Michigan Football vs Penn State: Game Balls

The Michigan football team took care of business against Penn State, beating the Nittany Lions 49-10. Here are the game balls for the Wolverines

That was a hell of a way to start the Big Ten season. Michigan football eviscerated Penn State 49-10, though it may not have even been that close; they outgained the Nittany Lions 515-199, ran for 326 yards and six touchdowns by five players, and the defense bounced back from a shaky performance last week in a big way.

That’s the type of game that dreams are made of. Michigan took control early and never even came close to yielding it.

It was 21-0 after the first play of the second quarter and 28-0 at halftime. The offense looked crisp, the defense looked terrifying, and the special teams was a net positive (again).

Jourdan Lewis and Taco Charlton both made their triumphant returns and looked 100%. The defensive line’s performance wasn’t fair. Karan Higdon was a revelation. Chris Evans looked good. Ty Isaac and De’Veon Smith were making smart cuts and hitting holes. Everything was clicking, which is encouraging heading into next week’s matchup against Wisconsin, who blew Michigan State out today.

There were a bunch of great plays, but my favorite was actually one of Penn State’s scores. Down 28-0 in the third quarter, James Franklin opted to kick a field goal. Even with Saquon Barkley in the backfield, the Nittany Lion coaching staff had no faith they could gain two yards. Oh, and Franklin called a timeout to avoid a delay of game, so they had time to think it over and still kicked. The whole sequence showed just how far Michigan had gotten into PSU’s head.

Needless to say, there are plenty of game balls to hand out.

Karan Higdon

So it turns out that there are two viable burners in the running back corps. We knew that Chris Evans could at least be a nice change of pace back after the Hawaii game, and even though he had himself a game (56 yards and a touchdown), Higdon came out of nowhere and proved that he can also provide speed and agility in the backfield. He went for 81 yards and 2 touchdowns on 9 carries.

More impressive than his numbers, though, were the reads and cuts he was making. Smith and Isaac have been inconsistent at best at spotting holes and/or waiting for them to open up; they both looked much better today, but Higdon was right there with them. He’s smaller, quicker, and faster than those two, so he can afford to wait a little longer and hide a little better behind the line of scrimmage, and the few times the hit a hole hard today he showed that he can get upfield in a hurry.

Having four viable options at running back–all of whom have different strengths–is promising as we head into the meat of schedule. Big Ten defenses are varied enough these days that unless you have a blue chipper in the backfield, you need a combination of backs that you can adjust form game to game. We saw drives today where a different back was subbed in on every play. Good on Higdon and good on all of the backs today.

Jourdan Lewis

He’s back! He earned at least two pass breakups and snuffed out a couple tunnel screens on important plays today. Any signs of rust were throughly shaken off by halftime, at least in coverage. Having him and Charlton back made a big difference for the defense today. They got after the quarterback better than they have all season and finished with 14 (!) tackles for loss. That’s insane. Wilton Speight had more rushing yards than PSU at halftime.

Having Lewis back makes everything easier for the defense. He can shut down half of the field, blow up screens, knock running backs backwards, and blitz off the edge, all of which he did today. If it seemed like Jabrill Peppers was even more all over the place today, it’s because he was. Having Lewis in coverage means that Peppers can either freelance at the safety position or drop down into the linebacker position. Not only that, but a lot of the sacks and TFL’s the defensive line generated today were a result of the fact that McSorley’s first two reads were blanketed by defenders.

De’Veon Smith

Wilton Speight had a good game, Peppers had a good game, everyone on the defensive line had a great game, but the nod here goes to Smith. Rushing for over 300 yards and six touchdowns after struggling for weeks warrants two game balls for running backs. Smith looked better than he has all season today. He hit holes with authority. He made cuts behind the line of scrimmage. When he didn’t have a seam, he bounced it outside. He outran linebackers.

By and large, Smith hasn’t done any of those things this year. By my recollection, he didn’t have a bad run all day; he usually has a couple clunkers every game. He finished with 12 carries for 107 yards and a touchdown. He was the most consistent back, which hopefully will be his role going forward. He ground away at PSU’s second level and provided a his usual stellar pass blocking. Now that he doesn’t have to worry about being the explosive home run back, hopefully he can settle in and have more games like this. He’s going to be very important next week against a much bigger Wisconsin defense.

Next: Top 10 Michigan Running Backs of All Time

Game Ball Count

• Mike Evans
• Mike McCray
• Ben Bredeson
• Michael Onwenu
• Jabrill Peppers (2)
• Wilton Speight
• Tyree Kinell
• Chris Wormley
• Rashan Gary
• Shane Morris, Fullback
• De’Veon Smith
• Jourdan Lewis
• Karan Higdon