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Penn State is built to defeat Don Brown's defense, but the question was whether the oline could hold up.  They were fine, which allowed Penn State to run their offense.  Don Brown loves to blitz and play a lot of man to man and contest everything.  That allowed Penn State to get favorable matchups downfield with their best receiver and Barkley.  As Michigan scrambled to get everyone covered, McSorley took off.  

Most teams aren't going to be able to do that.  OSU is going to challenge MU in a different way by running lots of mesh and wheel routes, plus they have a stronger overall rushing attack.  But don't think they can duplicate those downfield throws.

So what is so special about Penn State that they are ranked #2?  They have not beat any top shelf teams.  Iowa almost and probably should have beat them.  Barkley looked like a Heisman contender against Pitt but since has not done much...was thinking he was injured.   The Nitts have remained undefeated while teams ranked above them lost a game..that's all I can think of.

I'm still not going to tell you that Penn State is the second best team in America, but I do think you got your answers to your original question?  PSU's defense is much stouter than people are recognizing, and when the OL even remotely plays well PSU has playmakers EVERYWHERE, and a lot of them.  

Penn State is built to defeat Don Brown's defense, but the question was whether the oline could hold up.  They were fine, which allowed Penn State to run their offense.  Don Brown loves to blitz and play a lot of man to man and contest everything.  That allowed Penn State to get favorable matchups downfield with their best receiver and Barkley.  As Michigan scrambled to get everyone covered, McSorley took off.

this is a pattern that I am seeing in Don Brown's defenses, and I don't like. He doesn't adjust the defense based on personnel to even out the match-ups. He asks safeties/LB's to do things they just can't betting that his pressure can get there before the QB figures things out. Works great on QB's that aren't that good. Can get you gashed against really good QB's like McSorley. Brown was pretty much like- I'm gonna run my defense and that's that- try and stop it. He only put LaVert Hill in the slot in man coverage on Hamilton three times the entire game. Hamilton only caught one of those balls- a slant for 7-8 yards for a 1st down and Hill was right on his back hip and tackled him immediately. Brown should've kept Hill on Hamilton and let him follow him the entire game. Instead he kept the safeties on Hamilton in man coverage and they got smoked all night long. Kudos to McSorley for recognizing that match-up and exploiting it continually. That's why Michigan couldn't get consistent pass rush on defense. McSorley knew where to go pre-snap just about every passing play and got rid of the ball quickly. The only times they tripped up McSorley is when they disguised a few blitzes and when they dropped into zone coverages. Other than that- McSorley had his way.

The biggest head scratcher to me was continually putting 6'4, 240 pound Mike McCray- who runs a 4.8 in the 40 on his best day- in man coverage on the best fricken player in the country and a guy that's gonna be a top 5 pick in Barkley.  Absolutely idiotic to continually do that and not make an adjustment. That's a tough ask for anybody- even somebody as athletically gifted as Jabrill Peppers. That's an IMPOSSIBLE ask for someone like Mike McCray.

Fact is they lost too much last season.Too much talent too much experience.You can break down and analyse but in the end the match ups favored PSU.tOSU went thru this last year and didn't belong in the playoff

I'd agree with that. 11 guys drafted to the NFL and 6 others as UDFA's who wound up getting cut (Kalis, Magnunson) and 43 seniors (not all scholarship players). That's a lot to lose. I didn't expect them to be a great team this year. Especially with Speight at QB. Never was a believer in him. He's not the kind of QB who can elevate a program. He's not even a particularly good game manager. See: Iowa, Ohio State, FSU, and Florida games.
And I didn't expect them to beat Penn State either. I expected them to get their asses kicked by Penn State. But I did expect that defense to show up a hell of a lot better. And I do think Brown didn't put guys like Mettelus, Kinnel, and McCray in position to succeed. And that falls on the coaching to me. Daesean Hamilton is a future NFL WR. Mettelus and Kinnel can't cover him in man to man coverage. They aren't going to win any of those matchups. Ever. And Mike McCray vs Barkley in man is insane. Like on so many levels.