Nittany Lions romp over Spartans on road

Penn State 28, Michigan State 7

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Sean Clifford threw four touchdown passes — three to Pat Freiermuth — and No. 6 Penn State had little trouble shutting down Michigan State’s anemic offense in a 28-7 victory Saturday.

The Nittany Lions (8-0, 5-0 Big Ten) avenged close losses to Michigan State from each of the past two seasons. The Spartans (4-4, 2-3) wrapped up a dreadful stretch in which they lost to Ohio State, Wisconsin and Penn

State by a combined score of 100-17.

Penn State now moves on to a surprising matchup of undefeated teams on Nov. 9 at Minnesota. The Nittany Lions had lost five of their previous six against Michigan State.

“It’s hard to win week after week, consistently, in this conference, especially on this side of the conference,” Penn State coach James Franklin said. “We won the field position battle, we won the turnover battle.”

Clifford’s first touchdown pass to Freiermuth, a 16-yarder, opened the scoring in the first quarter, and those same two players gave Penn State a 13-0 lead with a 19-yard strike in the second. KJ Hamler’s 27-yard TD catch with 1:20 left in the half — plus a successful 2-point conversion — made it 21-0.

A fumbled punt by Michigan State set up Clifford’s 6-yard touchdown toss to Freiermuth in the third quarter. Then the Spartans finally scored for the first time in 2 hours, 31 minutes, 2 seconds. Brian Lewerke found Cody White for a 49-yard pass, and Anthony Williams scored on a 4-yard run.