Michigan Football: Important takeaways from loss to Penn State

The offense has no direction

For the third straight game, the Michigan offense failed to generate 300 yards. John O’Korn threw for 166 yards and had zero interceptions, but did have a costly fumble when the score was 28-13.

Honestly, O’Korn wasn’t terrible. He averaged 5.9 yards per pass, which is poor, but much better than the 2.9 he had against Indiana. The senior made some nice throws, he converted a 2nd-and-20 and was even 6-for-6 on third downs at one point.

But while O’Korn and the passing game was better, the run game was a no-show. Michigan football managed just 106 yards 42 carries. Taking out O’Korn’s -3 yards on 14 attempts, Michigan still got just 99 yards on 28 carries. Against a team like Penn State, on the road, that’s just not going to get it done.

Donovan Peoples-Jones had three catches for 43 yards, which was a good sign. But Karan Higdon didn’t play well (15-45). Ty Isaac was the best back with six carries for 36 yards.

The biggest problem was  a lack of explosive plays. Grant Perry had a 23-yard catch and Kekoa Crawford had one for 24. Those were the only explosive plays of the night. O’Korn had a couple double-digit runs, Higdon had one for 11.

The quarterback play isn’t great, but it’s not the only issue. The Wolverines have no bread and butter, nothing they can count on. That’s becoming a problem. Seven games in, it’s also probably not going to change.