... touching on:
• The Nittany Lions inability to stay with Michigan: "It looked like Penn State lost their will to play early in this game. Everybody was assuming there would be a battle and some back and forth, at least initially. Just to repeat what [fifth-year senior defensive end] Chase [Winovich] said, they were out of it before they were actually out of it.
"Their third downs got so consistently turned away, I felt like their punter was running on the field before they had the ball spotted and they had the number changed on the yard stick. It was a very dominant performance.
"I've used the reference before, but it was like the Little Giants playing against the Cowboys. It was running around, blow the whistle, blow the whistle, please blow it. It was not a good standing if you're a Penn State Nittany Lion. You probably don't feel good about much, as you woke up this morning."
• Michigan controlling things even when the score wasn't out of hand: "Penn State didn't have positive rushing yards going into halftime. They went into the half with negative-six. Not only that, but time-of-possession. That hasn't been around for a long time, for us to be consistently dominant in time-of-possession.
"You look at the end of the game, and it ended up being closer than what it should have been. We almost instantly doubled their time-of-possession. We were moving the chains. It's a very conservative approach, which I agree with, offensively. We did take a couple of shots, but it's not like it's in our makeup to consistently take downfield shots, and we don't need to.
"We've gave [senior tailback] Karan Higdon the ball early and often, which we talked about on Friday. He does a fantastic job, and the 1-2 punch with he and [junior tailback] Chris Evans has gotten better and better, with [sophomore fullback] Ben Mason adding in there. When [junior quarterback] Shea [Patterson] took his shots, they were great balls.
"That one where he scrambled and threw it to the corner, DPJ [sophomore wide receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones] is wide open. He could have easily just saw green in front of him and took off running. He settled down and threw a strike. The one to [redshirt junior tight end Zach] Gentry was a great, layered, ball. It's not that far to throw, but the way he threw that ball lets you know he knew what he was doing.
"The one that was called back, to [sophomore wideout] Tarik Black, man that was exciting to see them link up. That ball was the tightest spiral I saw the whole day. He's just consistent. I don't know what Penn State could have done differently to make it more close or even contest. The defense keeping them off the field and our offense maintaining the ball, we're a tough team to beat, obviously.
"If we can keep doing this, it's going to be tough for anybody left on the schedule to beat us."
• What's ahead, and how Michigan's coaches will bring the Wolverines back down to earth: "That's great coaching. That's what great coaches should do. When you have a bad game, they should show you things you did well to get you confidence that you can do what they're asking of you.
"When you have a great game, it's their job to go scour the video and find flaws and errors to make you stay focused and continuing to try to improve. Like we said, I've seen improvement across the board, through every player that's been out there. Everybody has improved from game one to now, and I don't think they're letting off the gas.
"That's a big difference-maker between who wins in November, and whose season goes the other way. Their leadership and the people who seem to be pulling that team are pulling them all in the right direction.
"There IS room to improve. The QB power hurt us late in the game, but I don't think they had any plan of using that as consistently as they did. We probably didn't plan on them running QB power over and over again. It didn't hurt us, but teams see that on film, so now we've got to go back and revisit what happened. Are we not doing things correctly?
"That's their job. Refocus them. I still think Indiana has the potential to be a trap game, but our defense is just so aggressive. Even if they get a lucky one or two down the field on us, I don't see them beating us. They could give us more trouble than we think they might, coming in.
"Then there's the big one at the end of the year. Stay focused — and it sounds like they are — on the two opponents that are before them. If you lose either of those games, the Ohio State game loses a little bit of meaning. You've got to handle this business, close this November, and this Revenge Tour — I'm still on it. I love it. I'm all about this Revenge Tour. Keep the Revenge Tour going!"
Here's the full podcast: https://michigan.rivals.com/news/mi...ll-podcast-ryan-van-bergen-with-john-borton-8
• The Nittany Lions inability to stay with Michigan: "It looked like Penn State lost their will to play early in this game. Everybody was assuming there would be a battle and some back and forth, at least initially. Just to repeat what [fifth-year senior defensive end] Chase [Winovich] said, they were out of it before they were actually out of it.
"Their third downs got so consistently turned away, I felt like their punter was running on the field before they had the ball spotted and they had the number changed on the yard stick. It was a very dominant performance.
"I've used the reference before, but it was like the Little Giants playing against the Cowboys. It was running around, blow the whistle, blow the whistle, please blow it. It was not a good standing if you're a Penn State Nittany Lion. You probably don't feel good about much, as you woke up this morning."
• Michigan controlling things even when the score wasn't out of hand: "Penn State didn't have positive rushing yards going into halftime. They went into the half with negative-six. Not only that, but time-of-possession. That hasn't been around for a long time, for us to be consistently dominant in time-of-possession.
"You look at the end of the game, and it ended up being closer than what it should have been. We almost instantly doubled their time-of-possession. We were moving the chains. It's a very conservative approach, which I agree with, offensively. We did take a couple of shots, but it's not like it's in our makeup to consistently take downfield shots, and we don't need to.
"We've gave [senior tailback] Karan Higdon the ball early and often, which we talked about on Friday. He does a fantastic job, and the 1-2 punch with he and [junior tailback] Chris Evans has gotten better and better, with [sophomore fullback] Ben Mason adding in there. When [junior quarterback] Shea [Patterson] took his shots, they were great balls.
"That one where he scrambled and threw it to the corner, DPJ [sophomore wide receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones] is wide open. He could have easily just saw green in front of him and took off running. He settled down and threw a strike. The one to [redshirt junior tight end Zach] Gentry was a great, layered, ball. It's not that far to throw, but the way he threw that ball lets you know he knew what he was doing.
"The one that was called back, to [sophomore wideout] Tarik Black, man that was exciting to see them link up. That ball was the tightest spiral I saw the whole day. He's just consistent. I don't know what Penn State could have done differently to make it more close or even contest. The defense keeping them off the field and our offense maintaining the ball, we're a tough team to beat, obviously.
"If we can keep doing this, it's going to be tough for anybody left on the schedule to beat us."
• What's ahead, and how Michigan's coaches will bring the Wolverines back down to earth: "That's great coaching. That's what great coaches should do. When you have a bad game, they should show you things you did well to get you confidence that you can do what they're asking of you.
"When you have a great game, it's their job to go scour the video and find flaws and errors to make you stay focused and continuing to try to improve. Like we said, I've seen improvement across the board, through every player that's been out there. Everybody has improved from game one to now, and I don't think they're letting off the gas.
"That's a big difference-maker between who wins in November, and whose season goes the other way. Their leadership and the people who seem to be pulling that team are pulling them all in the right direction.
"There IS room to improve. The QB power hurt us late in the game, but I don't think they had any plan of using that as consistently as they did. We probably didn't plan on them running QB power over and over again. It didn't hurt us, but teams see that on film, so now we've got to go back and revisit what happened. Are we not doing things correctly?
"That's their job. Refocus them. I still think Indiana has the potential to be a trap game, but our defense is just so aggressive. Even if they get a lucky one or two down the field on us, I don't see them beating us. They could give us more trouble than we think they might, coming in.
"Then there's the big one at the end of the year. Stay focused — and it sounds like they are — on the two opponents that are before them. If you lose either of those games, the Ohio State game loses a little bit of meaning. You've got to handle this business, close this November, and this Revenge Tour — I'm still on it. I love it. I'm all about this Revenge Tour. Keep the Revenge Tour going!"
Here's the full podcast: https://michigan.rivals.com/news/mi...ll-podcast-ryan-van-bergen-with-john-borton-8
