Michigan 49, Penn State 10 Comment Count

Ace



[Eric Upchurch/MGoBlog]

Karan Higdon ran in for a touchdown from two yards out. The Michigan Stadium crowd responded with a polite golf clap.

The first half wasn't over.

The same couldn't be said for the competitive portion of the game. Higdon's run gave the Wolverines a 28-0 lead heading into halftime. At that point, they'd outgained Penn State by 209 yards; star running back Saquon Barkley had 66 of PSU's 50 total yards. That is not a typo.

The two teams didn't look like they belonged on the same field, and apparently James Franklin agreed. PSU opened the second half by forcing a three-and-out, then mounting their only sustained drive of the game thus far, getting deep into Michigan territory before facing a fourth-and-goal from the two. Franklin sent out the field goal unit to turn a four-score game into a four-score game. He sent them back out after calling a timeout to avoid a delay-of-game penalty. The kick was good; it was also a white flag.

Jim Harbaugh did not share that mindset. Michigan's opening touchdown came on a fourth-and-goal plunge by Khalid Hill, and a nine-yard Wilton Speight scramble(!) on a fourth-and-seven set up Higdon's half-ending score; Michigan would go for two more and come up short, but they didn't take the foot off the gas until the game's final minutes.

"It's just cool that he knows we'll pick it up," said Speight. "We know that his mindset is to smash it in for a touchdown, too. It's cool that we're all on the same page."

"Especially the one way where we were going into the wind, we thought the odds were better going for fourth downs," said Harbaugh.

One team played to win. The other played to survive.



[Bryan Fuller/MGoBlog]

Michigan dominated from the outset. They sacked PSU QB Trace McSorley twice on the first drive. Jabrill Peppers nearly housed the ensuing punt; after a sideline infraction moved the offense back to the Penn State 24-yard line, Wilton Speight completed three straight passes to get the team in a goal-to-go situation before Hill ultimately squeezed his way into the end zone. Michigan would finish with six rushing touchdown by five backs; five came from three yards out or fewer, with the only exception a 40-yard sprint draw to Higdon in the fourth quarter.

"I was really impressed with the running backs. All of them contributed in big ways," said Harbaugh, before naming all five backs—Higdon, Hill, De'Veon Smith, Ty Isaac, and Chris Evans—who crossed the goal line. "Moving the chains and breaking some big runs—it was a good way to move the ball."

It was indeed. Michigan bounced back from a couple sub-par rushing performances between the tackles and made Penn State's banged-up front look completely outmatched. The Wolverines covered 326 yards at 6.7 per carry, and in a big change from the first three games, only five of those yards came from a receiver. Smith led the way with 107 yards on only 12 carries; Higdon, Isaac, and Evans each had over 50 yards, and all the backs looked sharp.

It was no coincidence the offensive line had their best performance of the year, opening big holes up front and not allowing a sack. Speight mentioned in the postgame presser that Michigan ran the same run play eight or nine times in a row, with the only variation being whether they ran left or right. That third-quarter drive culminated in a three-yard TD by Evans to put Michigan up 35-3 and remove any shred of doubt about the outcome.

"I started laughing," Speight said of seeing the same call signaled in from the sideline so many times in a row.

"I thought our team was prepared and confident. There was some communication out there, especially from the offensive linemen, of what they thought they could do well," said Harbaugh. "We listened to them and repeated the call a few times. It was simply that."

Speight wasn't asked to do much through the air, but he was capable when called upon, going 21-for-34 for 189 yards and a short TD pass to freshman TE Devin Asiasi. He didn't look worse for wear after a rough outing against Colorado.

On the other side of the ball, the defense was unrelenting after welcoming Jourdan Lewis and Taco Charlton back to the lineup. Barkley had a couple moments, but he had little in the way of help.

"That's a good back. Saquon Barkley is really good." said Harbaugh. "But our guys were there and they were swarming."

Nine defenders combined for 13 tackles for loss; five were responsible for the six sacks. Mo Hurst, looking quite healthy, led the way with three TFLs and a sack.

The only downer came when Jeremy Clark suffered an apparent non-contact knee injury on a fourth-quarter kickoff. He required a cart to get to the locker room, and Harbaugh didn't mince words after the game, saying "we think it's a season-ender."

That will be something to overcome next week, when Michigan will host a top-ten matchup with Wisconsin, which is coming off a blowout of Michigan State. The Wolverines will enter that game as the winningest program in the country after today's win coupled with a Notre Dame loss to Duke—I'll pause here for laughter—gave the good guys the edge in win percentage again.

The Badgers will provide a stiffer contest. It would be difficult for them not to do so.

Comments

Squash34

September 25th, 2016 at 2:32 AM ^

Completely agree. I don't mind if you call the pi's on Michigan, although they were very weak. However, you have to do it consistently for both teams. I thought the chesson one was actually worse than at least one of the O es called on Michigan. And it was not called.
I also thought that the 2 offsides on the one drive were clearly caused by Penn state going in the neutral zone add in the bad targeting call and the refs where bad all around.

stephenrjking

September 24th, 2016 at 8:13 PM ^

Nice write-up. Delightful game. I would love to see an in-depth analysis of the 8 identical playcalls.

It should be noted that Penn State was basically pulling guys out of the stands to play LB, so Michigan absolutely should have dominated up front in that way.

But what is comforting is that Michigan has played a couple of games where "should have" didn't translate into results. Today it did. Michigan did exactly what it was supposed to.

Next Saturday is going to be fun.

dragonchild

September 25th, 2016 at 12:10 AM ^

Michigan didn't hit many home runs; PSU largely kept things in front of them.  It seemed on every drive we converted a third down by a yard and, on a couple occasions, didn't.  Smith had to break a few tackles that would've brought down anyone else, Speight shook off some pretty decent hits himself (he's a tough hombre) and the receivers were consistently flattened as soon as the ball arrived.  PSU's D-line tended to go too far upfield though.  Our RBs often saw someone in the backfield. . . run right past them, and Speight (Navarre 2.0) scrambled a lot but with relative ease.  Overall I thought PSU swarmed pretty well, but the approach eventually backfired.  I'm not sure the O-line's sorted out so much as PSU gambled on the Colorado game tape showing crappy blocking and an off-kilter Speight, thinking they could disrupt M's offense by aggressively attacking upfield.  I'm guessing though.

I also have to disagree with Ace's take that Speight wasn't asked to do much.  34 throws is a decently full plate as it is, but especially the first couple drives, the running game was sputtering so Speight kept the chains moving with short passes.  I remember some pretty key passes to Smith, Hill and Butt that prevented us from settling for FGs, as well as a scramble for a first down.  It was very much the "world's most hippopotamus-shaped air raid" that Brian mentioned earlier.  At some point in the 2nd quarter it looks like the coaches noticed something and opened up the run game.

TL;DR: I was impressed with PSU's back 7 but that D-line. . . it's a "bend-bend-bend-break" defense.

bronxblue

September 24th, 2016 at 8:20 PM ^

Sucks about Clark on what was otherwise a fun game. I suspect he won't get a 6th year, but that's for another time.

it is nice having an AA coming into the starting lineup, though, to pick up some slack.

PopeLando

September 24th, 2016 at 8:26 PM ^

I like that the thing Penn State fans care about above all else - football - made them sad today. Lord knows they don't get sad about anything else that happened at their university

Goggles Paisano

September 25th, 2016 at 11:34 AM ^

You'll enjoy this then. We pull into the golf course around 7:30am and head up to a nice spot that backs up to the fairway.  Our "neighbors" are a group of 60 year old men with a mix of both Michigan and psu fans.  The psu fans have a little table set up right in the middle of their tailgate. On the table is a paterno bobblehead, a gnome doll, some beads and a framed picture of paterno.  Who does that?  Fucking disgusting!  I had hoped Harbaugh would go for two on the last TD. 

Rabbit21

September 24th, 2016 at 8:26 PM ^

I feel terrible for Jeremy Clark, but hopefully he gets a chance to recover and get in on the combines and pro days as 6' 4" guys who can cover are a rare breed.  

Losing the senior year just had to feel terrible.

blue90

September 24th, 2016 at 8:36 PM ^

Great game and great win.  Those rushing numbers were fun against a fair run defense.

I'd like to see Speight throw the ball more.  He needs practice, especially for when we play better teams who completely take the run game away from us.  Smith and Evans are good but against an OSU front seven my guess is if we want to win we'll do it through the air.  Speight still throws easy long balls short.  

What the heck happened to Drake Johnson?  Did I miss an injury again or did he just get beat out by all the freshman?

andidklein

September 24th, 2016 at 10:31 PM ^

What was really sweet was watching Smith run, then come out, Higdon come in for a play, run the ball, come out, Isaac come in and run the ball for a play and come out, and Evans come in and run a play, then just start the rotation again. Much better than that BS we had to endure with the negative rushing yard games against MSU and Nebraska a few years ago.




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Darboh's Extra…

September 24th, 2016 at 8:45 PM ^

Franklin sent out about 126 resumes after this one. Wow, what a coward. It is beyond awesome to see our coaching staff just abuse another. Ped St recruits pretty damn well and has some horses, but we made them look FCS like.

1VaBlue1

September 24th, 2016 at 10:49 PM ^

I dunno...  We see it because we've been through Hoke and Rich Rod - we know how this is going to end.  But the PSU fans I've conversed with don't see it.  They're still okay with him and believe he needs another year to get his players on board and his schemes running smoothly.  They think he recruits great and represents the school well.

I think he'll finish they year in decent standing with the PSU crowd, despite the 6 wins they'll have.  That will be chalked up to injuries...  Whatever, boys, enjoy your coach...

SpikeFan2016

September 24th, 2016 at 11:56 PM ^

Penn State might struggle to get 4 more wins.

 

The only game I think they are significantly likely to win is Rutgers. But that game is on the road, at night in late November, and if the rails are already off the train that could be that. 

 

PSU will lose to OSU and MSU. Likely Iowa too. I honestly think Maryland will beat them too. 

 

Minnesota next week will be interesting for them. Lose that, and they are on track to finish below 6 wins.