BSportsMonday
FOUR DOWN
n The good, the bad and the ugly
from Michigan’s fourth straight
victory. Page 4B
GOOD NEW DAYS
The Michigan Daily | michigandaily.com | September 26, 2016
n Mark Donahue returns to
Michigan to join the Hall of Honor.
SportsMonday Column, Page 2B
ANY QUESTIONS?
Michigan 49, Penn State 10
I
t’s amazing how little
you can learn from seven
touchdowns.
The Michigan football team
did that thing
again, where
it steamrolls
an opponent
so thoroughly
that it
feels like
Marshawn
Lynch is
calling the
shots. Over
and over and
over and
over …. and over and over and
over again — that’s how it went
Saturday against Penn State.
That’s how it’s gone all season
long, one quarter excepted.
Wilton Speight said his team
ran the same play “like, eight
times in a row” on Saturday,
flipping it back and forth. And
if that doesn’t illustrate how
thoroughly Michigan imposed
its will, try the box score.
Penn State was 2-for-12 on
third down. Michigan was
11-for-16. The Wolverines posted
515 offensive yards and held
the Nittany Lions under 200.
They’re still averaging 52 points.
Still hard to block, still have
Jabrill Peppers and yet there’s
still not much to take away.
One-third of the way through
the 2016 season, we know
Michigan is good, but we have
very little conception of how good
because the Wolverines haven’t
been forced to show all that much.
Outside of a few sweeps by
Peppers and Eddie McDoom,
Michigan’s offense has been largely
vanilla and is still averaging 467
yards a game. It pounded the ball
for 326 yards against the Nittany
Lions, and Speight still hasn’t been
forced to take the kinds of shots he
will soon need to.
In one week, mercifully, that
should change.
Next Saturday, No. 11
Wisconsin will roll in, undefeated
and fresh off its second top-10
win of the season. The Badgers
beat No. 8 Michigan State on
Saturday, using a stout defensive
line and opportunistic secondary
to all but assure a top-10 matchup
against the Wolverines.
For the first time all season,
Michigan can go in expecting
a brawl. So far, the Wolverines
have been throwing punches
and catching the few thrown
back at them.
Against Penn State, Michigan
forced a three-and-out with two
sacks on the game’s first series.
Peppers nearly returned the
ensuing punt for a touchdown,
muffing it, picking it up, and then
running it 53 yards down to the
nine-yard line. He stumbled for
the last 15 yards, and aside from
that quarter against the Buffaloes,
it might have been the longest the
Wolverines have stumbled all year.
It was a drubbing, one that
saw Michigan’s converted tight
end Khalid Hill snag his fourth
rushing touchdown of the year
as a fullback and Speight go his
third straight game without an
interception.
The Wolverines dominated
on both sides of the line of
scrimmage, and for the fourth
straight week, the backup
quarterback saw the field. The
defense added six more sacks
and 13 tackles for loss.
These types of sentences
aren’t supposed to be boring,
but after four straight weeks of
seeing Michigan do this, they are.
Having 13 tackles for loss isn’t
normal, but for the Wolverines,
it’s pretty much the average.
RYAN MCLOUGHLIN/Daily
SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily
SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily
SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily
Wolverines steamroll another opponent,
set up showdown with No. 8 Wisconsin
MAX
BULTMAN
See BULTMAN, Page 4B