Michigan Hands Penn State First Win of the Season

Michigan plays one of its worst games of the season on Saturday in losing at home to the Nittany Lions.

Brendan Gulick | Nov 28, 2020

Michigan Hands Penn State First Win of the Season /

If there is any saving grace for Ohio State fans on a day during which their game against Illinois was cancelled, perhaps it was watching Michigan lose to winless Penn State.

The Wolverines offense really struggled to move the football consistently on Saturday. They managed just 14 first downs and 286 yards of total offense, scoring on a pair of rushing touchdowns from Hassan Haskins. Cade McNamara had a really poor day at quarterback, completing 12-of-25 passes for 91 yards.

This is about as bad as Michigan football has looked in a very long time. I'm struggling to remember a time where things were worse. Frankly, they were lucky to beat Rutgers last weekend and they may not win another game with Maryland and Ohio State left on the schedule.

Ohio State's Best Path to the College Football Playoff

Perhaps the most surprising part in all of this is that they looked really good Week 1 against Minnesota. It was ABC's Game of the Week up in Minneapolis and the Wolverines stomped a Gophers team that was picked by many people to win the Big Ten West Division.

As Brandon Brown of Wolverine Digest writes, this is an embarrassment up in Ann Arbor. It's really hard to understand how they've fallen this far.

Penn State head coach James Franklin tried to put a more positive spin on things: "That was a battle of two very, very respected programs in a very unique and challenging and weird year."

The Buckeyes are scheduled to play Michigan at Ohio Stadium on Dec. 12. Ohio State football has currently paused all team activities while the team deals with a CoVID outbreak in the locker room.

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Published Nov 28, 2020

BRENDAN GULICK

Brendan Gulick is the publisher for BuckeyesNow, Cleveland Baseball Insider and Cavs Insider on the FanNation Network. He is also an accomplished host and play-by-play voice on TV and radio, including on Big Ten Network and NCAA.com where he's called 45 NCAA national championships. Gulick is an update anchor and fill-in host at 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland, Ohio.