Spartan Stadium, site of so many close encounters of the season-ending kind, was the site of a third-quarter shot heard round the Big Ten Saturday, as the Nittany Lion gridders exploded from their November numbness to register their most lopsided win ever on Michigan State’s campus.

Untying a 7-7 halftime knot with a lightning score 59 seconds after the second half kickoff, the visitors then erupted for three more touchdowns in the final seven minutes of the third quarter to blow open a tight contest and make a bid for a January BCS bowl with a 42-14 domination of their Land-Grant rival.

The result was a major surprise for the Spartans, who had been ahead at some point in the fourth quarter of every game they played this season and whose five losses all were by eight points or less.

Penn State remained undefeated on the road for the first time since 1994 and completed its regular season with a 10-2 record, a No. 11 ranking in the coaches’ and writers’ polls and a No. 13 spot in the BCS standings.

Senior quarterback Daryll Clark wrote his name into the Penn State record book in three different categories, tossing four touchdown passes to make his season total 23 and his career total 42, while raising to 2,787 his season passing yardage—all tops in Penn State annals.

He received an extra shot of motivation when, earlier in the day, an ESPN reporter called Clark an interception machine in big games. Clark had no interceptions Saturday, but completed 19 of 27 passes for 310 yards—the third highest total in his career—and tied his game-high mark of four TDs.

But Clark had no hand in the Lions’ fifth touchdown through the air when freshman wide receiver Curtis Drake, who was a quarterback in high school, took a pitchout around right end then stopped and sailed a 14-yard pass to Andrew Quarless in the end zone to break open that 7-7 tie in the first minute of the third quarter. The 6-5 tight end had to leap high and pull the ball away from two Spartan defenders.

Coach Joe Paterno told reporters after the game that the Drake pass play had just been added to the playbook three days ago because they wanted to take advantage of Drake’s talents. New to the starting lineup, Drake was only inserted as a starter because Chaz Powell was injured last week against Indiana.

It was one of two TD receptions by Quarless, who also caught a 29-yard TD toss from Clark shortly before halftime. Wide receiver Graham Zug also had two scoring receptions for the day, which each came after a Penn State interception in the third frame.

Zug’s first was a 32-yard strike on a post pattern on State’s first play after Nick Sukay picked off Spartan quarterback Kirk Cousins—the Big Ten’s pass efficiency leader—and returned the ball 34 yards. The second came just five plays after linebacker Sean Lee made his first theft of the season and scampered 13 yards to the MS-43. (It was Lee’s first pick off since his goal-line interception against Indiana last week was nullified by a roughing the passer penalty against a defensive end.) Zug ran a crossing route, while Clark rolled out to the right. Zug made the catch about 10 yards downfield, juked a defender and cut down the right sideline, diving past the safety to get the ball just inside the pylon 15 seconds before the end of the Lions’ most productive quarter since the Eastern Illinois contest.

Zug had dropped a potential TD pass just before halftime and told his teammates in the locker room that he would make up for that miscue.

Fullback Joe Suhey got his first receiving touchdown at Penn State on a throwback from Clark on the series before Sukay’s interception. In a swift three-play scoring drive, Clark first threw 11 yards to Quarless, then handed the ball to Evan Royster, who ripped off the Lions’ longest run of the day—30 yards. Clark then rolled out to his left. As the Michigan State secondary over-pursued, he stopped and passed back to Suhey, standing alone along the right sideline. The sophomore, who spends most of his time blocking for Royster and Stephon Green, leaped for the catch and dashed 30 yards to the end zone.

This game was one for the record books for Royster as well as Clark. Royster posted his 12th career 100-yard rushing game, amassing 114 yards on only 13 carries to eclipse 1,000 yards in his second straight season. His total of 1,104 is 132 yards shy of his total last year, but moved him into eighth place on State’s all-time rushing list just 81 yards behind Lydell Mitchell’s 2,934 from 1969 to 1971.

Royster is second in the Big Ten in rushing at 92 yards per game, but his 5.9-yard average per carry is the best in the conference among rushers with at least 90 carries.

In the fourth quarter, Penn State’s reserves got playing time, and backup quarterback Kevin Newsome scored the Lions’ final touchdown on a one-yard plunge—the last of six running plays that ate up 3:25 of the clock.

Michigan State’s two touchdowns came near the end of each half on quick drives that covered 80 yards or more in just over a minute. Just before halftime, Cousins, the engineer of the Big Ten’s leading offense, moved his crew 87 yards in 1:19, completing six of eight consecutive passes, after Penn State had broken the scoreless deadlock just two minutes before the half. He started with a 14-yard shot to tight end Charlie Gantt, sandwiched in two tosses to wideout Mark Dell for more than 20 yards each, then finished with an 11-yard TD strike to Gantt just 45 seconds before intermission.

The second Spartan TD came when Cousins’ replacement, Keith Nichol, completed three straight passes on the home team’s final possession—a 71-yarder on which Keshawn Martin victimized State’s secondary reserves to set the final score with just 1:44 left in the game.

Paterno said he told his team Friday night that they had to “go out and play a 60-minute football game and show people we’re a pretty good team.” After a tight first half left the season-end opponents stymied at seven each, Paterno said his only words at halftime were, “Remember what I told you last night.”

Paterno said his Lions had some trouble with pass protection early. (Clark was sacked three times in the first half.) But, he said, once the team figured out how to handle the Spartan blitzes, “we felt we could beat them deep.”

The Lions had eight plays of 20 yards or more from scrimmage, as they rolled up 512 yards of total offense. Four of those long plays went for touchdowns and provided the margin of victory. Penn State’s total on the ground was more than double the home team’s 94 yards rushing, and the Nittany Lions outgained them through the air 324 to 239.

In time of possession, Penn State’s shortest scoring drive took seven seconds and its longest only 3:25. The Lions’ six scoring drives averaged just one minute and 51 seconds. Ironically, Michigan State’s two scoring drives averaged only 1:15, and the 167 yards gained on those drives all came on passes.

Spartan Stadium has been the scene of heart-breaking losses and major meltdowns by the Lions in some previous visits. But after the final whistle Saturday, it was the visitors celebrating with their exuberant fans in the northeast corner, just like they did after locking up the conference crown there in 2005.

So, in 2009 Penn State earned its 21st season with at least 10 wins under Paterno, who is the Division I-A all-time leader in 10-win seasons. It also marked the first time the Lions have had back-to-back 10-win seasons since 1993–94. As rumors fly about possible post-season destinations from the Orange and Fiesta bowls to the Capitol One and Outback bowls, the Lions have two weeks to wait until the Dec. 6 announcements after the final conference playoff games.

For the glory,