UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Wide receiver Chris Godwin started looking at Michigan film at the beginning of Penn State’s open week, trying to use as much time as possible to figure out what makes this Wolverines defense so stingy.
“It’s definitely something that you look forward to,” said Godwin, the Nittany Lions’ top receiver. “You know you’re going to have an opportunity to make plays and make contested catches, and as a competitor, you want to be in situations where you can go and try to outperform somebody.”
Michigan is second in total defense in the Football Bowl Subdivision — surrendering 268.7 yards per game — and the blueprint to beating coach Jim Harbaugh’s team hinges on Penn State somehow finding a way to push the ball downfield on a defense that through 10 games this season held opponents to an average of 165.5 passing yards. Michigan, the 14th ranked team in the country, has surrendered just five touchdowns through the air this season, and on the ground holds opponents to an average of 103.2 yards.
How can a Penn State offense, which is 103rd in the FBS averaging 350.6 yards, find a way to try to slow down this stifling defense that likes to load the box and force teams to try to get past a solid pass defense spearheaded by standout cornerback Jourdan Lewis?
“He’s really good. If you look at some of the analytics companies out there, there’s people that say he’s the most productive, best corner in the country,” Penn State coach James Franklin said. “We have a lot of faith and confidence in our wide receivers the last half of the year. They’ve really made some big plays for us, been explosive. We’re going to have to run the ball. It’s not like we can just say they’re going to load the box up and just throw it every down.”
Lewis has been targeted 72 times this season according to Pro Football Focus and has given up just 26 receptions, single-handedly doing his part to try to take the opposing team’s top receivers out of the game.
Franklin said he anticipates Michigan will mimic Maryland’s game plan defensively, with the Wolverines loading up to stop the run and testing the ability of quarterback Christian Hackenberg to try to make plays down field. While Maryland and Michigan are vastly different from a production standpoint (the Terrapins defense is 64th in the FBS, surrendering 396.9 yards per game), Franklin turned to film of Michigan’s games against Indiana and Minnesota, both games he thinks Penn State can learn from because of the style of those two teams, adding that it’s similar to Penn State’s.
“You break the four previous games down and you get the tendencies from those four games,” Franklin said Wednesday evening after practice. “[You look at] what they do on offense, defense, what they do in the red zone, those type of things.
“Indiana is the most important game for us to break down because it is the most recent, and there’s a lot of formations that we could use.”
Of course, Indiana took Michigan to double overtime before the Hoosiers lost, 48-41. Minnesota, meanwhile, posted 461 yards of offense, including 317 through the air, before losing, 29-26. Following that blueprint will continue in practice this week while Godwin and the rest of the Penn State receivers continue scouring their iPads and dissecting game film around the clock.
Audrey Snyder: asnyder@post-gazette.com and Twitter @audsnyder4.
First Published: November 19, 2015, 5:00 a.m.
