Michigan 17, Penn State 10
Defense
The Michigan defense followed the script they’ve written for most games this season. Penn State moved the ball on their first drive but missed a 46 yard field goal. After that the Nittany Lions went three and out on their next 3 drives. On that third drive Michigan had back to back sacks. The defense completely shut down the Penn State rushing game. The Nittany Lions rushed for -14 yards. When Penn State wasn’t in max protect Anthony Morelli was hit and sacked numerous times. The Michigan defense knocked both Morelli and the second string quarterback out of the game.
The defense also had their bad series near the end of both halves. The Nittany Lions got a big boost from the officials on their final drive of the first half. On that series the Nittany Lions were looking at 3rd and 18 from their 6 yard line. An incomplete pass should have made it 4th down and forced PSU to punt. But an official called pass interference on a ball that looked like it was 10 yards past the receiver and uncatchable. With an automatic first down the Nittany Lions were able to march all the way down to the Michigan 5 yard line before kicking a 22 yard field goal with 15 seconds left in the half. It is not an exaggeration to say the pass interference call was Penn State’s biggest offensive play up to that point.
In the second half Michigan was once again able to shut down Penn State’s offense. None of the Nittany Lions’ first four drives picked up 20 yards. They did nothing until there was 4:20 left in the game, Michigan was up 17-3 and held PSU to 76 yards of total offense outside of both end-of-half drives. At that point Michigan went to the prevent defense that allowed the third string quarterback to drive the team 52 yards for their lone touchdown.
Offense
On Michigan’s first three drives they ran the ball on first down. They gained a total of 0 yards on all of those plays. On their fourth possession Michigan decided to go play-action and hit Steve Breaston on first down for 15 yards. Once Michigan seemed to realize that running the ball was going to be tough sledding against the Nittany Lions they started passing the ball. It was effective. Steve Breaston caught two passes and was the target on two fly routes. Both bombs were incomplete but they were good calls as they helped get the Nittany Lions’ D away from playing downhill and killing the run game. In the first half Chad Henne was a solid 10-18 for 127 yards and 1 touchdown. Henne had two big 25 yard passes to Adrian Arrington. The first one went for a touchdown and put Michigan up 7-0.
The second 25 yard pass to Arrington put Michigan into the red zone on the PSU 12 yard line. However Michigan struggled in the red zone. Mike Hart picked his way through the defense for 3 yards on first down. On second down Chad Henne had a pass intended for the right-side flat batted up into the air. On third down Henne made a really nice pass in the back of the end zone that Mike Massey couldn’t reel in. The Wolverines settled for a field goal and a 10-0 lead. Penn State put little pressure on Henne and as a result Michigan had success throughout the game passing the football. The Michigan offense slowly picked up steam after the 1st quarter and finished the evening with 300 yards of offense and 116 yards rushing.
Adrian Arrington had a good game, catching a touchdown pass and finishing with 83 yards on the night. Steve Breaston was solid as the #2 receiver, catching 5 passes for 79 yards. Mike Hart started off slowly but was very effective late in the game. He had a sensational 20 yard run where he dragged several defenders to the Nittany Lion one yard line before rushing for the touchdown on the following play to put Michigan up 17-3. He also had a big run at the 2:44 mark of the 4th quarter that helped kill more time off the game clock. On 2nd and 11 from the Michigan 19 yard line he ripped off a 23 yard run that got Michigan a fresh set of downs.
Special Teams
Michigan’s kickoff coverage unit got off to a bad start, allowing a retun to midfield on the opening kickoff. The punt coverage team had a big play though, recovering a fumbled punt to give Michigan possession near midfield during the first half of play. Penn State missed a 46 yard field goal on their 1st drive of the ballgame.
The first BCS rankings come out on Monday. There were preliminary reports that Michigan would be ranked 4th in the initial standings. That was obviously before Florida lost to Auburn this evening. So Michigan is likely to jump up one spot and be ranked #3 this week. USC just beat Arizona State and the Trojans have been ranked ahead of Michigan in most polls so they are likely to be ranked ahead of Michigan in the initial BCS poll.
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