Nobody predicted the Penn State football team would score 22 points in the fourth quarter against Michigan and lose. Then again, nobody predicted much of anything that happened last Saturday.
Even though the Lions carried a slight statistical edge after the end of the first half, they still didn't have any points on the board.
On the first offensive series of the first quarter they drove all the way down the field from their own 20-yard line to the Michigan 14-yard line. Field goal attempt? No good.
On the first offensive series of the second quarter they drove all the way down the field from their own 5-yard line to the Michigan 28-yard line. Field goal attempt? No good.
At halftime, quarterback Michael Robinson already completed 10 of 14 passing attempts for 100 yards. He had already run over the Wolverines defense eight times for 37 yards, too.
"You can hit him and you feel him, like, fighting for more yards," Wolverines defensive tackle Gabe Watson said. "It's tough to bring him down."
Watson was relieved his Wolverines finally owned a winning record again and said that he felt for the Lions but certainly wouldn't trade places.
"I don't know if I have any sympathy," Watson joked. "But, you know, it's a battle and they're a great team, though."
As the game moved through the third quarter, the Lions continued to opt for a run-first, pass-second play-calling preference despite Robinson's high completion percentage.
Lions wideout Deon Butler finished the game with only one catch, and neither he nor the other young speedsters were called on to go deep against a Wolverines secondary limited by injuries.
Wolverines cornerback Darnell Hood said that the nerves of playing in front of 111,249 people -- the "largest crowd watching a football game in America," according to the jumbotron -- might have had something to do with it.
"Any freshman starting in any Big Ten game, especially Michigan-Penn State, any type of Big Ten game and you're kind of shaken," Hood said. "You don't know what to expect. It's a whole learning experience, and we just wanted to play these guys."
