always trying to get better each and every day. It paid off tonight.”
Allar, shaking off an upper-body injury he suffered last week against Rutgers, completed 17 of 26 passes for 292 yards and two touchdowns. He said he knew all week he was going to play.
He finished the regular season with a 61.1 completion percentage, 2,336 yards, 23 touchdown passes and one interception.
“If you told the (other) 132 (Football Bowl Subdivision) coaches in the country that their quarterback would have those stats before the season started,” Penn State coach James Franklin said, “I think everybody would take them and run.”
Defensively, Penn State posted its third shutout of the season, the first time that’s happened since the 1978 Lions blanked Ohio State, TCU and Kentucky. They held Michigan State to five first downs and 53 total yards, the fewest by an opponent since 1947.
The Lions sacked quarterbacks Katin Houser and Andrew Schorfhaar six times, including two by linebacker Abdul Carter. Safety Jaylen Reed intercepted a pass in the first quarter at the Penn State 9-yard line to thwart the Spartans’ biggest threat.
Defensive end Adisa Isaac had a team-high seven tackles, including a sack.
“We came out and tried to have fun,” Isaac said. “We wanted to execute the game plan and just enjoy the last regular season game.
“We have a standard. No matter who we play, we try to shut people out, give our best and show our dominance.”