Blue White Illustrated

denced by the final score, there's more of the latter than the former. THE GOOD • Blake Gillikin probably had the best day of anyone in blue and white, averag- ing 45 yards on six punts. Jabrill Peppers had a 53-yard return early in the first quarter, but only a@er Gillikin boomed his initial punt so far that Peppers fum- bled while backtracking to field the ball. In the presumably more-competitive games to come, Gillikin is clearly going to be a big asset for Penn State. "Blake has been one of the more posi- tive things all year long," Franklin said. "I thought he did a nice job for us today." • Kickoff specialist Joey Julius had an- other nasty tackle on a return, flattening Jourdan Lewis to solidify his fan-favorite status. • The Lions showed some resilience on offense, finally reaching the end zone with an 8-yard catch by Chris Godwin early in the fourth quarter. The drive covered 75 yards in 13 plays and gave the Lions something to build on heading into their upcoming three-game homestand. THE BAD • With four opening-day starters miss- ing, including all three linebackers, the Nittany Lions just didn't have the man- power to stop, or even slow down, a Michigan offense that went into the game averaging over 50 points per game. And things got even worse when Brandon Smith, making his first career start, was tossed from the game for targeting on a hit on which he dived for the ball in an attempt at an interception. The Lions ended up having to use walk- on Jan Johnson at middle linebacker, and he got hurt, too, in the second quarter. Franklin said a@er the game that John- son's injury was a season-ender. "Our linebacker situation, I don't know if I've ever seen anything like it," Franklin said. • There were a lot of unsightly numbers in the stat roundup, but one of the most telling was Michigan's third-down con- version rate: 69 percent. The Wolverines converted 11 of 16 and also went 2 for 4 on fourth-down attempts. Penn State, by contrast converted a dismal 2 of 12 third- down tries. • If the Nittany Lions' defensive issues were readily apparent, it was party be- cause their defense was on the field for nearly 36 minutes. But the Lions were just as ineffective on the opposite side of the ball. They gained 191 yards and man- aged only 12 first downs, three of which were by penalty. "They were beating us up front," Franklin said. "When you're getting beat up front on offense or defense, it can be challenging. I thought we could be more successful offensively, especially early on. We weren't able to do that. I thought we had a chance to be more successful in all three phases today." • A@er managing to rein in their pen- chant for turnovers through three quar- ters – they had a Big Ten-worst eight in their first three games – the Lions turned the ball over twice in the fourth quarter: first on a Trace McSorley interception and later on a Miles Sanders fumble. Sanders' turnover was his second of the season on only five carries and is likely to give the coaching staff pause as Penn State heads into a pair of games that fig- ure to be more competitive than this week's trip to Ann Arbor. THE TAKEAWAY As had been widely anticipated, this was a very long a@ernoon for the visitors. The Wolverines dominated on both sides of the ball and were never really threat- ened a@er scoring three touchdowns in the first 16 minutes of action. One mitigating factor is that Michi- SCORING SUMMARY 1ST 9:51 Mich. Hill, Khalid 1-yard run (Allen, Kenny kick) 7 plays, 24 yards, TOP 3:11........................................................... 0-7 3:57 Mich. Smith, De'Veon 2-yard run (Allen, Kenny kick) 9 plays, 54 yards, TOP 3:30...................................................... 0-14 2ND 14:09 Mich. Asiasi, Devin 3-yard pass from Speight, Wilton (Allen, Kenny kick) 9 plays, 64 yards, TOP 2:40...................................................... 0-21 0:46 Mich. Higdon, Karan 2-yard run (Allen, Kenny kick) 13 plays, 80 yards, TOP 6:15.....................................................0-28 3RD 11:31 PSU Davis, Tyler 21-yard field goal 8 plays, 71 yards, TOP 2:01........................................................ 3-28 02:42 Mich. Evans, Chris 3-yard run (Allen, Kenny kick) 9 plays, 80 yards, TOP 3:42......................................................3-35 4TH 11:22 PSU Godwin, Chris 8-yard pass from McSorley, Trace (Davis, Tyler kick) 13 plays, 75 yards, TOP 6:20................................................... 10-35 06:11 Mich. Higdon, Karan 40-yard run (Allen, Kenny kick) 10 plays, 76 yards, TOP 5:11.....................................................10-42 02:04 Mich. Isaac, Ty 3-yard run (Allen, Kenny kick) 4 plays, 31 yards, TOP 1:13....................................................... 10-49 S E P T E M B E R 2 4 , 2 0 1 6 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M 2

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