Offensive Struggles Continue in Home Loss to MI

MI Wolverines safety Jabrill Peppers. The Nittany Lions were unavailable for comment following the game, but Jones said he didn’t feel like Penn State played any differently once the game began slipping away. Last week in the 48-41 double OT win over in he had 440 yards on 33 of 46 passing with six TD passes and just one INT in the game. However, this is a much more favorable matchup for the Wolverines than IN was last week.

The Nittany Lions are 4-13 ATS in their last 17 non-conference games and 4-0 ATS in their last 4 games following a S.U. win. Jake Rudock has been very good.

This was Penn State’s best unit of the afternoon by a mile.

MI Wolverines didn’t play the kind of defense we’ve come to expect from this edition of MI football in their last outing against the Indiana Hoosiers.

MI quarterback Jake Rudock continues to take punishment.

MI escaped by the skin of their teeth a week ago against IN, and face another tough test against Penn State this week.

Heavy’s Pick: MI 30, Penn State 24. He texted a few of us before the game, just to say good luck and that he loved us…. Nassib started the game but didn’t play beyond the first series. Christian Hackenberg may be having his best season under center, but he has constantly been on the run. “I’m disappointed in the situations we were put in and I wish it all played at differently”.

Michael covers Penn State Football for isportsweb and is our guest predictor this week.

The quarterback has been silent all year when asked if this season would be his final as a Nittany Lion.

But Michigan’s defense made up for its infractions with a solid performance overall.

Which it did. Despite seven offensive linemen and two tight ends in front of him, Barkley was stopped for a 3-yard loss on second-and-goal. MI gets it done, with a dominant 31-14 win over Penn State.

For the most part, Rudock has stayed off the ground this season as MI has allowed 14 sacks.

MI State won despite quarterback Connor Cook, 32-4 as a starter, not playing because of a shoulder injury sustained in the first half of the previous game against Maryland. “That’s one of the top defenses in the country”. MI sits at number one in total defense and Penn State is fourth. The team has not lost on the road since its Week 1 loss to Utah. Other than those three, no other Penn State player scored more than four points.

“I was going to manage the game”, O’Connor said. “All those attributes – talk about his accuracy, talk about his arm strength, talk about his durability, his toughness, his intelligence – but I still go back to the one that he is unflappable”. But there’s still a lot on the line for the Wolverines. MI also announced it would retire six jerseys on Saturday: No. 11 (Wistert brothers), No. 21 (Desmond Howard), No. 47 (Bennie Oosterbaan), No. 48 (Gerald Ford), No. 87 (Ron Kramer) and No. 98 (Tom Harmon). The Nittany Lions hung in with the Wolverines for a while, but ultimately fell short by a score of 28-16. All of that being written, I am not ready to write off Jim Harbaugh yet. MI could come close, but the call is that it’ll lose to Ohio State, and Northwestern at 10-2 – it’ll beat IL – will come really, really close.