Penn State Football: Position grades versus Michigan

Penn State football lost its third game of the season with a 42-7 loss at Michigan Saturday afternoon.

There isn’t one college football team in the country that doesn’t have to overcome obstacles and work through setbacks, not even the undefeated and consensus number one ranked Alabama Crimson Tide. In the case of the Penn State Nittany Lions, this is one setback in what is a long road to building a program that’s consistently appearing in the College Football Playoff.

Yes, this one hurts a lot, and there’s no doubt about it. Penn State has progressed a tremendous amount since the 2016 49-10 loss at Michigan, and yet a similar outcome occurred two years later, with a 42-7 loss on Saturday. The truth is that it’s just another roadblock to becoming an “elite” program, as Coach Franklin spoke about following the Ohio State loss this season.

These positional grades articles have been written weekly the entire season, but after Saturday, I think everyone could agree that there isn’t a single unit that deserves over an F for that performance. However, I still want to break down a few important things that caught my eye throughout the game.

Just like every football game at every level, the focus of conversation is always the quarterback position. There was certainly a lot to talk about there, as the Penn State quarterback situation was largely mishandled in this game.

Let’s start by acknowledging the fact that Trace McSorley is the best quarterback in Penn State history, and this game has no barring on that. That being said, coming into the game Saturday, there were several questions regarding McSorley’s knee, which was injured in the game vs. Iowa the previous Saturday. McSorley came back into the game following the injury vs. Iowa, and ran for a 51-yard touchdown, but it was largely unknown if he’d be 100 percent for Saturday’s game.

Prior to the game, there was a video that surfaced on Twitter of McSorley running, but certainly limping heavily while doing so. To be limited while playing the best defense in the country was certainly going to be an uphill battle. That being said, I have tremendous respect for McSorley for having the guts to start that game. He may just be one of the toughest players in college football.

Once the game started, it was clear that Trace McSorley was nearly immobile. He got sacked a few times quickly, and Michigan was going to keep sending pressure as long as McSorley couldn’t escape it. Michigan figured out that McSorley wasn’t 100 percent extremely quickly. This essentially cut off Miles Sanders’ production too because Michigan wasn’t afraid to let Trace McSorley throw the football, meaning they certainly weren’t going to let Sanders get going.

Here’s where everything started to get puzzling. First off, at the end of the first quarter, it was only 7-0 Michigan. Penn State had essentially no offense production. It became 14-0 in the middle of the second quarter. It took Penn State until the middle of the third quarter down 21-0 to put in Tommy Stevens.

Granted, Tommy Stevens didn’t look so great himself as he threw a terrible pick-six, but what took so long? The coaching staff let Trace test the knee, and it was clearly a no-go. He couldn’t explode off his legs when he threw, causing the mechanics to be off and leading to several high and off-target passes. Yet, it took three quarters for the coaching staff to take action.

Furthermore, there was no game plan to account for McSorley’s injury. You would think Penn State would come out throwing several screen passes and other short passing plays with an occasional throw down field, but no.

After Stevens threw the pick-six, McSorley was thrown back into the game down 28-0, and then after an interception, Stevens was substituted back in. What’s the point of going back to a hurt McSorley down 28-0? Nothing with the quarterbacks the entire game seemed to make sense. I truly hope Trace McSorley gets healthy soon, as it’s tough to see a school legend end his college career in this fashion.

Although it was a rough game for quarterbacks, the Penn State wide receivers didn’t help the cause. Only two wide receivers caught passes, Jahan Dotson and K.J Hamler. Tight end Pat Freiermuth and running backs Miles Sanders and Journey Brown chipped into the effort. This led to a whopping eight complete passes all game for Penn State. A dropped pass led to Trace McSorley’s interception as well.

It’s also worth mentioning how bad the offensive line was in this game. They allowed Michigan to have five sacks, and six tackles for loss. Penn State also only had 68 rushing yards on thirty attempts, 52 of which were from Tommy Stevens in garbage time. It was easily the offensive line’s worst performance of the season.

In terms of the defensive line and linebackers, they allowed Michigan to rush for 259 yards, and only had one sack on two tackles for losses. Clearly, that’s not going to get job done against a top-five team on the road. Who had the sack for Penn State? None other than defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos, who’s been unstoppable this season. It was his sixth sack of the season.

Penn State’s secondary wasn’t tested much, as Michigan quarterback Shea Patterson only threw 17 times in the game. However, he completed 11 of those passes for 144 yards and two touchdowns.

After severals struggles this season, the coaching staff has an important message to share with the players. The players on this team aren’t playing for nothing the rest of the season, like most of media will say. They’re playing to get better.

Several members of this football team are young and inexperienced. It’s extremely important that every player on this Penn State team treat the last three games as the season not as a lost cause, but as an opportunity. It’s an opportunity to continue to develop as players, and as humans.

Yes, it’s tough to compete when you know the results of the season aren’t as important anymore, but that is how character is built. That is how great players are born. When the times get tough, push through it, and continue to grow.

Penn State, now 6-3 on the season, will face the 6-3 Wisconsin Badgers at Beaver Stadium at 12:00 Saturday. Winning the last three games would likely mean a Citrus Bowl or Outback Bowl appearance, the two best bowls after the New Year’s Six Bowl.