NEXT UP FOR THE NO. 3 WOLVERINES: MICHIGAN STATE SPARTANS
Fast facts
Matchup: No. 3 Michigan (7-0, 4-0 Big Ten) vs. Michigan State (3-4, 1-3).
Kickoff: Time TBD, Oct. 29; Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor. TV/radio: TV TBD; WXYT-FM (97.1), WTKA-AM (1050).
Know the foe
One year after Kenneth Walker III propelled MSU to an 11-2 record as the best running back in the nation, the Spartans are desperately missing him. They brought in transfer running backs Jalen Berger (Wisconsin) and Jarek Broussard (Colorado), though neither has been what MSU hoped. Berger has 80 carries for 367 yards (4.6 per attempt) and five touchdowns, while Broussard has 44 carries for 191 yards (4.3 per attempt) and two scores.
Of late, Broussard has lost touches to Elijah Collins, a senior who ran for 994 yards as a freshman but injuries and COVID-19, coupled with getting stuck behind Walker, derailed much of his last two seasons. He's run well the past two weeks and should see more snaps going forward.
The passing game has also suffered; with Walker not taking as much attention, defenses have focused on quarterback Payton Throne, who has thrown at least one interception in five of seven games. The senior has completed 65.4% of his throws (136-for-208) with 11 touchdowns and seven interceptions, however, after proving to be effective with his legs in 2021, when he had 181 rushing yards and four touchdowns on the ground, he has just 13 rushing yards and no scores through seven games.
The real problems for MSU are on defense.
One year after ranking as the worst pass defense among Football Bowl Subdivision teams, things haven't improved. The Spartans entered the game against Wisconsin ranked 122 out of 131 in pass defense, allowing 292 yards per game. They also rank 115th in getting off the field on third down and 115th in total defense.
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Michigan can and will run on anyone: This feels like something we thought we knew, but we also thought Penn State was going to end up being a tough test and look how that turned out. Saturday was perhaps Michigan's most impressive rushing performance of the
Jim Harbaugh era and if it wasn't No. 1, it was No. 2, behind perhaps last year's Ohio State game (when the team ran 41 times for 297 yards) because of its magnitude within the program. The Wolverines abused Penn State in the trenches as Blake Corum (28 rushes for 166 yards and two touchdowns) and Donovan Edwards (16 rushes for 173 yards and two touchdowns) became just the fourth pair of U-M backs to each rush for more than 150 yards in a game and the third to do so in Big Ten play. "You have to have a dominant run game," quarterback J.J. McCarthy said after the game.
"You don't see any Air Raid offenses winning national championships. It's where it's done, in the trenches and that's where the battle is won. Of course, coach Harbaugh loves that. He's all about the nitty-gritty way of playing football and the blue-collar way."
J.J. McCarthy can handle adversity: While it was the Wolverines' fourth consecutive week in Fox's "Big Noon Kickoff" national game, the top-10 matchup was, in a way, McCarthy's first opportunity for a true national debut. He'd had some impressive games — the previous week's 304-yard, three-touchdown performance at Indiana among them — but playing Penn State gave him a chance to prove he can be the man against a vaunted defense.
How did he respond? He handed it off to Corum. Then he handed it off to Edwards. And every now and then, he sprinkled in a checkdown pass, with just four throws all day more than 10 yards beyond the line of scrimmage (2-for-4 for 56 yards). Even when things went totally awry late in the second quarter — a batted ball caromed off of a defensive linemen's helmet and into the arms of Penn State's Curtis Jacobs, resulting in a 47-yard pick-six for McCarthy's second interception of the year — he kept his poise. McCarthy responded by leading Michigan to five consecutive drives that ended in points (three touchdowns and two field goals) on his final five possessions.
It will take an elite tailback to run on this defense: For all the hype Michigan's rushing game is getting, its run defense in Big Ten play deserves credit.
That brings us to Penn State, which came in with two highly regarded running backs in Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen. The Nittany Lions managed 110 yards on 22 rushes.
Michigan will face two legitimately tough rushing offenses the rest of the way: Illinois, featuring Chase Brown, and Ohio State, featuring TreVeyon Henderson and Miyan Williams