We wanted to know if Nittany Lions are for real. They're not

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- That is all Penn State could manage? After a bye week, as an undefeated, 10th-ranked team? With a sixth-year quarterback? With a strong defense? With a ton of confidence?

That?

Yikes.

Everybody was wondering if the Nittany Lions are for real. And we got a resounding answer Saturday afternoon.

They're not.

Not against this level of opponent -- a No. 4 Michigan team that not only dominated, but pretty much kicked Penn State's butt up and down the field.

The Wolverines routed the Lions, 41-17. And the game wasn't that close. At all.

"It's embarrassing," Penn State defensive tackle P.J. Mustipher said.

"They really just kicked our behinds," he added. "Phenomenal team, phenomenal program."

There were questions coming in about just how good both of these teams were. Penn State was 5-0 but hadn't beaten a ranked team, while Michigan was 6-0 and in the same boat. The fact that the Wolverines had struggled with Maryland a few weeks ago (34-27 win) and been tied at the half at Indiana last week (10-10) gave Penn State fans hope that maybe Michigan was overrated.

Not even close. At least, not compared to Penn State anyway.

The Wolverines flat out destroyed the Lions. Annihilated them. This wasn't a must-win game for Penn State, but it was a must-play-well game, as I wrote Friday. And the Lions didn't come close to achieving that goal.

Stats can be deceiving sometimes, but not this time. Goodness gracious, just look at this comparison. This is horrifying if you're Penn State, particularly the rushing totals and time of possession.

Everyone knew Michigan's running game was good coming into the contest. But 418 yards rushing against a Penn State defense that was thought to be really good? That was shocking to pretty much everybody.

Except for Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan camp.

“I feel like Coach Harbaugh said in the locker room: It’s a butt kicking every which way butt can be kicked,” Wolverines QB J.J. McCarthy said.

No matter how you slice it, that number -- 418 yards rushing -- is just hard to fathom.

"Obviously, way too many times the guy was just running through holes into the second level," James Franklin said. "Yeah, obviously not happy with that number at all. Not one bit."

Franklin is now 3-7 coming off a bye week, and 3-6 against Michigan. Can't be happy about those numbers.

Sean Clifford completed 7-of-19 passes for 120 yards. Can't be happy about those, either.

Nicholas Singleton had 19 yards rushing and Kaytron Allen 13. Can't be happy about those.

Penn State had one first down in the first half. Michigan had 18. Those numbers are ... wow!

And yet, because sports are ridiculous and crazy sometimes, the Lions actually led this game early in the third quarter, 17-16. Despite getting overpowered in every way, Penn State still was on top on the scoreboard after Jake Pinegar's field goal with 13:15 left in the third.

It was all a mirage, though. Penn State was playing very poorly, aside from three great plays. These are the three plays that had the Lions in the game up to then:

First, Clifford's 62-yard keeper that led to a touchdown.

Next, this insanely lucky bounce that led to a pick-6 for Curtis Jacobs, and a 14-13 Penn State lead in the second quarter.

And lastly, this deep pass from Clifford to Harrison Wallace for 48 yards, that set up Pinegar's third-quarter field goal for the 17-16 lead.

Now, all of that stuff was really fluky, and didn't seem to be sustainable against an opponent such as Michigan. Still, at that point, despite getting outplayed so badly, Penn State had reason to feel good about its chances.

"It was high," Mustipher said of the team's confidence level then. "It was high. We still weren't playing good football. They had a lot of rushing yards. We definitely felt like we had a great opportunity, great chance."

Then this happened, a 67-yard TD run by Donovan Edwards on Michigan's next possession, with the Wolverines adding a 2-point conversion for a 24-17 lead.

And the very next time Michigan got the ball, this was its first play, a 61-yard TD by Blake Corum.

Two runs, back to back, for 128 yards and two TDs.

Ballgame.

Edwards finished with 173 yards and two TDs on 16 carries, while Corum ran for 166 and two scores on 28 carries.

Michigan outclassed Penn State where it mattered most -- in the trenches -- and that is by far the biggest difference between these programs right now.

Because every season, we wonder if Penn State's offensive line will be any good at all. And then you look at Michigan, and its O-line is blowing guys off the ball and opening up huge running lanes.

Here's what Franklin had to say about the line play:

"We did not control the line of scrimmage on either side of the ball. Although the score at the end of the first half we were in the thing, we did not control the line of scrimmage on either side of the ball. Offensively, obviously we weren't able to run the ball or convert on short-yardage situations to stay on the field. But defensively, we weren't able to get off the field -- 15-play drives, 12-play drives,16-play drives. They controlled the line of scrimmage, and they controlled the game."

This is where the rubber meets the road for Penn State, against the opponents that really matter, such as Michigan and Ohio State. It's all about the trenches, and right now, the Lions are way, way behind those two powers, which are the two teams Penn State has to compare itself against in all aspects.

Franklin offered this good insight into the issues Penn State faces on the lines.

"It's all of it. We gotta develop, we gotta recruit, we gotta get bigger," he said. "We're undersized in some spots. Everybody thinks they're Aaron Donald now, and they're not. Everybody sees Aaron Donald playing undersized, and everybody thinks they're that guy. And there's been one of those guys in the last 100 years in football.

"So, we need to be bigger. We need to be more physical. Our footwork, our technique, our fundamentals, it's all of it. It is all of it. We own all of it."

MORE FROM THE GAME

• There was some jawing between the teams in the tunnel at the half. Nothing major, but it did warrant questions afterward about what had happened.

According to Michigan linebacker Mike Morris, the Wolverines didn't like that some Penn State players apparently had taken to social media before the game to talk trash.

"We all told each other, 'They want to have those Twitter fingers, they want to talk on social media,' and then they didn't talk on the field," Morris said, via ESPN. "They wanted to talk at halftime because they got lucky."

• How could Penn State have looked so bad after a bye week, with everything it had going for it? That was my question for Franklin, and if he was surprised by it.

"They're a good football team. Let me start by saying that. They are a good football team," the coach said. "But we didn't play well. So, yeah I'm surprised that we didn't play well. Again, when you're not able to control the line of scrimmage the way you need to control this line of scrimmage, you're gonna have a hard time in games."

• Penn State's defense had a horrible day. And coordinator Manny Diaz had a horrible day. He has received so much praise all season, but even though he knew Michigan was going to keep running and running and running, Diaz couldn't come up with a way to stop it.

I wrote extensively Friday about how this would need to be a cat-and-mouse game for Diaz and the coaches, trying to solve Michigan. Well, the cat stepped on the mouse's head, killed it, ate it and then spit the mouse back up.

Maybe it shouldn't be such a big surprise what happened. Looking back at the opener against Purdue, Penn State won because it has an outstanding secondary. That was the kind of opponent the Lions should succeed against because the Boilermakers throw it a ton.

Michigan is way different. The Wolverines can run on anybody, and Penn State doesn't really have the personnel to handle that kind of opponent. We've talked about it all season that the Penn State linebackers are average at best -- this is the most average LB unit we've seen for the Lions in a long time -- and that group got exposed Saturday, along with the defensive line.

Penn State needed an outstanding effort from the front seven and from Diaz with good schemes, and it got none of that.

Now, to their credit, the defense did come up with two big red-zone stops early on, with Michigan going up 6-0 when it could have been 14-0. But as the game went on and the defense was on the field all day, it became futile trying to stop the Wolverines on the grounnd.

Time of possession isn't always a big factor in a game, but it sure was here. Michigan dominated at 42 minutes to 18 for the Lions.

"It definitely makes it tougher," Mustipher said, "but you gotta be built for it, regardless of what they do, how many plays they run. You gotta go out there and do your job. I mean, if if we didn't want them to run that amount of plays, we should have got stops, and we didn't."

• We're back to square one with regards to whether Penn State can run the ball. Yeah, Singleton and Allen have been terrific as true freshmen, but this was a different challenge. Neither was much of a factor in this one. Clifford had a 62-yard run, and the Lions managed only 49 as a team the rest of the game.

• Mike Yurcich had a terrible day calling plays, outside of two. The call to have Clifford take off on the QB sneak was a great one. And the deep pass to Wallace to start the second half was a great one.

But right after that pass to Wallce put the Lions at the Michigan 16, Yurcich called for two runs right into the line of scrimmage, then a fade pass. Those calls were flat out awful, in a situation where Penn State really needed a touchdown and not a field goal.

• Franklin made an awful decision going for it on fourth-and-6 from the Michigan 39 midway through the third quarter and trailing, 24-17. He has a great punter in Barney Amor, who likely would have pinned the Wolverines inside their 10.

OK, now look, Michigan was gonna win regardless. And it probably was gonna drive 90 yards there for a score. There was no reason to believe Penn State's defense could stop the Wolverines. Still, in that spot, the right call was to punt, not give the ball to Michigan at the 39.

Penn State failed, then seconds later Corum busted free for the 61-yard TD.

That was karma for Franklin's bad decision.

"In terms of punting, I mean, you get you get to a point from a score perspective, you're trying to win the game. Obviously, if you don't convert, you put the defense in a more challenging spot. I get that. But trying to win the game. Punting, once the score gets to that point and the clock gets to that point, I don't think it's going to give you the best chance to win."

The score was 24-17, a one-possession game. There was 7:31 left in the third quarter. So Franklin's reasoning there makes no sense whatsoever.

He panicked, trying to force the issue.

• Clifford got banged up late in the third quarter with an apparent shoulder issue, so Drew Allar played the entire fourth quarter. I'll have more on all that and the QB situation in a separate story.

• Now, the big question is whether Penn State can bounce back from this humiliating loss, regroup and find a way to beat Minnesota next week. Or, will this loss end up beating the Lions twice, as has happened numerous times during Franklin's tenure?

I'll have much more on all that in my follow-up column Sunday, but there is one big thing to keep in mind that will have a big impact on next week's game.

The Gophers saw sixth-year quarterback Tanner Morgan get injured during their 26-14 loss at Illinois on Saturday. Morgan had to be carted off the field after this hit, and his status for next week is unclear.

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Schedule
• Standings
• Statistics

THE INJURY REPORT

S Ji'Ayir Brown was shaken up early in the second quarter but was able to return.

LG Landon Tengwall suffered an injury during the pregame warmup, Franklin said, and did not play. Hunter Nourzad started in his spot.

WR KeAndre Lambert-Smith returned to action after suffering a lower-body injury that knocked him out of the Northwestern game.

THE SCHEDULE

Penn State will host Minnesota next Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in a whiteout game at Beaver Stadium.

It was announced Saturday that the Lions' home game against Ohio State on Oct. 29 will kick off at noon and be the FOX Big Noon Kickoff game that day.

THE CONTENT

Visit our Penn State team page for everything.