Michigan State Football: 3 hot takes from Week 6 road win vs. Rutgers

Revenge was on the menu for Rutgers on Saturday afternoon as Michigan State football came to Piscataway and utilized a huge fourth-quarter turnover to put the Scarlet Knights away.

Michigan State left a lot of points on the board and probably should have won 45-13, at least, but any time your team puts up 600 total yards of offense and 31 points to win by three scores and you still feel like it was a bad game, that means that you’re probably really good. And Michigan State continues to prove that it is, in fact, really good.

The Spartans may have shed the “pretender” tag, beating Rutgers 31-13 on Saturday.

Let’s dive into some piping-hot takes from Michigan State’s big road win.

3. Payton Thorne has the look of an all-time Spartan QB great

Payton Thorne threw one bad pass all afternoon against Rutgers and it actually led to an interception. He tried to force a throw on a curl route to his receiver, but the Rutgers defense was in the right position and deflected the pass and was “intercepted” by the defense — it could have easily been ruled incomplete as the ground may have helped the catch.

But that was it in terms of bad throws for Thorne.

When was the last time a quarterback at Michigan State looked this solid through the air? Brian Lewerke showed flashes throughout his career but you’d have to go all the way back to 2015 to find a time when a quarterback was this confident and trustworthy. Thorne may be even more solid and mistake-free than Connor Cook was back in that playoff season.

Michigan State fans have been spoiled with great quarterback play over the years, but Thorne has the look of an all-time great if he keeps this play up after passing for a career-best 339 yards and three touchdowns, completing 60 percent of his passes.