Blue White Illustrated

doing – and I haven't been around it very much – is that we're playing well in all three phases. That doesn't happen very oBen, where offense, defense and special teams are all playing good enough to win. And there are still a lot of things we can improve on, which is the exciting thing." The Lions improved to 7-0 and 4-0 in the Big Ten, while the 19th-ranked Wolverines dropped their second con- ference game in the past three weeks. Ranked as high as seventh earlier this year, Michigan fell two games off the pace in the Big Ten East Division and will need a lot of help to have any shot at the league championship game. Here's a look at the good and the bad from the Lions' big win: THE GOOD • Penn State's two primary offensive playmakers came though in a big way. Saquon Barkley topped 100 yards rush- ing with four minutes to go in the first quarter, and he finished with 176 all- purpose yards: 108 rushing, 53 receiving and 15 on a kickoff return. Barkley usually makes everything look easy, but against Michigan it looked kind of hard at times. He dropped a pass that would have given Penn State first-and- goal late in the first half and juggled the ball precariously before pulling it in for a 42-yard touchdown catch in the fourth quarter. But the Lions were able to throw in a few new wrinkles, including a direct snap to Barkley that caught Michigan's defense flatfooted on the second play of the game, the result being a 69-yard touchdown run. Consequently, his Heis- man Trophy bandwagon rolls on. Meanwhile, Trace McSorley completed 17 of 26 passes for 282 yards and a touch- down, and he added 76 rushing yards and three touchdowns on 11 carries. The only blemish on his stat sheet was a first-quar- ter interception by David Long. "If you take the interception away, he played a re- ally, really good game," Franklin said. "He ran the ball well, he threw the ball well." • Penn State has made a habit of start- ing fast, and that trend continued against the Wolverines. The Lions outscored Michigan 14-0 in the first quarter on a pair of Barkley touchdowns, running their collective first-quarter scoring edge to 90-0 through seven games. They remain the only team in the Football Bowl Subdivision to have not given up a first-quarter point this season. "If you can get a lead, it changes how [opponents] have to play," Franklin said. "So we play with an aggressive mindset, an aggressive mentality in all three phases, and it's working out pretty good for us right now." • The Lions finished with seven sacks as a team, one of which resulted in a comeback-killing fumble. Michigan was one of the more sack-prone teams in the Big Ten going into the game, averaging 2.7 per game to rank 11th (along with Penn State). But the performance of the Lions' defensive line against a very mo- bile quarterback in John O'Korn was im- pressive. Eight players had at least a partial sack. "I think we're playing really good up front," Franklin said. "I do think there are times, against scrambling quarterbacks and when people run the draw play against us, that sometimes we get a little too vertical in our pass rushes. There are seams that are created by doing that. We've got to do a little bit better job of caging the quarterback. But overall, it's been really good." • Penn State played a largely mistake- free game. The Lions were flagged only once for 10 yards, and their only turnover was McSorley's interception. • How big a game was this? Big enough to set a Beaver Stadium attendance record: 110,823. "I've been doing this a long time, and the environment was un- real," Franklin said. "I thought the Green Bay Packers when I was there, that envi- ronment was unbelievable. I've coached in every major conference, and this was special, it really was." THE BAD • Not much to report here; the Lions played a terrific all-around game. But there were a few missed opportunities. The McSorley interception late in the first quarter snuffed out a drive that had reached the Michigan 22-yard line and could have put Penn State up 21-0. Then SCORING SUMMARY 1ST 14:17 PSU Barkley, Saquon 69-yard run (Davis, Tyler kick) 2 plays, 75 yards, TOP 0:43.........................................................0-7 10:11 PSU Barkley, Saquon 15-yard run (Davis, Tyler kick) 4 plays, 78 yards, TOP 2:05...................................................... 0-14 2ND 12:53 Mich. Higdon, Karan 1-yard run (Nordin, Quinn kick failed) 11 plays, 59 yards, TOP 5:28...................................................... 6-14 1:45 Mich. Isaac, Ty 6-yard run (Nordin, Quinn kick) 8 plays, 67 yards, TOP 3:20......................................................13-14 0:53 PSU McSorley, Trace 3-yard run (Davis, Tyler kick) 7 plays, 75 yards, TOP 0:52...................................................... 13-21 3RD 5:13 PSU McSorley, Trace 13-yard run (Davis, Tyler kick) 9 plays, 80 yards, TOP 5:24.................................................... 13-28 4TH 13:11 PSU Barkley, Saquon 42-yard pass from McSorley, Trace (Davis, Tyler kick) 2 plays, 46 yards, TOP 0:32.................................................... 13-35 7:53 PSU McSorley, Trace 9-yard run (Davis, Tyler kick) 4 plays, 48 yards, TOP 1:57...................................................... 13-42 O c T O B E R 2 2 , 2 0 1 7 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M 2

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