Another game, same result.

Penn State football fell to Michigan 21-18 in a very close matchup up until the fourth quarter. The final score is a little flattering to the Nittany Lions, but the bottom line is they lost their fourth consecutive game to open Big Ten play.

While the offense sputtered through all 60 minutes outside of Chase Sowell’s brilliant individual performance, it was a tale of two halves for the defense.

“I couldn’t tell you exactly right now without watching the film what kind of went wrong in the second half. My guess [is] we’re just off on the details,” defensive end Caleb Bacon said postgame. “Off on our gap assignments, our alignments, things like that. Left an open gap. Props to them [Michigan]. They had a good game plan in the second half.”

If you follow the thread, Penn State’s second-half performance can be intricately linked to a shocking Michigan adjustment out of the break: Kyle Whittingham benched starting quarterback Bryce Underwood in favor of freshman Tommy Carr.

Underwood was 5-of-11 for 43 yards and two picks at the intermission.

“We had talked about him [Carr]. I don’t think we had prepared to the extent that we were going to see him for an entire half of the game, but we definitely talked about him a little bit,” Bacon said. “But we were maybe a little surprised that they made that change.”

Carr came in and immediately flipped the game on its head. Michigan took over after Rocco Becht’s first interception and scored behind a 43-yard Bryson Kuzdzal run.

Becht threw pick No. 2 on the ensuing drive to Chris Bracy in the flat, and Carr finally had his moment to shine.

The freshman signal-caller marched down the field to Penn State’s 23-yard line and dashed for 22 for what was originally ruled a touchdown before a review marked him short. It didn’t matter. Jordan Marshall pounded the rock in for the score as the Big House rallied around its newfound savior under center.

“He came in and made the plays he needed to make. I guess that’s a credit to him, stepping up in the moment, but we still got to be better on our end and not let those things slip,” safety Jamison Patton said.

Penn State held the Underwood-led Michigan offense to just 80 first-half yards. Michigan hadn’t been shut out in the first half at home since 2020. It felt like it was the necessary stride to take after being pummeled in the trenches over the last three weeks.

The Wolverines gained 221 yards in the second half, showing the clear juxtaposition of the Penn State defense that has the Nittany Lion faithful’s heads on a swivel.

“Whether we’re up in the score or down, I think we just got to have that finishing factor. If we’re down, we can’t let up and feel sorry for ourselves. If we’re up, too, we can’t, as a defense, continue to let them run the ball,” linebacker Tony Rojas said.

Bacon, Patton, and Rojas all echoed the same sentiment that Penn State has grown between the Northwestern, USC, and now Michigan games. Bacon referred to the Northwestern outing as “embarrassing,” but said the Nittany Lions feel like they’re in a continuously better spot compared to Week 5.

One of those big positives is in the secondary. Freshman Josiah Zayas notched the second interception of his young career in the final minute of the second quarter. Underwood looked downfield to JJ Buchanan, but Zayas played the ball inside and snagged it with one hand for Penn State’s highlight play of the season so far.

"MY BALL" – JOSIAH ZAYAS, PROBABLY pic.twitter.com/4gyqGdp1mF

— Onward State (@OnwardState) October 17, 2026

Zayas’ other interception was a pick-six against Wisconsin in the Nittany Lions’ Big Ten opener. Penn State’s most steady position group across the board has been at cornerback, with Zayas and Daryus Dixson consistently making plays. They both were a bright spot in the Big House, but Zayas specifically stood out.

“That play he made tonight was crazy. True freshman playing the way he is has been super awesome to watch,” Bacon said. “Just a guy who I know loves football, and will go out there every single day at practice and just continuing to want to keep getting better [and] perfecting his craft.”

Bacon mentioned Zayas injects a lot of juice into the defense as a young player. While it’s important to recognize Zayas’ outstanding play through seven games, why haven’t the Nittany Lions been able to grab control of the play on the back end and translate it up front to stop the run?

When will Penn State effectively stop the run, if ever? One hundred seventy-four of Michigan’s 221 second-half yards came on the ground. After the Northwestern disaster, the Nittany Lions prioritized physicality all week before USC and Michigan, but will this team ever actually get better at it?

The Nittany Lions are facing the injury bug in the linebacker room, but the week-in-week-out nature of the horrendous run defense is a recipe for losses, even outside of Becht’s stinker in Michigan Stadium. The disconnect goes far beyond injuries.

“We just got to continue to do what we’re best at and execute it. Our details, sometimes we lack some details in certain moments, in the big moments, and we just got to do us rather than trying to play superhero ball,” Rojas said.

Penn State will now have two weeks to prepare for a Purdue offense that ranks No. 15 in rushing in the Big Ten, excluding the results of Wisconsin versus UCLA and Nebraska versus Oregon to round out Week 7.

It’s a solid bounce-back opportunity for Penn State, especially with bottom-ranked Washington on tap for the following week. But if the Nittany Lions continue to lack fundamentals on defense, don’t be surprised by more close losses in winnable games exactly like Week 7.