When Michigan football head coach Kyle Whittingham met with the media on Monday, much of the focus was on the quarterback position.
The focus should have been, how do you take advantage of the Penn State run defense?
Michigan's running game has to get going against Penn State
That's the question that will define who wins Saturday's game. Bryce Underwood needs to take care of the ball. Whittingham has correctly diagnosed that turnovers are the biggest issue for this team.
The offensive numbers against Minnesota were atrocious. One reason for that, though, was that Michigan turned the ball over on what felt like three consecutive plays. There was the muffed punt and two Underwood interceptions.
So the offense never got a chance to get going in the second half. If Michigan can keep the ball in its possession, that's a good start. The Wolverines also need more explosive plays on offense.
They also just need to run the ball. If Michigan runs the ball well and stops the run against Penn State, there's a good chance the Wolverines win the game.
Breaking down the numbers, there is a golden opportunity to get the run game going. Penn State has the second-worst run defense in the Big Ten during conference play. The Nittany Lions allowed Northwestern to run for over 400 yards. The Wildcats had two 100-yard rushers.
Penn State also gave up 128 rushing yards to Wisconsin and allowed USC to have a 100-yard rusher. As it stands, the Nittany Lions are allowing 5.9 yards per rushing attempt. The Michigan football defense has allowed just 2.9. Only UCLA has been better.
However, the Wolverines are gaining just 3.4 yards per rushing attempt. Iowa and Minnesota usually have solid run defenses. They are very capable. Still, Michigan rushed for over 150 yards against Iowa. The run game started strong against Minnesota, too.
It felt like more traditional runs. The Wolverines did use a lot of lateral runs last season (outside zone), and there have been downhill runs, but the running game needs to get more downhill, in the words of Kyle Whittingham and Blake Frazier. That might be a mentality as much as the play calls.
Regardless, Penn State has a clear weakness there. With Underwood, Jordan Marshall, Savion Hiter, and an offensive line, even with Andrew Sprague out, that features five players who all started multiple games for Michigan football (LAST SEASON), there is no reason this offense should not be averaging over 200 rushing yards per game.
The schedule, as far as run defenses go, has been difficult. Michigan's biggest problem is that it can't get out of its own way.
That should have been fixed over the bye week. If not, maybe then it will be time to panic.
Add us as a preferred source on Google