Best And Worst From Michigan's 27-17 Loss To Penn State

Michigan Wolverines football fell, 27-17, to Penn State Saturday afternoon at The Big House.

Here is the best and worst from the game:

WATCH: Harbaugh, Players React To Loss

RELATED: Notes, Quotes & Observations

In a game between 0-5 Penn State and 2-3 Michigan, it's no surprise that neither team impressed in a lot of ways. But the one thing that did work for the Nittany Lions, the squad that game out on top, was their rushing offense. As a team, Penn State ran it 50 times for 254 yards (5.1 average), with true freshman running back Keyvone Lee going off for a career day (22 carries for 154 yards and a score). Redshirt junior Sean Clifford and redshirt sophomore Will Levis both had timely runs from the quarterback spot, and accumulated 98 yards and scored two touchdowns on 15 carries between the two of them.

Although Clifford had some success on short outside routes, it wasn't the passing game that burned Michigan in this one. Clifford was an efficient 17-for-28 — and most importantly didn't turn the ball over like he's prone to do — and averaged just 5.8 yards per passing attempt.

Redshirt sophomore running back Hassan Haskins followed up his 22-carry, 110-yard performance from last week with 17 carries for 101 yards and two touchdowns. This performance marks his second-straight 100-yard game and fourth of his career.

After rotating four backs just about equally through the first four games of the season, Michigan has gone with Haskins as its bell cow back, and it's paid off. He was the lone bright spot against the Nittany Lions.

Trailing 14-7 near the end of the first half, Michigan had a chance to tie the game up heading into the locker room. Redshirt sophomore quarterback Cade McNamara targeted sophomore wideout Mike Sainristil near the sideline on both second and third down, but Sainristil was not able to hang on to either ball.

After the defense got a quick stop, Sainristil was called upon to return the Penn State punt — with sophomore Giles Jackson missing the game due to injury — muffed it and lost the fumble. Penn State took over at the Michigan 27-yard line and had a chance to take an even bigger lead — luckily for the Wolverines, the Nittany Lions kicked a field goal and had a 10-point lead at the half.

Like we said, Penn State could've gone up by even more before the half, and should've had a shot to do so if it weren't for poor clock management by Nittany Lions' head coach James Franklin. Franklin had Clifford spike the ball down on first down, even though the team had a timeout left. That meant one less opportunity for Penn State's offense to pick up the first down, but they were forced to kick and settle for three.

Michigan freshman wide receiver A.J. Henning came down with a highlight-reel grab that went for 28 yards. The play went down as the Wolverines' longest passing play of the contest.

Michigan has now played three games at Michigan Stadium and has yet to lead one of those contests for a single second. Additionally, if Michigan, which has been playing football since 1879 and home games since 1883 fail to win a game in Ann Arbor in next week's matchup with Maryland (or do not host and win a divisional crossover game during 'Champions Week'), it will fail to win a home game for the first time in program history.

The best sign for Michigan going forward was the fact that senior defensive end Kwity Paye returned from a lower body injury that held him out of the prior three ball games. Paye was relatively quiet in his return, but provided some help, with four tackles and one quarterback hurry.

In addition, McNamara left the game late in the first quarter with a banged up right shoulder but later returned. He wasn't necessarily at 100 percent for the rest of the contest, however, and came out late in the fourth quarter. McNamara finished with 91 yards through the air and completed 12-of-25 passes.

"The shoulder tightened up as the game went on," head coach Jim Harbaugh revealed postgame.

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