EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Think Saturday's loss to Michigan State means that the Penn State football program is on the decline?

Joe Paterno tries to avoid thoughts like that.

"That's ridiculous," the 80-year-old coach told a crowd of reporters, minutes after his Lions watched a 17-point, third-quarter lead evaporate, losing to Michigan State, 35-31, in front of more than 70,000 people in Spartan Stadium.

Paterno wants to look at Saturday's loss in a positive light. The Spartans (7-5, 3-5 Big Ten) are a team that has competed fiercely with all their opponents this season, with their losses coming by an average of less than six points. Their offense was just able to get the ball to the right people at the right times on Saturday.

The Lions (8-4, 4-4) lost to a team that has a lot of talent, Paterno said.

But there's the other side of the story, the side the coach didn't mention quite as prominently. His quarterback, Anthony Morelli, couldn't complete a pass when it mattered the most -- late in the fourth quarter, down by four points, with the ball on Michigan State's 24-yard-line.

And the Lions had to play yet another game in the shadow of off-the-field distractions, two days after three members of the team were charged for their alleged involvement in an on-campus fight in October.

"It's pretty difficult," linebacker Dan Connor said. "With the stuff going on, that's all you read in the paper. You don't read much positive stuff about us. That's tough -- being a senior, being a leader, that the team has gotten such a bad reputation."

Through the first half of Saturday's game, however, any lingering thoughts of off-the-field problems appeared to be in Penn State's rearview mirror as it coasted to a 17-7 lead over the Spartans, and increased it to 24-7 early in the third quarter.

The Spartans held a halftime meeting and reflected on their first-half mistakes. They blamed themselves for falling behind, Spartans running back Javon Ringer said, pointing out his team's turnovers (two interceptions) and penalties (three for 35 yards).

"The reason why we were losing -- we thought that it was our fault," Ringer said. "We made a lot of mistakes ourselves. We put ourselves in bad positions."

Before coming out for the second half, the Spartans took stock of the reasons they needed to succeed. Coming into the game with six wins made them bowl eligible, but by no means guaranteed them a place in the postseason.

It was also the team's senior day, the last time many Michigan State players would see Spartan Stadium filled with its fans.

"I just tried to tell everybody, we gotta play together like brothers," wide receiver Devin Thomas said. "Let's just get it done."

In the second half, the Spartans gave Penn State only one turnover and only 15 penalty yards. It moved the ball quickly downfield, relying on more than 200 second-half passing yards by quarterback Brian Hoyer and two touchdown catches by Thomas to bring them right back into the game.

The Spartans celebrated on the field in the minutes after their comeback victory. Their seven wins virtually assure them of a bowl appearance, something that looked less likely earlier in the season.

Preseason talk among Penn State players was that this was the year for a national title. After crucial losses to Big Ten opponents, they aimed for a New Year's Day bowl. Now, Paterno's team appears to be headed to the Alamo Bowl or Champs Sports Bowl, middling bowls held in the closing days of December.

"Teams are gonna go win the Orange Bowl one year, and then they're gonna go win the Outback Bowl," Connor said. "You bounce around...[but] you can't make an excuse, because it's a tough year."