Almost nobody beats Penn State like Michigan just did
The Wolverines have won eight games in a row and seem to look better each week.
Since James Franklin’s Penn State Nittany Lions last visited Ann Arbor, they had gone 26-5, and their five losses had come by a combined 12 points. As of five weeks ago, when PSU so narrowly lost to Ohio State, you could easily make the case that, if the program wasn’t elite already, it was the first in line to claim the adjective.
For all we know, that will remain true going forward, next year and beyond.
But there was only one elite team on the field at Michigan Stadium on Saturday afternoon, and it wasn’t Penn State.
Michigan beat the Nittany Lions, 42-7, avenging a 42-13 loss in Happy Valley last year (which was itself revenge for a 49-10 thumping the year before). The Wolverines dominated in most of the ways they’ve dominated all year. They drowned the Nittany Lions in defensive speed, they forced mistakes teams don’t make against anyone else, and on offense, they created third-and-mediums, converted them, and waited for impatient mistakes.
Since losing to Notre Dame in the first week of the season, Michigan has been without a doubt one of the three best teams in the country. The Wolverines haven’t quite been on the level of Alabama or Clemson, but no one else has come particularly close.
Michigan players have called it the revenge tour.
Michigan has now defeated three teams in a row that beat them in 2017, and they’ve won the three games by a combined 74 points. The Wolverines basically did to Penn State on Saturday what they did to Wisconsin a few weeks ago — they blew out a team that doesn’t get blown out.
Name the stat category, and Michigan dominated it on Saturday.
- Total yards: Michigan 403, PSU 186
- Yards per play: Michigan 5.8, PSU 4.0
- First downs: Michigan 20, PSU 11
- Third down attempts: Michigan 8-for-14, PSU 2-for-11
- QB play: UM’s Shea Patterson was 11-for-17 for 144 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, and a single sack, and he rushed 10 times for 47 yards. PSU’s Trace McSorley, banged up a week ago against Iowa, was 5-for-13 for 83 yards, two interceptions (one returned for a touchdown), and four sacks. He had eight carries for 22 yards. Yards per pass attempt: Patterson 7.7, McSorley 3.2.
- Rushing: Michigan’s Karan Higdon and Chris Evans had 32 carries for 189 yards. Penn State’s Miles Sanders had seven for 14.
Penn State punted on five of its six first-half possessions and lost a fumble on the other. This was only a 14-0 game at halftime, but it was clear where this was headed.
This time last year, the Wolverines were glitchy on defense, hopeless on offense, and disappointing overall. Now, they are rolling.
They have been fourth in S&P+ for the last month, and they’ll have a chance to move up to at least third after this destruction.
Now comes the hurdle Harbaugh hasn’t cleared.
Revenge wins are great, but Harbaugh had already beaten Wisconsin (2016), Michigan State (2016), and Penn State (2015 and 2016) before. After probably beating up on Rutgers on the road and Indiana at home in the next two weeks, his Wolverines will head to Columbus for another shot at Ohio State, against whom Harbaugh is 0-3.
Last time they were in the Horse Shoe, they came up millimeters short of a win, a spot in the Big Ten title game, and potentially a spot in the College Football Playoff. All of those same things will be up for grabs this time around, and while Urban Meyer’s Buckeyes still have a couple of weeks to find their rhythm, it’s been a long time since they’ve looked this consistently vulnerable.
Ohio State needed some special teams oddities to survive 2-7 Nebraska on Saturday. Their defensive glitches remain un-fixed, and while their run game looked better on Saturday than it had in quite a while, it’s safe to say that Michigan’s run defense is infinitely better than Nebraska’s.
Still, when you’ve failed a test repeatedly, as Michigan has against Ohio State — the Wolverines have lost six in a row to the Buckeyes and all three Meyer vs. Harbaugh battles — it can get in your head. But over the past two months, that Michigan hasn’t been this Michigan.
The Wolverines will probably get the best version of Ohio State when they kick off on November 24. But if they keep playing like they have, Ohio State’s best might not be good enough.