Payton Thorne struggles but coach, teammates confident in their QB

East Lansing — As quarterback, the planner of the offense, it’s often that the game's results, the team's record, morale, motivation and the energy of your teammates falls onto your back. Heavily.

“As quarterback, that’s how it is,” Michigan State redshirt junior wide receiver Tre Mosley said Saturday following Michigan State's 34-7 loss to Minnesota. “They get the most praise when things are going well, then when things aren’t going well, they get the most hatred.”

It doesn’t help that it’s human nature to be your own biggest critic. Mosley said that’s unfortunately just how his teammate, redshirt junior quarterback Payton Thorne, is.

“Payton, he’s always going to be the biggest critic of himself, but I know that he’s going to get back to the film and see what he needs to fix as an individual and as a team and I’ll be right there with him,” Mosley said.

And it’s tough, preparing for the best outcomes only to end up with the worst.

More: Spartans coach Tucker holds off on rash decisions following blowout loss

It’s evident Thorne didn’t have a great game on Saturday afternoon against Minnesota. He threw 17 completed passes in 24 attempts with two interceptions for 132 yards. Anyone would agree that it’s not an ideal way to open conference play, especially after last weekend’s embarrassing loss at Washington.

“There was no time during the game that I felt he wasn’t confident in what he was doing. I was talking to him on the sideline, and I just talked to him just now when he got done (talking to the media), and I still don’t see a lack of confidence. Disappointment, yes, but (definitely not) a lack of confidence.”

The message to the locker room after the game, Thorne said, was the same and simple.

“We’ve got to come together as we move forward,” he said. “Good teams are families; they come together during tough times and move forward together and that’s what our plan is. … After a game like this, there’s not really much to say. It just feels terrible, it’s really not a good feeling.”

Head coach Mel Tucker and the players who spoke with the media following the loss held back when asked about schematics and what essentially went wrong. They want to leave it up to the film — the brick and mortar of what really happened resides there.

“It’s up to the individual. If you feel beaten, what’re you going to do about it?,” Tucker said. “You can’t ever be in a situation where you feel like you’re beaten, because what does that mean? How are you going to respond to that?”

Tucker said he’s not sensing any lack of motivation from his guys, despite the back-to-back, less-than-pleasant games they’ve played. He’s looking at everything going forward. He’s going to properly reevaluate what went wrong both in Seattle and against Minnesota, why it did and where it needs to be fixed. They don’t want this losing streak to continue.

Tucker’s confident in his team, and his coaching staff, despite the noisy backlash coming from fans on social media.

“We’re going to do what it takes to find solutions,” he said.

Sara Tidwell is a freelance writer.