Rittenberg: Rodriguez, Wolverines reach key juncture

Michigan is no world-beater, we all know that.  Our steps forward are necessarily incremental.

The next forward step is to be able to beat a bad team, even under less than ideal circumstances. 

Penn State is a bad team.  The circumstances will not be ideal - road game, at night, white-out, cold weather.  But it's time to step up and be able to beat a bad team regardless.

Of all of our opponents this year, Penn State is most similar to UConn.  We beat UConn under ideal circumstances - home opener, stadium rededication, Brock inspiration, great weather.  Now it's time to beat "UConn" in less than ideal circumstances. 

We wil learn a lot about this team on Saturday.  Michigan is coming off a bye week, they have had time to rest, heal, and should have worked out any of the bugs that can be expected to be worked out in one extra week.  I think a loss Saturday increases the talk of "the hot seat" and puts more pressure on this team, a team that does not need anymore pressure than it currently under.  If there is a must win for this year, this is it.

Penn State is not very good.  Beating PSU on the road gets Michigan the elusive bowl eligibility, but won't prove much else.

The Illinois game in Ann Arbor will be a much better indicator of Michigan's "fork in the road" moment.  Or not.

 Michigan's defense is dead last in the Big Ten. Difficult to imagine much improvement in that stat from here on out with PSU, Illinois, Wiscy and OSU still on the slate.

Don't look now, but  the Illini defense is quite good - 3rd in the league in yards allowed and scoring defense in the league, right behind Ohio State and Iowa.