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Marcus Hayes: Carson Wentz is playing brilliantly, and Eagles trade makes him better

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Eyeing playoffs, Irish look to keep rolling at Northwestern

DETROIT &#8212; By now, most everyone in the Big Ten has seen the shirts.Linebacker Devin Bush modeled it prominently before his last game &#8212; &#8220;MICHIGAN REVENGE TOUR&#8221; in blue letters on a maize background. The Wolverines All-American was wearing it while stomping on Michigan State&#8217;s logo at midfield prior to a 21-7 win over the Spartans.With Sparty checked off, next on the list is Saturday&#8217;s game against Penn State, as Michigan hopes to march to its first Big Ten title in 14 years on the way to the College Football Playoff.And one prominent member of the Wolverines has the Nittany Lions first and foremost on his mind.That would be venerable defensive coordinator Don Brown, who has said more than once in interviews this season that he has thought daily about last season&#8217;s 42-13 thrashing at the hands of the Lions at Beaver Stadium.&#8220;I said it and I do,&#8221; Brown doubled down this week while speaking to reporters in Michigan. &#8220;Some people get driven by positives, some get driven by the negatives. The thing that drives me is when I don&#8217;t give players the best possible chance. I want to make sure I remind myself of that. That&#8217;s all you&#8217;re trying to do, you&#8217;re trying to give your players the best chance and I didn&#8217;t feel like I did that.&#8221;In that last meeting, Brown was bested by then-Lions offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead, who scored the most points on Brown&#8217;s defense in his now 34 games with the Wolverines.That performance was a big reason Moorhead landed an SEC head coaching job less than two months later, now at Mississippi State. His scheme is now in the hands of Ricky Rahne, whose results have tailed off after a hot start in large part because of an overall decline in the passing game.This season, Michigan&#8217;s defense is by several metrics the best in the country &#8212; most notably allowing just 3.71 yards per play and 220 per game. Both numbers rank No. 1 nationally. No other team is within 40 yards of the Wolverines&#8217; per game average.&#8220;They&#8217;re a press-man, pressure defense,&#8221; Lions coach James Franklin said. &#8220;They&#8217;re going to try to overload you in the box and take every yard away. Most defensive coordinators will give you something while trying to take another thing away. Don does not want to give up a yard in the game. He tries to take everything away from you.&#8221;THREE AND OUTFoot on the gasPenn State&#8217;s last trip to the Big House ended in a 49-10 stomping by the Wolverines that truthfully wasn&#8217;t even that close.Since then, the Lions have gone 26-5, with the largest margin of defeat coming by just four points. Amazingly, Penn State has held a fourth-quarter lead in all 31 of those games.It was that last loss to Michigan that spurred Franklin and the Lions to try and run up the score last year in Happy Valley as they made sure to get off an extra play in the red zone in the final seconds of a 29-point victory, looking to score again.Brown made it a point to show that tape to his players this week, continuing the cycle of retribution in the series.&#8220;I just wanted them to see it. It&#8217;s not a good feeling and we&#8217;re all personally accountable for it,&#8221; Brown said. &#8220;You take the good with the bad, but you&#8217;ve got to learn from it. Just wanted them to see it, wanted them to be reminded of that feeling. I think the point was made.&#8221;Infirmary reportAll signs point to Lions quarterback Trace McSorley starting and playing as usual after suffering an apparent right knee injury last week that sidelined him for three drives.The real injury intrigue looks to be on the Michigan side with defensive end Rashan Gary and wide receiver Tarik Black both question marks.A former No. 1 overall recruit and possible first-round NFL draft pick next spring, Gary has missed the Wolverines&#8217; last three games with an injured shoulder.Black, meanwhile, has been lauded as the team&#8217;s best all-around receiver for his work in practice, but he&#8217;s rarely been able to stay on the field to prove it in games. Black lasted just three games in 2017 before injury struck and he has made only the briefest of cameos this season thanks to a broken foot suffered in camp.Both Gary and Black had a bye week to recover while Penn State grinded out a win over Iowa. Not surprisingly, Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh wasn&#8217;t about to give a hint about their status during his weekly press conference.On Gary: &#8220;I don&#8217;t know. Don&#8217;t have an update for you.&#8221;On Black: &#8220;We&#8217;ll see.&#8221;The Lions, of course, must prepare as though both will play.&#8220;Rashan Gary, we fully expect that he&#8217;ll be out there and are planning accordingly,&#8221; offensive line coach Matt Limegrover said. &#8220;We&#8217;ll adjust if that doesn&#8217;t happen.&#8220;Rashan is the complete package as far as length, speed, athletic ability. You can&#8217;t run at him, you can&#8217;t run away from him.&#8221;Freshman promotionPenn State&#8217;s original plan was to play seven true freshmen throughout the season, and those seven have already burned their redshirt by appearing in more than four games.An eighth will soon join them.Franklin said on his weekly radio show that wide receiver Jahan Dotson has gotten the green light to play the rest of the year as the top backup to KJ Hamler in the slot.Dotson has appeared in three games thus far, recording three catches over the last two weeks, including a key fourth-down grab with the Lions trailing 12-0 against Iowa. The Lions scored a touchdown on the following play. <style>
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<div class="neCaption">Miles Sanders and Penn State&#8217;s offense face their toughest challenge of the season against a Michigan defense that leads the nation in total defense by a wide margin. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_AP_17295127959448.jpg</photo0><caption0>Miles Sanders and Penn State&#8217;s offense face their toughest challenge of the season against a Michigan defense that leads the nation in total defense by a wide margin. </caption0><photoCredit0>Chris Knight | AP file photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Derek Levarsedlevarse@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta>PSU GAMEDAYNo. 14 Penn State (6-2, 3-2)at No. 5 Michigan (7-1, 5-0)3:45 p.m., SaturdayMichigan StadiumAnn Arbor, Mich.TV: ESPNLine: Michigan by 10.5</factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Derek Levarse at 570-991-6396 or on Twitter @TLdlevarse</shirttailMeta></div>

Penn State in the crosshairs of Don Brown’s defense and Michigan’s ‘revenge tour’