Michigan Football: Grading the Wolverines win against Penn State

Michigan football beat the doors off of Penn State on Saturday and here is our report card from the Wolverines’ 41-17 win over the Nittany Lions. 

In a showdown of top-10 teams on Saturday, Michigan football proved that it’s one of the best college football teams in the country with a rout of Penn State.

Many expected Penn State and its fifth-ranked run defense to slow down the Wolverines. Urban Meyer even said before the game on Big Noon Kickoff that J.J. McCarthy was going to have to win the game because Penn State would slow down Blake Corum.

How wrong he was.

In fact, Michigan football made Urban Meyer look like an idiot, as well as Matt Leinhart and any other pundit who thought Penn State could stand up to Michigan football’s bully ball.

I predicted before the game that Penn State wouldn’t and that Corum would get another game of 120. I didn’t expect 418 yards though — no one did and as we look at the report card for this week, Michigan football deserves top marks after dominating the 10th-ranked team in the country.

Offense: A

Blake Corum, Donovan Edwards, and the offensive line owned Penn State. The 61-yard touchdown by Corum, which followed Edwards’ 67-yard burst broke the game open.

Yet, if the Wolverines had executed better in the red zone and not turned the ball over, this game would have been over by halftime or early in the third quarter. Michigan football converted 12-of-18 third-and-fourth down conversions and didn’t punt once.

J.J. McCarthy was a little shaky at times, but outside of the interception and the near-interception, he was solid and was pretty much flawless in the second half. He didn’t have to do much with Corum and Edwards running wild, but he picked up a couple of key first downs with his legs and also set up another score on a 21-yard pass to Edwards.

The offense wasn’t perfect, but it was damn close and the scary thing is that this offense hasn’t even hit its top gear.