Some interesting Penn State box scores this year
For UM to win Saturday they have to protect the football and commit to running the ball. Only watched bits and pieces of the Pitt game but the IU-PSU game ended 45-14 but was strangely much closer than that. IU scored two special teams TD's (one on a KO return, the other on a muffed IU punt). They also scored twice off IU turnovers on a shortened field and got the benefit of a blatant OPI flag picked up in the endzone on another TD. They really only had one sustained TD drive all game. They look like a slightly better version the team they were last year. They couldn't block IU on offense and were getting suprisignly gashed on the ground one defense. This is a game JOK needs to use his legs as Ramsey did and not commit any turnovers. Do that and Michigan has a good shot at a win.
October 16th, 2017 at 1:14 PM ^
S. Barkley, he is a machine. We must limit his yards and pound McSorley.
October 16th, 2017 at 11:58 AM ^
How does O'korn do under the lights? Well, if second half derp fest vs MSU could be limited, we can match first half O'korn + Higdon for a good balanced clock eating drives.
Issue is youth and penalties and WRs "not making a play" etc rather than strictly the QB incompetence.
Lets hope for one other aspect of offense improving after the run game, namely, receivers becomign more consistent.
October 16th, 2017 at 12:00 PM ^
Last year they had no answer for our Defense, and this years unite could be better
And last year, we didn't beat them through the air. We had close to 350 yards rushing.
I think if we get our run game going early, call me crazy......but I think we have a very good shot at an upset. Especially if our D shows up, which there's no reason to believe they wont
October 16th, 2017 at 12:17 PM ^
October 16th, 2017 at 12:30 PM ^
Had to look it up. Didn't believe it actually is a word. It is. It must have taken a lot of patience just to get it spelled correctly. LOL
October 16th, 2017 at 12:26 PM ^
October 16th, 2017 at 12:32 PM ^
October 16th, 2017 at 12:45 PM ^
October 16th, 2017 at 12:32 PM ^
and what I mean is just the stupid, easily fixed, problems that have plagued the offense so much this year. Things like QB's not seeing wide open receivers and forcing passes. Or when they do throw a nice first down pass, not for the WR to drop the ball. Lastly no stupid penalties that kill drives or has TD's called back.
I'm not saying I expect this team to just light up the scoreboard, but man cut down on stupid mistakes and make a few plays and suddenly we could be a lot better team as our defense has been dominate. I think stupid plays last week probably cost us 10-14 points and a comfortable win.
October 16th, 2017 at 12:59 PM ^
I had been looking at these two box scores as well in thinking about PSU's vulnerabilities. I don't understand the negative backlash to this post.
1) It's relevant to this week's opponent
2) It suggests PSU is beatable
3) The OP didn't claim this to be some expert analysis demonstrating why we might win.
GO BLUE!
October 16th, 2017 at 4:28 PM ^
That is what stood out to me. PSU is winning the turnover battle in these games. That will be the key to Saturday for a win.
PSU is SECOND in the country in turnover margin. Elite-level.
Michigan is NINETY-FIFTH in the country. One of the worst.
Are turnovers random? We'll find out.
October 16th, 2017 at 12:55 PM ^
October 16th, 2017 at 12:57 PM ^
Penn State is beatable, Iowa almost did it. But when was the last time a team played a big night game at home coming off their bye week and lost? I can't think of one...
I'm not confident we can score enough points (24?) to get it done. Penn State will be the best offense we face all year, if Indiana can get to 20, you'd think PSU should be able to. Hopefully we can run the ball like we did last week, get consistent pressure on McSorley, and win the turnover battle. But if we can't sustain drives or turn it over multiple times, it could be ugly.
October 16th, 2017 at 1:05 PM ^
No turnovers and reasonable penalties, we can hold PSU to less then 20 points with this defense.
Need one sustained drive for a touchdown, field goals, and good special teams play to win this game.
October 16th, 2017 at 1:35 PM ^
October 16th, 2017 at 1:02 PM ^
PSU rushed the ball 75 times combined against Indiana and Northwestern (their last two games) and managed 134 yards. That's 1.79 per rushing attempt.
If we can hold them to that or less, I like our chances in this game. We could still get burned in the air, but this would provide a suffocating start.
October 16th, 2017 at 1:10 PM ^
October 16th, 2017 at 1:15 PM ^
comparing games, hopeing for no turnovers, praying that your qb plays better then you think he is capable. none of that means shit. the truth is simple, michigan has to do something that up to this point has not shown an ability to do in a long time. win a game that would be considered an upset against a team that almost no one thinks they will beat.
this has been the nature of michigan football for as long as i can remember. oh , they can get beat when they are the big favorite, but try to remember the last time they where a difinite underdog in a game when very few people thought they could win, but they did.
October 16th, 2017 at 1:29 PM ^
a box score that says Michigan should have clobbered Michigan State too
October 16th, 2017 at 1:54 PM ^
October 16th, 2017 at 2:54 PM ^
exactly, my point. i dont think other than the 69 osu game i can remember such a game.
October 16th, 2017 at 2:34 PM ^
October 16th, 2017 at 5:02 PM ^
October 16th, 2017 at 8:20 PM ^
If Michigan can avoid the turnovers and penalties I like the Wolverines chances.