| I'm not sure how a bunch of people putting on white tee shirts is so intimidating, but for whatever reason, it is. Penn State has the prime time white out, with Gameday in town, in a game where the winner is squarely in the Big Ten championship race, and the loser has people questioning whether they have the correct coach to get them to Ohio State's level. Michigan's offense has been the one getting all of the questions, because they have the supposed all-everything transfer quarterback, and spent the whole offseason selling the coaching upgrades of speed and space. I think it's fair to question Penn State's offense though. Yes, they put up some gawdy numbers against the likes of Idaho, Buffalo, Maryland and Purdue; but against the two defenses they've played with a pulse, being Pitt and Iowa, they scored 17 in each. Problem is that 17 on the road, in Kinnick, is more than Michigan scored against Iowa at home. The challenge for Michigan is going to be blocking Penn State's front, a front that has been in the backfield all season, and leads the nation in rushing ypa defense. This is for a Wolverines offensive line that went from a supposed strength into struggling to figure out the new scheme. Patterson seems to be the best getting out of the pocket, and getting the ball out quickly. So maybe out of necessity, Gattis will actually scheme to Patterson's strength. Granted Michigan's defense seems to be hitting its stride, after getting blasted by Wisconsin, with the emergence of a couple of freshmen in Cam McGrone and Dax Hill. The Nittany Lions abused Michigan's defense in this game two years ago by creating mismatches for Saquon Barkley. Obviously nobody on the Nittany Lions roster is going to be Barkley, but even in terms of skill set, I don't see a lesser version of him. Ricky Slade is the leading reciever among the running back group, and among the split backfield, he has been easily the least effective. So if he's in the game, it's probably not to run the ball. Penn State will try to get the ball into KJ Hamler's hands in the middle and simply let him make plays, which he does. They need to try and force the ball more to tight end Pat Friermuth, who exploded against Buffalo, but has not been targeted nearly enough since. I don't envision a repeat of 2017, when Nittany Lions players were running free all over the field, but I think this Penn State defense is better than that one, particularly up front. They generated a ton of pressure last week, and against a worse offensive line in Michigan, if they are able to consistently get to Patterson with 4, which I think they will, eventually too much good field position starts to snowball. |
