Payton Thorne threw for a touchdown and Kenneth Walker III rushed for 84 yards to lift No. 10 Michigan State to a 20-15 win over Indiana on Saturday in Bloomington, Ind.
Thorne completed 14 of 26 passes for 126 yards for the Spartans (7-0, 4-0 Big Ten), who forced three turnovers on defense to help secure the road win.
Stephen Carr rushed for 53 yards and a touchdown for the Hoosiers (2-4, 0-3), who were without starting quarterback Michael Penix Jr. due to an injured throwing shoulder. Jack Tuttle, making his third career start at quarterback for Indiana, completed 28 of 52 passes for 188 yards and two interceptions.
Indiana outgained Michigan State 217-57 in the first half but settled for just a 9-7 lead at intermission. The Hoosiers had two drives stall inside Michigan State’s 10-yard line, which resulted in field goals of 24 and 25 yards from Charles Campbell.
Michigan State’s lone touchdown of the first half came on defense, with linebacker Cal Haladay returning a Tuttle interception 30 yards for a touchdown. That score put the Spartans up 7-3 with 4:33 left in the first quarter.
Campbell connected on a 44-yard field goal with 14:21 left in the second quarter to cut Michigan State’s lead to 7-6. Then, Campbell put Indiana up 9-7 with a 25-yard attempt with 6:55 left in the first half.
Indiana had a chance to add more points before the end of the half, but a 55-yard attempt by Campbell at the end of the half sailed wide left.
Michigan State took a 10-9 lead on a 51-yard field goal by Matt Coghlin with 7:54 left in the third quarter. Then, off Tuttle’s second interception of the game, Thorne found tight end Tyler Hunt for a wide open 12-yard touchdown to extend Michigan State’s lead to 17-9 with 1:49 left in the third quarter.
Indiana finally broke through for its first touchdown in three Big Ten games when Carr scored on a 1-yard run with 12:56 left in the fourth quarter. But Indiana’s subsequent two-point conversion attempt to tie the game came up short.
Coghlin put Michigan State up 20-15 with his second field goal, this one from 49 yards, with 8:31 left in the fourth quarter.
The Hoosiers were also without preseason All-American cornerback Tiawan Mullen, who sat out the game with a leg injury.
–Field Level Media
