Michigan State Football: Report card for win over No. 24 Miami

Payton Thorne: A

For a second straight game, Payton Thorne tossed four touchdown passes and two of them were arguably his best passes of the season.

Thorne had a couple of touchdowns to Jalen Nailor and Kenneth Walker III that were short routes that those guys made something out. But the late scores to Nailor and Jayden Reed were eye-opening. He was careful with the ball for more of the afternoon and really only missed a couple of passes, but he fired an absolute dart to Reed between two defenders to put MSU up 24-14.

He then hit Nailor on a 39-yard bomb to pretty much put the game out of reach, giving the Spartans a 31-17 lead. I was really impressed with this throw and catch because it took some guts to take the shot and Thorne didn’t shy away from it.

What goes unnoticed here is the fact that Thorne’s first option was Reed and it looked like he was going to force something, decided against it, remained calm, and went through his progressions to find a wide-open Nailor down the field. He fired a perfect pass to give Michigan State an insurmountable 31-17 lead.

Thorne finished the day with 261 yards and four touchdowns on 18-of-31 completions and he now has nine touchdowns and no picks on the year.