Those 28 points came in 15 total plays.

“Emotion is very, very important in this game,” MSU head coach Mark Dantonio said. “When you think you can, you usually can. But all of a sudden when you have a big ol’ wave rolling over your shoulder, things become tough to do out there and it becomes harder.”

MSU’s offense was stymied early, until the Spartans entered the two-minute drill. Sophomore quarterback Kirk Cousins took the team 87 yards in eight plays to tie the game at seven on a 13-yard touchdown to junior tight end Charlie Gantt.

Then the team collapsed.

Penn State scored in three plays after a big kick return to start the half. The Nittany Lions punted their next possession, but scored in three plays again after MSU’s second straight three-and-out.

If the game was going downhill for MSU at that point, it was driven into the ground following the next four possessions — two Cousins’ interceptions that led to two Penn State touchdowns, making the score 35-7.

“It happened so fast,” senior linebacker Brandon Denson said. “You have to keep the ball, and unfortunately they capitalized on the turnovers and scored.”

Of MSU’s six losses, this is the first the Spartans didn’t have a chance to win or tie in the final minutes.

“Against a good football team, things can always get worse, and I think that’s what you saw,” Dantonio said.

When all was said and done, the defense had given up more than 500 yards of total offense for the third time in four games to end the season, following a stretch in which it played four solid games in a row.

“We lost our swagger a little bit along the way,” junior linebacker Greg Jones said. “We had to gain that back, but that’s hard to do midseason. It’s hard to do that throughout the week in practice. I feel like we’re trying to get that back as a team. Guys are really just trying to play for each other.”

Dantonio said the team needs to tackle better and pressure the quarterback consistently from a four-man rush.

“You have to do exactly what you’re coached to do on a consistent basis,” Dantonio said. “Because it has to fit together like a puzzle in terms of being in the right place at the right time, then you have to make the play. That puzzle is coaching and you have to ask yourself are you asking them to do the right things, too.”

But the defense should be bolstered by the return of junior safety Roderick Jenrette, who has been out since the Michigan game with a broken fifth metatarsal bone in his left foot.

Dantonio expects Jenrette to return for the bowl game.

“It really is tremendous,” Jones said. “And that’s not to say the guys in there are terrible or anything like that, but Rod Jenrette is a tremendous player. Even when he’s not in the game, coach brought him along for the Purdue game, he gave a lot of energy and we could feel it, we could sense his presence there, so his physical presence on the field will be (greatly) needed.”

Jenrette was playing the best football of his career when he was injured, working his way into the starting lineup and recording 17 tackles in games against Wisconsin and U-M.

“Rod just brings a different type of excitement to the game,” Denson said. “He’s just going to go out there and try to kill everybody. Anybody and everybody, no matter how big they are. I have so much respect for him because he doesn’t weigh 200 pounds, if that and he goes out there and tries to hit everybody as hard as he can.”