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Michigan knocks out two QBs in win at Penn State

Oct 15, 2006 - 3:23 AM STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania (Ticker) -- Anthony Morelli, Daryll Clark and Penn State can attest to the toughness of Michigan's defense.

The fourth-ranked Wolverines knocked out the Nittany Lions' top two quarterbacks in a 17-10 Big Ten Conference victory.

Mike Hart ran for 112 yards and a touchdown and Pennsylvania native Chad Henne threw for 196 yards and a score for Michigan (7-0, 4-0 Big Ten), which has won eight straight over Penn State.

"It was just great," Henne said of his first game at Beaver Stadium. "It's almost like going to Ohio State, seeing all those fans and especially coming home, it's just a great feature for us. We just had to prepare. We had crowd noise all week to prepare for the fans. I think we did a great job."

Henne, who completed 15-of-30 passes, had received heat from some fans in his home state for shunning the Nittany Lions to play for the Wolverines.

"I got all of the articles that were written down here and about the recruiting process," Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said. "I told him that when it was all said and done, that was not going to be what people remember or what you remember.

"What you are going to remember is what kind of job did you do when you went in there. Did you take your team and get them in the end zone? Did you find a way to help your team win this game? That is what is going to be remembered. He is a tough-minded guy."

The Wolverines also snapped the Nittany Lions' 12-game home winning streak and limited them to minus-14 yards rushing - their lowest total in 41 years under legendary coach Joe Paterno - behind seven sacks.

"I thought we played hard," Paterno said. "They stayed in there and hung in there against a very fine football team that played a really good game. ... It was a good, tough football game. You hate to see it when the kids work so hard and don't come away with a win."

Despite missing injured star receiver Mario Manningham, the Wolverines appeared in complete command until Nittany Lions third-string quarterback Paul Cianciolo threw a short pass to Tony Hunt that the running back turned into a 43-yard touchdown with 3:18 to play, cutting the deficit to 17-10.

Penn State (4-3, 2-2) got the ball back at its own 24 with 1:44 to play but failed to pick up a first down, with Cianciolo throwing an incomplete pass on 4th-and-6.

"I think we proved to ourselves that we can play hard for four quarters against one of the best teams in the nation," Penn State linebacker Paul Posluszny said. "We played things well at times and we had some mistakes at times, but overall, we played tough. I have to give Michigan credit. They are a great team. They played well tonight and didn't make a mistake."

Michigan opened the scoring on a 25-yard pass from Henne to Adrian Arrington with 11:13 to play in the second quarter, then took a 10-0 lead on a 23-yard field goal by Garrett Rivas just over six minutes later.

"I didn't really feel the pressure but we all knew that we had to pick up (Manningham's) slack because that was big-time production that we were missing this week," said Arrington, who had five catches for 83 yards. "We just kind of worked all week in practice and came out here and executed pretty well."

The Wolverines appeared that they would get the ball back in good field position after Morelli threw an incomplete pass on 3rd-and-18 from the Penn State 5, but cornerback Morgan Trent was whistled for pass interference.

The Nittany Lions drove to the Michigan 6 but had to settle for a 22-yard field goal by Kevin Kelly with 15 seconds left before the break. Kelly had missed a 46-yard attempt early in the first quarter.

Michigan opened a 17-3 cushion on a one-yard run by Hart with 19 seconds left in the third quarter and shut down Penn State for most of the remainder of the contest.

"He's tough," Penn State defensive end Tim Shaw said of Hart. "You can't bring him down with your arms. You have to bring him down with your whole body and bring a few guys with you. He's really good."

Midway through the third period, Wolverines defensive tackle ended Morelli's night with a crunching hit after the quarterback delivered a 24-yard pass to Derrick Williams. Morelli, who suffered a concussion, completed 11-of-18 passes for 133 yards and was sacked five times.

Early in the fourth, Clark - who went 3-of-6 for 16 yards - also banged his head after a tackle and exited the contest. Cianciolo finished 3-for-7 for 51 yards and the score.

"Anthony had a concussion. He couldn't remember anything," Paterno said. "I haven't really had a chance to talk to the doctor about Daryll. But he got hit and snapped his neck back so they were a bit worried about that. But I really don't know for sure what Daryll's got."