It wasn’t all quiet during Michigan’s bye week this past week, but the Wolverines are focused on making improvements to finish the final seven games as strong as possible. And that starts this Saturday when the Wolverines take on Penn State.
Michigan has dropped two games in a row, but the Nittany Lions have now dropped three games in a row. Penn State fell to Wisconsin after leading the entire game, then got demolished by Northwestern, and on Saturday, PSU lost to USC during its white out.
Penn State will travel to Michigan for a 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff on CBS this weekend.
Spread shows expectations
As of this writing, Michigan is favored to beat Penn State by six points, according to DraftKings Sportsbook. To be fair, Michigan was favored to beat both Iowa and Minnesota, and while the Wolverines should’ve beaten the Hawkeyes, it was all Gophers two weekends ago.
But with how poorly Penn State is playing, there are no excuses for Michigan to lose this game. The Wolverines had a chance to heal up, prepare, and get better. Kyle Whittiingham noted that Michigan had gone away from its downhill rushing attack and that’s something the Wolverines need to get back to.
Quarterback Bryce Underwood was also a focal point. Fans and analysts believe Michigan needs to bench the second-year quarterback for freshman Tommy Carr. While Carr could see some opportunities at some point, the chances are very high that Underwood starts this week for Michigan.
Underwood had arguably his best game of his career against Iowa before falling flat against Minnesota. The inconsistency needs to end or Carr will get a chance sooner than later. However, there should be some changes from the bye, and it will be interesting to see how Underwood fares.
One key area of attack
With Kyle Whittingham saying that Michigan got away from running downhill — this is the time to do so. Penn State is terrible against the run game and the Wolverines can certainly exploit the Nittany Lions’ defense.
Penn State has the second-worst run defense in the Big Ten, behind only Rutgers. The Nittany Lions allow an average of 165 yards per game on the ground, and Northwestern gashed PSU for 413 yards a couple of weeks ago.
The Nittany Lions have allowed at least one rushing touchdown in every game, with the opening game against Marshall as the only exception. The Wolverines have been waiting for Jordan Marshall and Savion Hiter to really break out, and this is the time to do so.
Penn State is better in the passing game, but USC’s Jayden Maiava just threw for 301 yards and three scores. There are multiple areas to attack this Penn State team that has dropped three in a row.
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