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**Jeff Buchanan** · September 24, 2016, 05:33 AM

This is worth a read (Brian's PSU Preview at mgoblog) ..... pretty much nails it.

Brian had nothing good to say about M's offense v. CU in his UFR and wonders about it v. PSU. Not that PSU's D is scary, it's OK, not great due to injuries and having to go deep on the depth chart at LB, but M's offense has been scary and not in a good way.

He notes (paraphrased) ..... let's hope M can run to the edge and have the OL actually do some meaningful blocking. Second that in spades as PSU has had issues with contain/leverage with plays heading to the field boundaries....... and .......

Which Wilton Speight will be playing today? The suprising guy who played well v. Hawaii and UCF or the discombobulated one lobbing up ducks v. CU.

Jim, do you have constraint plays to the jet sweep? I think you do. We'd like to see them.

Slants. Stop them.

Ditto big plays off coverage busts and/or poor tackling.

Every one is predicting M will win this game bouncing back from the damning performance v. CU but then so was everyone predicting M would blow out CU. They'll win but it would be better if M could add to it's metrics such that the predictability of an East league win a BT Conference title and a CFB Playoff berth looks better than the dip that predictability took after CU.

Preview: 2016 Penn State | mgoblog

http://mgoblog.com/content/preview-2016-penn-state#more

Essentials WHAT Penn State at Michigan WHERE Michigan Stadium Ann Arbor, MI WHEN 3:30 Eastern September 24th, 2016 THE LINE Michigan –19.5 TELEVISION ABC TICKETS From $51 WEATHER sunny, around 70 generally perfect Overview Meet the new Penn State: they honor Joe Paterno, make questionable in-game decisions, have a wreck of an offensive line, and deploy a legitimately terrifying running back. Sooooo... the old Penn State. This year's version does have some significant differences. They beat Temple, for one. Also they lost to Pitt. Trace McSorley's an upgrade on Christian Hackenberg; their new punter is an upgrade on the legless duck they ran out last year. The new defensive linemen... are not an upgrade. Neither are the second-string linebackers, all of whom figure to start this weekend. Penn State's struggled on both lines and Michigan should dominate one matchup and seek to get right in the other. Run Offense vs Penn State injury crisis means walk-on Brandon Smith is PSU's starting MLB The looming question for PSU is whether they will have any of their starting linebackers available. Nyeem Wartman-White is out for the year, again. Jason Cabinda was sporting a large cast on his arm last Saturday and is doubtful. Brandon Bell was on crutches; he's also doubtful. Neither is listed on the PSU depth chart. Without those three, PSU was forced to turn to walk-on Brandon Smith at MLB and sophomores Manny Bowen, their spacebacker, and Jake Cooper at OLB. PFF likes Bowen and hates Cooper; Ace didn't like either but did like Smith. PSU's rush defense was excellent against Temple, okay against Kent State, and obliterated by Pitt. Pitt rushed for 341 yards on 56 carries; five different players had a run of 20 yards or more and the Panthers put up 42 points on a day where they threw for 91 yards. That was before the injury plague hit its peak. PSU's done fine against their lower-level opponents; where Michigan's run game fits in a spectrum from Pitt to Temple remains sadly unknown. One thing that is known: Mason Cole will surely appreciate the change of pace from last week. Josh Tupou departs; Penn State arrives with Kevin Givens and Parker Cothren, both sub-300 pounders. Givens is listed at a malleable 275. PFF rates them tolerably well, but their grades are like mine and therefore based on the competition. It's possible both were good against Temple and Kent State and that's overwhelming the Pitt mess. Saturday will be a clarifying event for both teams as they try to gauge their abilities in this department. FWIW, PSU fans are terrified of jet sweeps. Michigan's been running a ton of them, but with PSU no doubt focusing on improvement there and Michigan having largely omitted their counters for jet sweep overplay from the playbook so far I'd guess Michigan spends more of its time faking the jet than actually running it. Either way the interplay between a soft Penn State edge and the skill position corps that rescued the Colorado game by pounding players near the sideline will be one to watch. Michigan ran a ton of WR screens last year and this is largely the same group on both sides of the ball; watch for Michigan to supplement their actual run game with a virtual one on the outside, whether that's by jet, bubble, tunnel, or flash. I'm not sure what to expect here. I'm alarmed by the Colorado game but that feels like a highly negative outlier against the worst matchup imaginable for Mason Cole. PSU is a much smaller interior and one that got hammered by the only power 5 team they've played so far. I'd guess Michigan bounces back to "fine, just fine, it's fine" against a depleted opponent. I won't be shocked by a hammering either way. KEY MATCHUP: MICHIGAN LINEMEN versus COMBO BLOCKING. They shouldn't be so bad at deciding what to do at this stage in their careers. If it doesn't start getting better this week it probably won't until next year, when a new generation takes over. [Hit THE JUMP for OH MAN THIS LINE against MICHIGAN'S DL]

**Wellington_beefhouser** · September 24, 2016, 08:21 AM

As much as I'd like to see M play a perfect game, it might be better to have a few close nut grabbing wins to harden this team up a bit before going on the road. The media fixation on JH has put a target on the back of M. Teams just play better against Harbaugh.

**The Oracle** · September 24, 2016, 09:25 AM

But everyone wasn't predicting a CU blowout.

**froot loops** · September 24, 2016, 09:52 AM

You should be for this one thougb, Penn State is garbage. Run it up on them.

**WingsFan** · September 24, 2016, 10:13 AM

Perfect football weather today in East Lansing and Ann Arbor!

**Cody_Russell** · September 24, 2016, 10:25 AM

Go Blue!
Not betting on this game because of the stress of last week... This is the trap game I was worried about preseason.
Penn State has good skills position players like Desean Hamilton. IF Trace McSorley plays well, watch out.

I think Michigan will will win 34-14 however. Something like that.
Michigan's d needs to bounce back.

**WingsFan** · September 24, 2016, 10:27 AM

Going to be a long day for McSorley

**The Oracle** · September 24, 2016, 10:42 AM

Barkley is the only thing remotely scary on that team.

**WM Wolverine** · September 24, 2016, 12:21 PM

This game shouldn't be close unless M doesn't show-up or the OL is a sieve. Even then, I think the defense holds PSU to about 14.

**jaadam4** · September 24, 2016, 01:19 PM

Standing in line in Philly at Jim's for a philly cheese and then going to a local bar to stick it to the PSU fans. This should be fun

**Paul L** · September 24, 2016, 01:22 PM

Make sure you're packin' heat; heh

**jaadam4** · September 24, 2016, 01:29 PM

Kind of like our MSU brethren who are getting their shit packed in by the Badgers

**WingsFan** · September 24, 2016, 01:35 PM

Michigan needs to somehow not look at the scoreboard right now

**jaadam4** · September 24, 2016, 01:37 PM

Why would Michigan care about the scoreboard? We just need to win. Every game

**WingsFan** · September 24, 2016, 01:40 PM

Big favorite 3 TD today and we play Wisconsin next week, don't want to look ahead. Take care of business today Harbaugh!

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