| Penn State saw life without Sean Clifford. They saw life with a well under 100% Sean Clifford. James Franklin decided that was no way to live. While he has benefitted from supreme talents during his time in Happy Valley, with Saquon Barkley and Miles Sanders, this is now two years in a row where the Nittany Lions have been unable to run the ball. Last year the running back room was gutted by injuries, so it was explainable. This year? Now we've got a problem. It was clear from the second half of the Iowa game, and the entirety of the Illinois game, that this offense simply cannot work without working through Sean Clifford. James Franklin has adjusted accordingly. On the season, Penn State is only running the ball about 44.8% of the time, in the bottom 20 nationally. Only above Maryland and Purdue in conference. Recently, they've dialed that down to just 38.5% over the past two games, sixth lowest in the FBS. I'm not sure how the defense holds up, if Michigan pounds away with Hassan Haskins for 4 and 5 yard chunks, on 12 play drives, holding the ball for 8 minutes, and then the offense comes out throwing the ball around, and going three and out, or hitting Jahan Dotson for quick touchdowns, as they beat Maryland with. The biggest concern for the Michigan offense is the health of their running backs, which was so deep going into the year, that Zach Charbonnet left to go star for UCLA. After Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards got banged up, it's unclear the status of either going into this week, and exactly how much of the workload Haskins can handle. Haskins tied a caeer high with 27 carries last week against Indiana, but he didn't have any meaningful 4th quarter carries. Behind him is Tavierre Dunlap perhaps? The freshman got a pair of carries last week, but has only 7 for his career, the previous 5 coming against Northern Illinois, when he did have a 28 yard run. The Nittany Lions run defense held their own against an Ohio State offense which is second in the conference with 5.3 ypc. Ohio State's run chart looks like a Barry Sanders log; 2, -1, 4, 2, 2, 72. Michigan is going to look much more like Illinois, 5, 6, 4, 7, 5, etc... If Corum is healthy, I think Michigan can win by two scores, but if he's out, in Happy Valley, although not at night, I think the Nittany Lions hang around, but give up too many 3rd down conversions. |
