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Game Recap: Lions get first win at Michigan in over a decade

Penn State avoided all of the pitfalls that had left it winless heading into the final weeks of the regular season, and its mistake-free play led to a 27-17 victory over Michigan on Saturday at Michigan Stadium.

The Nittany Lions didn’t start slowly, nor did they turn the ball over repeatedly, give up crucial sacks or surrender huge scoring plays. They looked a lot like the team that had earned a top-10 ranking heading into the 2020 season, the team that they had been for most of James Franklin’s tenure at Penn State. No one was happier than Franklin himself to see that team re-emerge after five dispiriting weeks.

“We battled, we made plays when we needed to make plays,” Franklin said after leading the Nittany Lions to their first win in Ann Arbor since 2009. “It’s hard to stop people on fourth-and-inches, and we did that. We just played gutsy, and that’s who we’ve been. There were just so many examples today of who we’ve been for seven years now. We found ways to do it today. The earlier games, we didn’t do that. We made a play when we needed to make a play. … It was great to see. They stood in the corner and took body blows and head shots, and they kept swinging. I’m really, really proud of the guys.”

Penn State clamped down on redshirt freshman quarterback Cade McNamara, who had been the hero of Michigan’s triple-overtime victory over Rutgers the previous week. Bothered by a shoulder injury that he suffered in the first half, McNamara hit only 12 of 25 passes for 91 yards, while Joe Milton went 1 of 3 for 21 yards in relief.

The Lions did give up 174 yards on the ground, but it wasn’t enough for Michigan to rally back. Saturday’s game was the first since last year’s regular-season finale against Rutgers in which Penn State held an opponent below 30 points.

“We were just tired of it, tired of losing,” cornerback Joey Porter Jr. said. “That’s not us. That’s not this program. And we wanted to show everybody that’s not us. I feel like we went out and showed it today.”

At 1-5, the Nittany Lions still have an unsightly record, but for the first time in a while, they are trending up, and they still have time to generate some forward momentum heading into the off-season.

Here’s a look at the good and the bad:

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The Good

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• No turnovers! That might sound like faint praise, but Franklin had previously cited turnovers as “the story of the season,” and Penn State’s victory in Ann Arbor bolstered his case by proving the inverse – that when you don’t turn the ball over, things tend to go pretty well.

The Nittany Lions won the turnover battle against Michigan, going 60 minutes without an interception or a fumble, while collecting the game’s only takeaway on a muffed punt that flew straight into the waiting arms of Drew Hartlaub just before halftime.

The Lions might have gotten a second turnover on a fumble recovery after a sack, but Shaka Toney was flagged for batting the ball backward on the recovery attempt, which apparently is a 10-yard penalty. Who knew? Without citing any specific play, Franklin alluded to some “interesting calls” in the game, but Toney’s penalty, which turned a fumble recovery into a Michigan first down, ultimately didn’t matter, as Penn State stopped the Wolverines on fourth-and-inches later in the drive.

• True freshmen Parker Washington and Keyvone Lee both had terrific afternoons. Between them, the two young players accounted for 227 of Penn State’s 417 total yards. Washington caught nine passes for 93 yards, while Lee rushed for 134 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries.

Lee started in place of Devyn Ford, who missed the team due to a death in the family. He split time in the backfield with fellow freshman Caziah Holmes, who gained 34 yards on 10 carries, and helped Penn State pile up 254 yards and three touchdowns on the ground.

“He has shown flashes since he got here,” Franklin said. “Him and Caziah, they’ve shown flashes that we were excited about. But for me to sit here and say that I saw this coming, it’s just hard to say. … The past couple of weeks have been challenging. Obviously, when we recruited them, we thought they were both talented guys, but we thought they would be rotating in in different types of games.”

Considering that a big part of rest of this season will be aimed at setting the team up for a bounce-back performance in 2021, the emergence of several young offensive playmakers has to be considered a very promising sign.

• After a string of sluggish first-half performances in its first five games, Penn State got off to a pretty good start in Ann Arbor. Lee had a great opening series, rushing seven times for 39 yards. He was barely touched on a 6-yard touchdown run.

With the defense getting stops, including a fourth-down stop at its own 42-yard line early in the first quarter, Penn State was able to go into the locker room with a 17-7 lead. Not only was it the first time this season that the Lions led at halftime, it was the first time they weren’t trailing by double-digits at halftime. Prior to their visit to Michigan, they had been outscored by a combined margin of 117-33 in the first half.

• The Lions got fourth-down stops in the first and fourth quarters. The second, on fourth-and-1 at the Penn State 47, ended with Ellis Brooks stopping Joe Milton at the line of scrimmage.


The Bad

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Hassan Haskins gained 59 yards on the first play of Michigan’s second possession, giving the Wolverines first-and-goal at the 9. It was the latest in a series of chunk plays by Penn State opponents, joining the 62-yard run by Ohio State’s Garrett Wilson to open the game, the 45-yard catch-and-run by Nebraska’s Zavier Betts, and the touchdowns of 42, 62 and 38 yards by Maryland.

• While the Lions were much better in the red zone than they had been in previous losses, they didn’t get everything they wanted from those trips, settling for Jake Pinegar field goals after reaching the 5-yard line late in the first half and the 16-yard line in the third quarter.

• The Nittany Lions gave Michigan 20 free yards on a pair of second-half kickoffs by Jordan Stout that went out of bounds.

• Penn State was only penalized five times for 30 yards, but defensive ends Toney and Jayson Oweh were flagged for three costly offside calls. The second of those calls, on Oweh, gave the Wolverines a first down on third-and-4 early in the fourth quarter and set up a touchdown.


Looking Ahead

Next up: a trip to Rutgers. The Nittany Lions have had their way with the Scarlet Knights over the years, having won 28 of the 30 games in the series, which dates back to 1918. That includes a 12-0 road record, if you count games at the Meadowlands as Rutgers home games rather than neutral site games. Both of Penn State’s losses in the series – in 1918 and 1988 – were at University Park.

The past two games have been closer than expected, with the Nittany Lions looking listless in 20-7 road victory two years ago and a 27-6 win in their 2019 regular-season finale. They’ve been looking listless for much of this season, too, so while they’re coming off a rousing win at Michigan, they can’t afford to celebrate too hard. The Scarlet Knights team they are set to meet on Saturday has been surprisingly competitive in its first season under Greg Schiano.

Rutgers was 1-4 heading into its matchup with Purdue, but was averaging 29.6 points per game to rank seventh in the Big Ten. Noah Vedral had completed 64.2 percent of his passes for 1,104 yards, although he sat out Saturday's game against Purdue due to an injury. That'll be something for fans of both teams to monitor in the week ahead. The Scarlet Knights’ biggest problems have been a penchant for turnovers – Vedral threw eight interceptions through five games – and a defense that's surrendering a league-worst 36.8 points per game.

This is a season in which a lot of the conventional wisdom about college football has been thoroughly upended, so Penn State can’t assume that its world will snap back to normal following a win over the Wolverines.

Franklin sees the team’s more-assured performance in Ann Arbor as something to savor. “We’re going to have victory dinner on Monday,” he said. “It’s going to be the most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted in my life.” But he also sees it as part of an ongoing process, one that requires steady improvement and consistency over the course of a season, even a shorter-than-usual season like the one in which Penn State is presently engaged. “This is an opportunity for us to grow and to build,” Franklin said. “It’s one game at a time.”


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