Penn State Football: Handing Out The Grades Following Loss To Michigan

Offense: C-

If not for the final play of the third quarter Penn State would have ended the opening 15 minutes of the second half having gained -3 yards. That right there is probably all that needs to be said about the offensive performance. Add in three trips inside the Michigan five leading to just nine points and you’re going to have a bad time.

Christian Hackenberg wasn’t great but neither was anything else about the offense. A 13-31 for 137 yards and a score is far from Hackenberg’s best effort, although a few drops and near misses didn’t help his cause any. Saquon Barkley ended the day with 68 yards on the ground after picking up 56 early in the game. Chris Godwin chipped in 51 receiving yards and Saeed Blacknall did a good job beating his coverage on Penn State’s only TD of the day.

Take out the two biggest plays of the day and Penn State had just 113 yards of offense to the tune of 2.17 yards per gain over the span of 52 offensive snaps. Hardly putting the fear of God into anyone, let alone a Top 15 team. Six of Penn States’s 14 first downs came via Michigan penalty too.

This grade would be lower but at some point Penn State’s offense can’t totally be penalized for the fact it struggled against one of the best defenses in the nation. 

Defense: B-

Tackling, tackling, tackling. Penn State had trouble with this all game after getting back on track from earlier struggles this year. It’s not a stat kept, but more than a few missed tackles led to longer gains and a few conversions in Michigan’s favor. Even with that in mind Penn State’s defense held a scoring happy Michigan offense to 21 points throughout most of the game and forced two turnovers. 

Penn State’s defense wasn’t great, but it continues to do a good enough job that a half decent offensive attack would balance things out. It’s hard to totally knock Penn State for eventually giving up 28 points when it created ample opportunities for Penn State’s offense to counter. Add in the fact that the Nittany Lions were without Jordan Lucas or Carl Nassib and the ship stayed afloat maybe longer than anticipated.

Marcus Allen led the way with 12 tackles and Brandon Bell had five stops, 1 sack and an interception for one of the better afternoons of his career.

In total Michigan converted 50% of its third downs which as you might imagine isn’t ideal.

Special Teams: D

On some sarcastic level Penn State’s special teams unit should get a higher grade simply for being just as consistently bad as it was the week before. The bad news for Joey Julius and the gang is that’s not how it works. Missed tackles, poor punts, nearly missed field goals and a long return late in the game are all knocks against this bunch. Not to mention a Michigan score directly following a fumbled punt.

To Penn State’s credit a blocked punt was a bright spot and a key moment in the game. Jabrill Peppers was also a block away from breaking a long return so Penn State deserves some credit for preventing that from happening. It’s almost piling on at this point but it’s hard to overstate how inconsistent this unit has been despite some occasional bright spots.

Other: D

James Franklin calls weird timeouts and John Donovan followed up Saquon Barkley’s long run into the redzone by hoping he’d do it again. For as much as Michigan is a good team Penn State’s own weird mistakes were not helping at all. Add in the decision to let the clock run out the final 45 seconds of the first half and everything ends up just being annoying.

Overall: C-

Penn State’s defense did enough, Penn State’s offense almost did enough, Penn State’s special teams scored nine points and blocked a punt. Nothing was great but down 8 with the ball and a chance to tie in the fourth quarter counts for something.