It wasn’t easy, as Greg Schiano’s Rutgers team came into East Lansing ready for a dogfight, but Michigan State football was able to hold on to take out Rutgers 27 to 21, keeping their bowl game hopes alive. Now at 5-5 on the year, Michigan State will need one more win to become bowl eligible.
The story of this game for Michigan State was the special teams unit, which logged their best overall game of the year. Bryce Baringer was excellent as always, but it was Auburn transfer kicker Ben Patton who was the hero of the day, going 2-for-2 on field goals and 3-for-3 on extra points, giving the Spartans some reliable kicking for the first time this year. Additionally, the most important play of the game came on a huge blocked field goal by Jacob Slade after Rutgers had one of their best drives of the day.
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MSU also had some decent success on offense against a sturdy Rutgers defense. While Payton Thorne didn’t have his best game, he minimized the mistakes and threw for 256 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. Jayden Reed had 90 yards receiving and a touchdown and tight end Daniel Barker had his best game of the year, with 64 yards and a touchdown. Jalen Berger also had another strong game, rushing for 83 yards and a touchdown, while Jarek Broussard added another 80 yards on the ground.
On defense, it was frustrating to see Kyle Monangai punish Spartan defenders all day and rush for 162 yards, but MSU got stops when they needed them.
All in all, this was a stressful win, with Rutgers scoring a late touchdown to stay alive and just an onside kick recovery away from having a good shot at victory, but MSU did what they needed to do and walked away with the win.
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