Just the Stats: No. 10 Penn State at No. 5 Michigan

No. 10 Penn St. Nittany Lions (5-0; 2-0 Big Ten East) at Michigan Wolverines (6-0; 3-0 Big Ten West)

12:00 p.m. ET, October 5, 2022—FOX

Michigan Stadium (Capacity: 109,901 / Ann Arbor, MI)

Note:

All of the above rankings are taken directly from the NCAA except for strength of schedule, which is taken from Power Rankings.

The Redzone TD% and Redzone TD% Defense are calculated by me and not ranked by the NCAA. Determining who has the advantage in these categories is strictly my arbitrary judgment.

Quick thoughts:

This is about what I’d thought I’d see. Over half of the stats tracked are pushes, with both teams relatively equal, and the usual suspects (third down conversion, tackles for loss) going MIchigan’s way. Their defense is very good, at least statistically, this year, and though our offense is much improved (and far better balanced) since the last time we faced the Wolverines. A game in the remnants of a hurricane won’t help your offensive statistics - who knew??

I also am predicting that there are those who will read into the passing yards allowed by Penn State far too much, and take away from that that this isn’t one of the best secondaries in the nation. I hope Michigan co-OC Matt Weiss is one of them.

Additionally, I keep trying new SOS rankings as I don’t quite like any of them. I’d like to ultimately go with SOR instead - any suggestions, please leave in the comments!

Also, I was trying to do something different with the grid (import my standard google sheets of JTS rather than manually typing it into the html code I’ve used for years) and it didn’t go as planned - for those of us who want to continue to see chipmunks, that is (no logos appeared). Because that effort took hours and was ultimately fruitless, I just got a photo of the grid and that’s what I’m using this week - I apologize for any poor resolution, and I promise I’ll go back to the prior method next week.