PennState confidence and McSorley health?

I am curious to see an update on him. I sprained my MCL in a game once. It initially hurt, but I was able to keep playing because the body was warmed up. By the time I got off the bus after the game, I was limping and in pain. When I woke up the next morning, I stood up out of bed and fell to the floor. (I couldn't put any pressure on it). In total, I missed a game and about a week. 

So, we will see about his sprain. I suspect he will play, but you never know how his body will react after it cools down.

Michigan will roll this PSU team. Revenge Tour. Don Brown's personal revenge game. The fans on this site are so fragile. I am not someone who thinks Michigan will win every game but I don't understand the fear from Nebraska, Wisconsin and now PSU. Sometimes all signs point to Michigan winning big (and then it happens!). I think this is one of those games. 

Joe Pa knew. Fuck PSU. 

Every Big ten home won last week.

Trend continues.

Penn State is still very talented. McSorley hasn't been great making plays with his arm this year but has hurt teams with his legs. Not sure if he will be full go against Michigan which would limit his impact. They grade out pretty well defensively but I think Michigan will have success on the ground and allow the defense to rest.

I'm expecting a game that is close heading into the 4th but Michigan being able to grind out yards on the ground and putting it away late.

Don Brown has had this on his calendar since last year. Getting torched the way Michigan did last year on D has worn on him.  Him being that focused has made me very comfortable with Michigan coming off bye.  I think PSU will be held to less than 200 yds of offense.  I think Michigan Offense will score at least 30.  I see this as a 31 to 13 kind of game with weather not being a factor.  It could very easity be a 42 to 10 type game too.

The only thing I'm really worried about in this game is KJ Hamler getting loose on our secondary.  He can do some damage.  But McSorley has to get him the ball, and his passing has been suspect this year.  

I think Michigan is going to be able to disrupt their offense all game, and I think by the 2nd half we will be running it down their throats.  

I'll be surprised if this isn't Wisconsin 2.0.

I think their main advantage will be kick/punt returns and FG kicking.  Nordin has been very shaky lately and Hamler has been very good.  Hamler is also good with the ball in his hands and he could make some plays from a lot of different areas.  Also, they get less penalties than UM.  Other than that we match up pretty well against them in terms of offense and defense.  If we can run the ball I think we will win convincingly.  If not, it will be a close game, but I still like our chances to make enough plays to win especially with the home field advantage.

Iowa held the ball for ~35 minutes, but couldn't make most time of that pay off with points.  Their QB, Nate Stanley, is immobile and cringe-worthy when throwing the ball; and the RB group is average.  Yet, the PSU defense couldn't keep them off the field.  Michigan does things offensively that Iowa can't even try!  Defensively, PSU is in a world of hurt against Michigan's ground control offense, because UM won't squander half the drives that Iowa wasted away.

Offensively, PSU has play makers with talent and speed.  But they require big plays to move the ball and score, and you just don't get a lot of them against Michigan.  Yeah, ND lucked into a couple and outlasted UM, but they have a much better defense than PSU and M's offense wasn't anywhere near as good as it is now.  There's no way that PSU will keep the ball long enough to match the ~35 points M will score.  And they won't hit that many big plays.  It'll be a tight first half, but M will pull away in the 3rd...

They don't have Saquon anymore. They have a decent RB. I feel like McSorely's best trait (his legs) were enabled by the threat of Saquon. This year, it's different. I don't know what the actual injury was. It was called a "cramp." I don't believe that for a second. However, I'm also not sure whether it was an injury that gets worse after the game or one that can heal immediately. Either way, I think that Michigan's defense has gotta be seeing blood in the water.

I don't know if we'll blow them out, but I don't see Penn State scoring a lot.

Ironically, it was after McSorely's injury that he got off his only big run of the day with that TD.  Take out that one play, and he had 11 carries for 12 yards. 

Injuries always seem to heal faster when Michigan is your next opponent.  So I expect him to be ready to go. 

I think Franklin has surpassed Pat Fitzgerald in terms of sideline enthusiasm.  He's literally jumping up and down after every single play.  Just makes me want to see us pound them even more.  I'm not expecting it but I'd love to see another 49-10 type beatdown ala-2016 where Franklin does stupid stuff like throw at Jourdan Lewis or kick a field goal to remain 4 scores down.  

Most reasonably we should expect Marty McDorknee (autocorrect, but much funnier than McSorley) to play. Sanders is a pretty decent RB, and they had some success running him vs MSU. Behind him, they don't have much in the stable.

At WR, the main guy is Hamler. Not a very big guy, but speedy. Long or Hill will do a good job locking him down. My good friend, who is a pretty knowledgeable Penn State fan, is not keen on the other WRs, especially Thompkins. Then they have Frankenstein/Frankenmuth at TE. Certainly not as good as 88 from last year. I dont see Penn State having any advantages on this side of the ball with our defense, and a pissed off Don Brown. Contain McDorknee, and we're gold. We've already broken Hornibrook and Lewerke. 

On defense, I know my friend said they really got worn down in the 2nd half vs ohio st. This is where I see us taking control. Our offensive line wearing their defense down with a steady diet of Higdon and Mason. Sprinkle in a couple Shea read options, and Michigan is well on their way to completing leg 3 of the Revenge Tour.

I think this game could be very similar to the 2016 Michigan/Penn St. game.

I think this game will go similar to Wisconsin. Feel each other out, we score first, they score almost immediately, it gets tense for a minute, but then our home field and defense gradually smother them into submission. Maybe no McCaffrey run at the end but I could see a pick six. 

I also believe that the combination of a bye week + it being Penn State will help Nordin. Supposed to rain a little but low wind. Maybe he can get us 3-6 points we normally wouldn't have gotten in the last couple games. 

27-21 with the game being well in hand at the end with little risk of a go-ahead score. PSU's final TD comes pretty late.  

if we put up 24+ we win, our D is better than anything they have seen, and our offense is difficult to game plan around 

I was convinced, for a time, that PSU was Barkley, McSorley and a bunch of dressed up trash with a horrible coach. I only wavered (and only slightly so, at that) for a short time last year. I am back to thinking they are the most overrated team in the B1G, and I fully expect Michigan to handle them soundly Saturday.

We shall see.

McSorely will be fine. If he played and ran for a 51 yard TD after his injury in the game he got injured, he's fine.

Not a PSU fan but from my understanding:

QB: McSorely has been leaned on much more as a runner this year. His rushing numbers have gone up and passing numbers have dropped significantly. Part of it is him, a lot is poor WRs/TEs. He's no better than a lot of passers we've seen but he's a threat as a runner.

RB: Really good talent, but has been bottled up the last 4 weeks when competition has gone up. The only success he had was MSU but that was because of 2 huge runs. We should be able to contain him.

WR/TE: Disappointing unit. Returners Polk, Johnson and Thompkins have all been huge disappointments. All have the drops along with FR TE Friermuth, who has shown flashes though. Hamler is the biggest threat out of the slot and a matchup proble.

OL: Returned basically everyone, has been thoroughly mediocre. Have been rotating at RT because it's been a sore spot. Not bad, not great.

They're also thin/bad at LB, so 2016 all over again?

I'm confident, but I'm not cocky.  Historically, Michigan hasn't come out of their bye week looking particularly sharp.  If this bye week yields us a healthy Tarik Black and Rashan Gary, I'll call it even though.  Still, PSU may be the best of this three team gauntlet we've faced this past month.  I'm hoping this is the game where we declare definitively that we are a CFP contender, much like a previous PSU game we played a little over 20 years ago.

Love their reflection of their game against Iowa. "Penn State Shuts Down Iowa, 30-24: Photo Gallery".  Winning by 6 at home does not, by an means, dictate a shut down. I watched that game, they were lucky to have won. With the clock winding down the Iowa receiver didn't run his route and a pick was thrown on the goal line. That's damn lucky. Iowa would have taken the lead had they actually scored.

He'll play, but that offensive line is pretty bad and his head coach is James Franklin, so my guess is Saturday won't be fun.

I think PSU will get a bunch of breaks:

Hambler will impress, giving us all a "Mazien moment" over in state recruiting. I think the D will force McSorely out for at minimum a few drives, but that will look like a bad thing as the back up will have more success throwing as an unknown entity.

And than comes the second half and UofM will methodically pull away ....But hopefully with better 2Down Efficiency :)

I haven't seen much PSU, but McSorley is great with his legs, and his arm can beat you if he is on (but that seems to be happening less this year). Sanders is a very good running back, but the O-Line is still average to below average. 

I went and looked at PSU's S&P ratings and the only spot they have an advantage is on Passing Downs when UM has the ball. The PSU run game vs our run D is even with an edge to Michigan. Our Pass offense vs their defense is also pretty even. However our Run offense and Pass defense are heavily in favor of Michigan. 

McSorely will play. He rattled off a 50 yarder after coming back into the game. My assumption is whatever caused him to come out of the game isn't bothering him all that much anymore. 

PSU has reason to have confidence. They've got a good team and a LOT of individual talent. But they do seem to have struggled finding their way after the MSU/OSU games. They're still good, but something's a bit off. 

Our offense has the potential to rip off some big plays against PSU and their defense has holes, but our defense has to play extremely disciplined football. Do whatever they can to keep McSorely in the pocket, otherwise he's going to kill them on scrambles. 

It doesn't matter because Penn State is great, borderline elite.  Just ask James Franklin.

Penn State gonna die.

Let's turn McSorley into McSorely- amirite???