What They're Saying: Penn State 27, Michigan Wolverines Football 17
Michigan Wolverines football suffered a 27-17 setback to the Penn State Nittany Lions Saturday afternoon.
Here is a look around the internet at what they're saying about the Maize and Blue's loss:
RELATED: Notes, Quotes & Observations From U-M's Loss
RELATED: Best And Worst From Michigan's 27-17 Loss To Penn State
Chris Balas, The Wolverine: PSU 27, Michigan 17: Notes, Quotes & Observations
What was predicted to be a potential top-10 matchup before the season looked like a junior varsity game between two of the Big Ten’s high-profile programs. Had it been Illinois vs. Rutgers in different uniforms, nobody would have known the difference.
That’s how far these two programs have fallen in just a season, though some would say U-M's decline has been a few years in the making. It was a marquee matchup in name only, complete with stupid turnovers, poor play calling, very little imagination and not much energy.
But Penn State — 0-5 Penn State — was by far the better team on both sides of the ball, much the way most U-M opponents have been this year, and the Nittany Lions pulled out their first win of the year, 27-17.
They broke some dubious streaks along the way. James Franklin’s crew hadn’t led going into halftime once this season, but they took a 17-7 advantage into the locker room after a Michigan turnover gave them three points to end the half. They hadn’t scored on their first possession or stopped the opponent from scoring on its first drive, but sure enough, the Wolverines were the cure for their ills.
Michigan, meanwhile, was unimaginative on offense and flat-out terrible defensively from the first drive in a game, taking the “tackling optional” approach in being embarrassed at home for the third straight time this year.
"I’m very competitive and want to win,” head coach Jim Harbaugh said of his team’s latest setback. “I hate losing, so I’ll respond by pressing on and attacking it. That's the response from me, and I know a bunch of our players. That's our only choice.
“… Putting our players in the best chance to be successful, getting guys out there it means a lot to — we’re addressing both of those fronts. Pressing on. I think the guys are working at it; it means a lot to them. I appreciate the effort [in] getting it figured out.”
Penn State beat Michigan 27-17 for its first win of the season, snapping the worst start in program history and dropping the hapless Wolverines to 2-4 amid questions over coach Jim Harbaugh's immediate future.
Those questions may not have any basis in reality: Harbaugh's contract does not expire [until] after next season, leaving plenty of time for both parties to reconvene and recommit to a longer partnership.
The better question asks whether Michigan and Harbaugh believe there is reason to maintain the relationship long into the future given this year's slide into irrelevancy.
Losing to previously winless Penn State feels like the lowest point of this already lost season, which had already surfed through a series of low moments — losing to Michigan State, getting blown out by Wisconsin, even needing overtime to rally back and beat Rutgers a week ago.
Barring a miraculous upset win against Ohio State next month, should that game be played as scheduled, Michigan will finish with a losing record for the first time since 2009 and just the fourth time since 1968.
As a program, Michigan has ceded enormous ground to the Buckeyes, which have lapped the field, and fallen behind several others in the Big Ten. Is there one missing ingredient that would vault the Wolverines back into the College Football Playoff in 2021? Is the strangeness of this offseason and regular season to blame for the Wolverines' plummet?
When halftime ended Saturday afternoon and Michigan’s players gathered around their position coaches, Jim Harbaugh stood by Cade McNamara. The sophomore quarterback had missed two second-quarter drives with a shoulder injury, but he was still the Wolverines’ path to reversing their 17-7 deficit and Harbaugh knew it.
McNamara, though, represented more than that. He was Harbaugh’s only chance to lend a semblance of positivity to a season that careens toward new lows with each passing week.
Then his shoulder tightened back up, Harbaugh re-inserted Joe Milton and the Wolverines scored just 10 second-half points. With a 27-17 loss to a previously winless Penn State team, Michigan fell to 2-4.
And in the end, this week’s iteration of Harbaugh’s calamitous Year Six looked just like the others. When the Nittany Lions sealed their win with a final third-down conversion, the only sound on Michigan’s sideline was a player slamming his plastic water bottle against a metal bench.
“No one wants to lose a game,” junior defensive lineman Taylor Upshaw said. “So it’s frustrating, of course.”
This year, losing has happened at the highest rate since 2008, when Michigan finished 3-9. The Wolverines’ four losses are already the second-highest total of the Harbaugh era. In his previous five years in Ann Arbor, Harbaugh hadn’t hit that mark before Week 12.
It made sense, then, when Harbaugh’s frustration reached a boiling point Saturday. This was the Wolverines’ opportunity to build off momentum from a come-from-behind, triple-overtime win over Rutgers last weekend. That it came against a winless opponent should have provided Harbaugh with the perfect opportunity to reverse this season’s course.
Instead, Michigan only sunk further into the depths of despair. The loudest cheers from Harbaugh’s sideline in the second half came on Penn State penalties. When freshman receiver A.J. Henning leapt over a Nittany Lions’ defender to make a highlight-reel catch, Harbaugh had to turn towards a group of players sitting on the bench and tell them to stand up and cheer.
“It’s tough to be in this position, it’s not what we imagined,” senior right tackle Andrew Stueber said. “As an older guy on the team, you really gotta keep everybody up.”
Austin Meek, The Athletic: Michigan’s Big House blues continue with loss to Penn State
Michigan played its first home football game on May 12, 1883, against a team called the Detroit Independents. Attendance figures are tough to find, but according to a newspaper account preserved by Michigan’s Bentley Historical Library, the crowd at the Ann Arbor Fairgrounds filled four rows of bleachers and spilled onto the grass.
Michigan won the game by a score of 40-5. Every year since then, according to the school’s official records, Michigan has recorded at least one home victory. That streak stands in jeopardy after Saturday’s 27-17 loss to Penn State, a defeat that dropped the Wolverines to 0-3 at Michigan Stadium with one regular-season home game remaining.
The prospect of a winless record at home is one of many oddities to emerge from a Michigan football season that has no historical parallel. More people attended that first home game in 1883 than were allowed inside Michigan Stadium on Saturday, probably by a significant margin. The Wolverines were facing a Penn State team on the wrong end of its own history, winless through five games for the first time. Something had to give.
In the battle between dysfunction and ineptitude, Michigan (2-4) came out the loser. Penn State’s struggling offense met its match in Michigan’s decimated defense, which surrendered 417 yards and failed to force a turnover against one of the most turnover-prone teams in the Big Ten.
Realistically, this was the Wolverines’ last chance to fashion something presentable out of their season. They were coming off of a triple-overtime victory against Rutgers, the closest thing they’ve had to momentum since Week 1. They had a new starting quarterback, Cade McNamara, who injected some life into their offense. The best they could hope was to beat Penn State and Maryland, take their shot against Ohio State, then try to win a crossover game in Week 9 and finish the season with a winning record.
Even that was too much to ask. Any carryover effect from the Rutgers game seemed to vanish as soon as McNamara landed hard on his right shoulder in the first quarter, prompting him to leave the game and jog to the locker room for treatment. McNamara eventually returned, but Michigan’s offense never recovered.
Where are the playmakers?
In April, Michigan lost ten players to the NFL draft. In the summer, the Wolverines bid farewell to their top receiver, Nico Collins, and best cornerback, Ambry Thomas, when they opted out of the upcoming season.
Even before the defections of Thomas and Collins, only three Power Five teams were returning less production than Michigan.
But there was still talent to be found on a roster filled with blue-chip prospects.
Just ask the Wolverines’ coaches.
Defensive coordinator Don Brown called [sophomore safety] Dax Hill perhaps the best cover defender in the Big Ten. His counterpart on offense, Josh Gattis, told reporters [sophomore] tight end Erick All was a special talent. Both Brown and Gattis crowed about the slew of the great players they could deploy — relentless linebackers and dynamic, young receivers.
But after six weeks, where are all these playmakers? Is there an individual who can deliver a much-needed conversion in a critical situation? Is there one who can make a stop when it's absolutely necessary?
The answer appears to be a resounding "No."
There is not a single player Michigan has been able count on from one week to the next to make a difference. The uneven performance of its top starters has created a lot of uncertainty for the Wolverines, who have been victimized by their inconsistency.
Trevor Woods, Maize 'N Brew: Takeaways from Michigan’s loss to Penn State
Michigan’s defense and Don Brown prove no one wrong
The entire coaching staff has been getting heat, and the heat will only crank up from here, but nobody has been criticized more than defensive coordinator Don Brown. For whatever reason, it just isn’t working in any which way on the defensive side of the ball. One of the lower-ranking units in all of college football, Michigan gave up big gainers on the ground and through the air. Quarterback Sean Clifford ran with ease at times to the tune of 73 yards and an easy 29-yard rushing TD. True freshman Keyvone Lee rushed for 134 yards and a TD. Freshman wideout Parker Washington couldn’t be stopped and hauled in 9 receptions for 93 yards. Michigan couldn’t get PSU off the field on third down enough (8 of 16), they didn’t get the key stops when they were required.
Defensive coaches have mentioned multiple times this season about the unit and their tendency of hesitating, a trend that hasn’t been a quick fix and has lingered on the entire year. The hesitation leaves Michigan defenders flat footed and not in an aggressive mindset that is flying to whoever has the football. And then when Michigan doesn’t hesitate they’re caught overpursuing, leading to open and gaping holes for the opposing offense.
This was as many missed tackles as I’ve ever seen a Don Brown defense give up, and there wasn’t much you can say was fundamentally sound. Jim Harbaugh mentioned they have to do a better job of tackling and setting the edge and that their issues are a combination of things. It certainly is a combination of things, and playcalling is a problem every bit as much as playing with a lack of fundamentals. The defense is the equivalent of a sinking ship with 100 holes that need to be filled. They have two more games to put together one effort they can be proud of, but there’s no evidence to suggest that anything will turn around on this side of the ball.
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