Blue White Illustrated

T I M   O W E N | O W E N . T I M . B W I @ G M A I L . c O M When Brandon Bell checked his cell phone aBer the game, he had some text messages waiting for him from friends back home. While they were mostly sup- portive in light of Penn State's defeat, his boys also had a friendly jab for him. In a game lacking in momentous plays for PSU, Bell made two of them, includ- ing an interception on a third-and-17 situation on Michigan's second drive of the first quarter that he returned 25 yards to the Wolverine' 38-yard line. "I tried to get as many yards as I could," Bell said. "But my friends texted me and said I was slow, but I thought it was a pretty good stiff arm." It gave Penn State advantageous field position, but the offense was unable to capitalize, gaining just 2 yards on the next three plays before punting. On a day on which the offense scored just one touchdown – a 25-yard pass from Chris- tian Hackenberg to Saeed Blacknall – it was another missed opportunity among many in the Nittany Lions' 28-16 loss. As Bell's fellow linebacker Jason Cabinda assessed it, "They just had a lot of momentum plays, and we didn't have enough." In addition to his interception, Bell also had a timely strip-sack in the third quar- ter against quarterback Jake Rudock. Al- though at first he didn't know he caused a fumble – "I didn't even realize I hit the ball out until a split second later," he re- called – Bell fell on the lost football and set PSU up for a Tyler Davis field goal eight plays later. That was about it, though, for highlight plays for PSU's defense, as the Wolver- ines racked up 343 yards of total offense and totaled 19 first downs. They espe- cially found success through the air, as Rudock threw for 256 yards and two touchdowns, averaging 10.2 yards per completion. Michigan also had 50 per- cent efficiency rating on third downs. They also scored 21 points inside the red zone, and that was one of the more scrutinized matchups in the week pre- viewing the game. PSU was allowing teams to score 92.3 percent of the time in the red zone, which is one of the 10 worst rates in the country, while Michi- gan ranked No. 3 in the country on the other side of the ledger, scoring 95.2 percent of the time in scoring territory. Those trends continued in Beaver Sta- dium. Asked how the Wolverines were able to able to move the ball so efficiently, both Bell and Cabinda pointed to issues with communication and relaying calls back and forth between the defense. "I think it's taking it for granted in a sense," Cabinda said. "We've been really good [with communication] all year long, and then the White Out comes... and I don't think we were focused on getting it done using hand signals, verbals, so I think at times we just took things for granted." James Franklin vocalized similar criti- cisms in the postgame press conference – "They made fewer mistakes than we did today," he said – and also emphasized again what he mentioned on multiple oc- casions throughout the week: Senior players make up the majority of Michi- gan's roster. "And we have four," Franklin said, "and that showed up." It was even more glaring without the presence of two senior starters for most of the game. It was announced last week that Jordan Lucas will miss the remainder of the sea- son with an undisclosed injury. Adding to their personnel shortcomings, star de- fensive end Carl Nassib was pulled aBer the first series in an attempt to play through injury. He was hurt against Northwestern, and the effects were still noticeable to coaches during Friday night's walk-through at the team hotel. Asked if their absence had an impact, Cabinda said, "Yeah. I mean, obviously. For sure." N O V E M B E R 2 1 , 2 0 1 5 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M 6 COMING UP SHORT PSU's defense made a few plays, but not enough to hold off Michigan HOLDiNG ON Bell grabs at the leg of Michigan running back De'Veon Smith. Photo by Steve Manuel

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