EAST LANSING, Mich. _ On one of the strangest days in the history of the Penn State program, the seventh-ranked Nittany Lions endured a long weather delay Saturday but saw their day go for naught at Spartan Stadium.
With the help of a roughing-the-passer penalty against free safety Marcus Allen on a third-down incompletion, Michigan State moved into field-goal territory and Matt Coghlin kicked it through the uprights from 34 yards out with no time remaining, giving the Spartans a 27-24 victory.
Penn State (7-2, 4-2) lost for the second straight week on the road, and the defeat virtually ends their chances of repeating as Big Ten champions or earning a berth in the College Football Playoff. The Spartans improved to 7-2, 5-1.
The game was delayed for 3 hours, 24 minutes in the second quarter due to lightning in the area. When it resumed at 4:38 p.m., the teams traded scores the rest of the way and played down to the wire.
After falling behind in the third quarter, the Nittany Lions took the lead, 24-21, on the final play of the period, a 70-yard pass from Trace McSorley to DeAndre Thompkins. Michigan State tied it four minutes into the fourth quarter on Coghlin's 32-yard field goal, and the two teams traded interceptions later in the quarter.
The drive to the winning field goal began after Penn State turned the ball over on downs at Michigan State's 31 with McSorley misfiring on a fourth-and-3 pass to Thompkins with 4:05 remaining. Quarterback Brian Lewerke drove the Spartans to a pair of first downs, and later faced third-and-4 from the Lions 37.
The pass from Lewerke to Cody White was incomplete but Allen, coming up the middle on a blitz, clearly hit the quarterback late. The roughing-the-passer penalty put the ball at the 22 and after two running plays and a Penn State timeout designed to ice the kicker, Coghlin delivered the game-winner as the Spartans stormed the field.
McSorley completed 26 of 47 passes for 381 yards and three touchdowns but threw a season-high three interceptions. Saquon Barkley was bottled up for most of the game and rushed for 63 yards on 14 carries.
Lewerke was 33 of 56 for 400 yards, the second time in two weeks that the Penn State secondary was torched for big yardage.
Play was called by the officials at 1:14 p.m. with Penn State leading 14-7 and 7 minutes, 58 seconds remaining in the first half. The Spartans had the ball preparing for a third-and-4 call from the Nittany Lions 37.
The Nittany Lions struggled after play resumed, gaining minus-4 yards on offense the remainder of the half and giving up a touchdown on Lewerke's 33-yard pass to Felton Davis that tied it at 14.
The score was tied at 14 at the half, when both teams took their full 20-minute break even though they had been delayed by weather. The Spartans struck first in the third quarter when a 36-yard pass from Lewerke to Davis on third-and-18 set up LJ Scott's 3-yard touchdown run.
The Lions responded with a 26-yard field goal by Tyler Davis, as they moved into field goal range on DaeSean Hamilton's 22-yard reception on a third-down play.
