Payton Thorne: ‘I was pretty disappointed with how I played’ vs. Western Michigan
Michigan State quarterback Payton Thorne holds himself and his teammates to a high standard, and the redshirt junior did not play up to his standard during the Spartans’ 35-13 win over Western Michigan on Friday night.
That’s pretty remarkable considering the fact that Thorne threw four touchdown passes for the fourth time in his career, matching former MSU quarterback Connor Cook for the most four-touchdown pass games in a career.
Still, Thorne was admittedly not sharp during the Spartans’ season-opening victory over the Broncos, and probably left a couple touchdowns or scoring drives on the field with several misfires that the redshirt junior usually connects on.
“I was pretty disappointed with how I played but…there’s a lot of factors in that,” Thorne said. “There's definitely a ton of room to improve.”
After Michigan State went three-and-out on its first two offensive possessions, the Spartans got on the scoreboard when Thorne connected with true freshman receiver Germie Bernard on a 44-yard catch and run for a touchdown.
The quarterback led his receiver a little too far to the middle of the field, but Bernard made an excellent adjustment in midair, and then turned on the jets to put MSU up 7-3 on their opponents from Kalamazoo.
“It starts with Germie, true freshman, first game in our stadium, comes out there, that might have been his first play actually, ran a good route and made a really nice catch, and then, obviously, the run after the catch to get in the end zone was really solid,” Thorne said.
“He's a really good player and we're excited about what he brings to the table, and that’s just an example of what he’s been doing all year in practice.”
Michigan State scored on their next possession as well, when Thorne found tight end Daniel Barker in the back of the end zone for his second touchdown toss. The second-year starting quarterback had several overthrows on the day, and this attempt to Barker was close to being another. However, the transfer from Illinois bailed his QB out with an excellent one-handed grab for the score.
“DJ, you know, spectacular catch, ran a really good route,” Thorne said. “Right away, as soon as the ball was snapped I knew I was going to have a good chance at that. I put it out there a little too much out for him and he made a great catch. I’m very happy that he came down with that, or else I would have been pretty upset.”
The Spartans’ offense made it three consecutive possessions resulting in touchdowns on their next trip out on the field.
Sophomore wide receiver Keon Coleman had single-man coverage on a deep route, and Thorne lofted a pass up high to let his 6-foot-4 target go and get it. It was one of the redshirt junior’s best throws of the night, and Coleman did the rest.
“Keon made a great adjustment to the ball,” Thorne said. “I just tried to give that one some air and let him adjust to that. When you got man coverage or trail technique man, that DB can't see the ball, so you just let your receiver go make a play, and these guys can go make a play, as you saw tonight. So, good job by him to catch it and get in the end zone as well.”
Just like that, Michigan State led 21-3 and Spartan Stadium was hoping. Still, two of Thorne’s first-half touchdown – the ones to Bernard and Barker – were more the result of excellent plays by the receivers than Thorne putting the ball on the money, and that doesn’t sit well with the redshirt junior.
“I was very disappointed with the first half,” Thorne said. “We scored 21 points and had three nice plays, but I give all the credit to their defense and what they did. They did a lot of things we really hadn't seen on film, or maybe we saw only one time on film all last year. They brought it all out against us and played hard … They did some good things and were able to put us in some interesting situations.”
The most frustrating moment of the game for Thorne came late in the second quarter, as Michigan State was trying to extend its 18-point lead before the end of the half. The Spartans worked their way down to the WMU 26 yard line, and faced third-and-five.
Thorne was flushed from the pocket, but had plenty of room in front of him to scramble for the first down. Instead, the redshirt junior threw across his body on the run in the direction of Bernard, whose route was taking him away from the quarterback. Western Michigan’s Keni-H Lovely stepped in front of the pass for an interception, and Michigan State came away with nothing on the drive.
“It was pretty stupid, that’s what it was,” Thorne said of his decision. “Really not happy with that, at all. That was a great learning moment for just forgetting about it, you know. That’s something I’ve been working on a lot – just putting things in the past.
“Yeah, that was really stupid. Not necessarily the throw was stupid – people are going to say that was a dumb throw because I was throwing across my body a little bit, but I throw that ball every day at practice. Not that exact, full-sprint [throw], but I work on that throw every day before practice – flipping my hips and making that throw. I don’t know why I didn’t flip my hips and make that throw. I threw it on the run, which really blows my mind. But, yeah, really disappointed in that. That was a really dumb decision – can’t turn the ball over in the red zone or if you’re on the fringe. That was dumb, and that’s not a play we can make in the future.”
Thorne finished the game with 233 passing yards, but completed just 12-of-24 attempts on the night. His fourth touchdown came late in the fourth quarter – a 43-yard strike to wide receiver Tre Mosley. This was indeed the second-year starter’s best throw of the night, and it was a nice finish to what had been somewhat frustrating day for the MSU signal-caller.
Thorne will try to carry the momentum of that throw into Game 2 against Akron next weekend.
