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So ASU has now allowed just 17 points the past two games.  Where did this come from?   Then Rich Rod turns the keys over to K. Tate and the kid (still 18) has been so much fun to watch.   I'm sure many of us thought Graham and RR were toast a month ago.

Yeah, one has to ponder the mental aspect of this, much like Kentucky-v-Florida (but not Miss State).  You can put together a competitive team athletically and still not have the mental confidence to win late, it often seems, or against certain opponents.  They go in expecting bad things to happen somehow.
And they do.  Texas is another team that has been "close late" and lost, as if they don't have the swagger they need.
Miami is a team that probably is not that good but has fallen into a series of late close WINS.  That could be happenstance of course, but by now I think they expect to win a late close match.

Couldn't it just be they're playing more talented/better teams? Plus close games remain very hard to control, mental thing or not.

Serious question - has UM beat a ranked team on the road since Carr?

The stat I saw was that they haven't beaten a team on the road that finished with fewer than 6 losses since 8-5 Notre Dame in 2010 and fewer than 5 losses since 9-4 Illinois in 2007

If you aren't as good as PSU, and michigan isn't you make McSorley beat you. However McSorley looks really good right now. It might have been different if UM got that INT in the endzone.  

Yeah, I'm just going to have to disagree with that. They never once made adjustments. Don Brown put his players in position to fail. Not succeed. That's not what a great DC like he has been for basically his entire career is suppose to do.

He continually put his safeties in man coverage on Penn State's best WR in Hamilton. McSorley was smart enough to exploit this. Hamilton absolutely abused Mettelus and Kinnel for big gain after big gain. I believe LaVert Hill- Michigan's best cover CB- was on Hamilton only 3 times in man coverage. Hamilton caught only 1 of those passes- a slant for 6-7 yards in which Hill was on his back and tackled him right after he caught it. Hey Don, maybe you should've had your best CB shadow their best WR if you're gonna play man to man 99% of the snaps. Just a thought.

And Brown kept putting 6'4, 240 pound Mike McCray in man coverage on Barkley. Complete lunacy. And he kept putting 5'11" Khaeke Hudson on 6'6" Mike Gelisicki.
Brown just made it too easy on McSorley throwing the ball. Played man basically every damn snap and McSorley found the man to man match-ups that favored his guys and exploited them damn near every time. Give lotta props to McSorley, have to knock Don Brown though. He should've mixed in more zone coverage to confuse McSorley a little bit more and he should've made adjustments to put his best cover guy on their best WR all game long and he should've switched up who would cover Geisicki in man and who would cover Barkley.

Brown is a very good coordinator. Sometimes the opposing team just has more talent on the field. Secondly, you can’t solely blame a DC for matchups that are exploited. Sometimes is just a great play or scheme from the offense that forced a bad matchup and took advantage of it.

Penn State played a heck of a football game and executed incredibly well. I thought Michigan’s defense would be the only thing that kept them in the game, when in reality it was the defense that failed them. They struggled to get any pressure, which left a very inexperienced secondary open to a feasting by good offensive talent.

Brown is an excellent DC. 
I can blame him a little bit when the 2nd half rolls around and you haven't made any adjustments.
They played too much man to man that put Mettelus and Kinnel in bad spots. Neither one of them can cover Hamilton one on one. That's advantage Penn State every time. Michigan didn't get enough chances to get pressure. McSorley knew where to go pre-snap just about every time and get rid of the ball quickly. How many times on those long throws did he get rid of the ball right before he got hit? Seemed like every time. I give McSorley a lot of credit. He played a whale of a game. Took big hits and kept slinging it and running it all over the field.

Yeah looks like Rich finally found his Denard 2.0 out there. Bigger stronger kid than Denard with a better arm. Denard was so fun to watch operate, but he was a little slight and that arm was pretty weakish. 

Look at the scores of the games that Tate has started though. 45-42, 47-30, 45-44. Love Rich's offense to death. Problem still the same with him though. Guy can barely ever field a defense. 

Rich as an OC would be maybe the best in the business. Not sure he's cut out for being a head coach where there are other sides that need attention like oh um...DEFENSE. 

Couldn't it just be they're playing more talented/better teams? Plus close games remain very hard to control, mental thing or not.

I agree, but they hang in there against those teams up until the end many times.  They hung in with OSU for a half.
They seem able to hang, but not close.  You should win a third of those close games by random chance.