Ten Things I Thought Would Happen For Michigan Against Penn State
Michigan started too slow to overcome a 21-0 hole but did some positive things during its attempted comeback. I made some specific predictions about how the action would look on Saturday and did pretty good for a game that looked like it was going to be a massacre early on.
Player Predictions
Hassan Haskins will score another touchdown — MISS
With about nine minutes left in the game it looked like Haskins scored from two yards out but the play was reviewed and he was ruled down at the one-yard line. Quarterback Shea Patterson ended up sneaking it in from a yard out but because of that, Haskins did not find pay dirt. He finished the game with 13 carries for just 28 yards.
Kwity Paye will return to the lineup and record a sack — MISS
Paye did return to the lineup and played very well but he did not record a sack. He finished the night with a team-leading 10 tackles and half a tackle for loss.
Ronnie Bell scores his first touchdown of the year — MISS
Oh so close. On a fourth down play with less than two minutes remaining in the game, Bell let the potential game-tying touchdown catch hit him in the chest and slide right through his arms. He made a couple of phenomenal plays earlier in the game and finished with four catches for 71 yards but let the most important one fall to the turf.
Nico Collins leads the team in catches and yards — HIT
Collins did lead the team with six catches and 89 yards and should've had an additional 40 or so on a catch that was inexplicably taken away because of an offensive pass interference call. He was a physical mismatch for Penn State's smaller defensive backs all night and probably should've been used even more than he was.
Dylan McCaffrey will play — MISS
I'll admit, I thought McCaffrey should've been inserted into the lineup after Patterson threw a bad interception on an attempted screen pass but it didn't happen. Then, Patterson went on to have his best game as a Wolverine in terms of leading the team and making clutch plays. We may see McCaffrey a bit moving forward now that U-M is essentially playing for nothing for the rest of the year but it didn't happen at Penn State.
Team Predictions
Michigan allows Sean Clifford to score a rushing touchdown — HIT
Clifford proved to be just good enough as a runner to move the chains and get things done in certain situations, which included a two-yard touchdown run to make it 14-0 at the beginning of the second quarter. He only had 17 rushing yards on the night but he picked up a few when he needed to.
Michigan recovers a Sean Clifford fumble — MISS
I thought Michigan's fast, athletic defense would shake Clifford up a bit, and they did, but not enough to force the ball loose. Penn State didn't turn the ball over at all and that obviously helped them stay in front on the scoreboard.
Michigan will fall short of 350 yards of offense — MISS
The Wolverines actually outgained Penn State 417-283 but unfortunately couldn't outdo the Nittany Lions in the points column. A balanced attack of 276 yards passing and 141 yards rushing allowed Michigan to get back into the game late but fell just short with less than two minutes remaining.
Michigan will score first — MISS
This was the worst miss from this list. I was close on a few others, I was not on this one. Penn State jumped out to a 21-0 lead and U-M could never get all the way back. One wonders what could've happened had Michigan kept it close from the opening kickoff but, that didn't happen.
Penn State will not cover the spread — HIT
The Nittany Lions were favored by anywhere from 7.5-9 points and obviously only won by seven. For two teams that are pretty evenly matched, experts can sometimes give the home team about a seven-point edge and that's exactly how it played out.
What do you think of the predictions? Which will happen and which won't? What predictions do you have? Comment below!!!
