2009 Week 8

Last week, while taking on one of the worst defenses in the country, Denard Robinson made his starting debut because Michigan's starting QB was injured. In this game, Robinson had the best passing performance by a Michigan QB in the last 2 seasons. Today's opponent, #3Penn State proved to be much tougher than Marshall. While Marshall only sacked Robinson 1 time while Robinson put up the most pass attempts of the season, PSU was all over him all game. They sacked him several times, hit him more times, and generally pressured him even more. They even forced 1 of his 2 interceptions because of their awesome pressure. When it was all said and done, Robinson had 2 interceptions and 2 fumbles and almost single handedly handed the victory over to Penn State.

However, Penn States prolific offense sputtered all day long and could only muster 14 points (while their defense got 7 thanks to Robinson). They could only tally 239 yards of offense on the day which wasn't enough to get the job done. On the other side of the ball, Penn State's defense was incapable of stopping Michigan's offense. In fact, the only team that could stop Michigan's offense was Michigan's offense. If it weren't for Robinson's 4 turnovers, the game wouldn't have been nearly as close. For the second game in a row, kicker/punter Zoltan Mesko kicked all of his kickoffs deep into the end zone and didn't have any returned so Penn State started every possession that didn't result from a turnover from their own 20 yard line.

Michigan's next 2 games are ones that they should win and then they travel to Madison to take on the Badgers in a very important Big Ten clash. Injured starting RB Brandon Minor (who missed his 2nd game in a row) will be ready for that game. It's still a mystery as to whether or not QB Tate Forcier will return from his injury by then. After watching Robinson's game this week, Wolverine fans can only hope that Forcier will make it back in time to face the Badgers.