Michigan put up 417 yards on a stout Penn State defense but couldn't cap a comeback from 21-0 down in a 28-21 loss. Minus one bad interception, senior quarterback Shea Patterson finally looked like the signal caller most expected to see this year.
He was poised in the pocket for the most part, and he made it through his progressions without panicking. He threw strikes to his receivers and, if not for a handful of dropped passes, would have completed around 75 percent.
Head coach Jim Harbaugh liked what he saw.
"I think Shea has been playing great football. Heroic," Harbaugh said. "I"m really pleased. He's into it, his demeanor every game ... confident, excited about it. He ikes being in that type of atmosphere and playing in that type of game. I sense it from everything about him."
The next step — stringing two great games together and leading a win over a top 10 team, getting the receivers to do their jobs better. Yes, everyone will point to sophomore Ronnie Bell's drop in the end zone on fourth down in the fourth quarter as "the play" in the PSU loss, but junior Donovan Peoples-Jones struggled with drops throughout the game, while junior Nico Collins also had two go off his hands.
Bell has had a few drops this year, too, but he's been the most consistent weapon in terms of effort and productivity, both as a receiver and a blocker.
The running game, too, started to click after the passing game loosened things up. Freshman Zach Charbonnet returned to form with 81 yards, and the different between No. 1 and No. 2 remains noticeable. They'll need him to carry a good 20 times to beat the Irish.
All told, there's hope where there wasn't before after 2.5 quarters of good offense on the road, and Harbaugh is pleased with the way his team has gotten off the mat.
"They're responding. "They understand ... get moving, get doing something, get working," he said. "There's a lot, when you're on a football team, that you can do. There's a new gameplan to learn, there are details of that, there's a new opponent, there's practice, there are meetings, there's rehab.
"This [Monday] morning was a beehive of activity; guys working, coaches working the game plan. That's our response."
NOTES
Bell received an email from an alum who went beyond critical and told him to "please quit the team already" following the game, and it went viral. He later apologized publicly, but Harbaugh commented.
"What was the youngster’s name, the guy who wrote the e-mail ... Connor Grady? I’m sure Connor Grady got drunk as heck Saturday night," Harbaugh said. "He was probably talking to his friend, took to e-mail and probably wrote a bunch of stuff that I’m sure the next day he was like, ‘Why the heck did I do that? I’m an idiot.’ I’m sure he felt pretty bad about it.
"It's what goes on, right? People who don't know what it's like to be a player or a professional in the arena. 'I like to scream at the TV and yell stuff.' They just want to get their emotions out or passions out. It's kind of what keeps football as popular as it is, that people have those kinds of passions toward the game. In that way, that's the positive.
"As far as the sticks and stones will break my bones, that they do ... but the words don't. I just learned that a long time ago. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me."
Harbaugh said he teaches his kids to ignore it.
"We all tell our kids at school, our grade-schoolers, to not worry about what somebody is saying about you," he said. "What I tell our players, what somebody else thinks about you or says about you, is none of your business. That's the way I feel about it."
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