ANN ARBOR, Mich. (EYT) — Everyone knew Penn State was going to have its hand full with No. 4/5 Michigan Saturday afternoon.

(Photo by Paul Burdick. Check out more of Burdick’s work here)

But the fact the Nittany Lions made it easy too often for the Wolverines, who ran by Penn State, 49-10, only made things worse.

Michigan’s first two touchdowns were set up by short fields — one thanks to another Penn State special teams breakdown and one thanks to a questionable decision on fourth down by head coach James Franklin.

A 1-yard run on fourth-and-goal by Khalid Hill gave the Wolverines an early 7-0 lead and it was set up by a 53-yard punt return by Jabrill Peppers after a 61-yard Blake Gillikin punt.

Peppers return was to the Penn State 9-yard line, but a personal foul penalty on the Wolverines had the drive starting from the Penn State 24.

On Penn State’s next possession, the Nittany Lions drove to the Michigan 42 where it faced fourht-and-5.

Franklin, who punted from the Pitt 35-yard line two weeks ago early in the game, decided to roll the dice and go for it.

That turned out to be the wrong call when Jourdan Lewis blew up a screen pass to DeAndre Thompkins dropping the Nittany Lion receiver for a 4-year loss giving the Wolverines the ball at their own 46-yard line.

Behind an effective medium-range passing attack from Wilton Speight, the Wolverines scored again, this time on a De
Veon Smith 2-yard run to go ahead 14-0 at the end of the first quarter.

Smith set up Michigan’s third touchdown when he started the Wolverines’ third drive of the game with a 39-yard run that flipped the field from the Michigan 36 to the Penn State 25.

That led to a 3-yard Speight to Devin Asiasi touchdown pass early in the second quarter to make it 21-0.

Penn State’s defense, which continued to be decimated by injuries, especially at linebacker, finally came up with a stop on Michigan’s next drive when it forced an incomplete pass on fourht-and-2 from the Penn State 39.

But the defense had no such luck on the Wolverines fifth drive watching as Michigan marked 80 yards in 13 plays to go up 28-0 on a 9-yard Speight to Butt touchdown pass.

Down 28 at the half, Penn State tried to rally early in the second half like it did at Pitt two weeks ago forcing a Michigan punt at the start of the half and then driving to the Wolverines 2-yard line where it had second-and-goal.

But, despite Saquan Barkley setting the Nittany Lions up at the 2 with a 5-yard run on first down, Penn State elected to go to the air on second and third downs with a pair of incomplete passes by McSorley.

Franklin, then, in another curious move down 28 decided to have Tyler Davis kick a chip-shot 21-yard field goal, which the Penn State kicker nailed.

The momentary respite was short lived, as Michigan made it 35-3 at the end of the third quarter on a 3-yard Chris Evans run.

Chris Godwin scored Penn State’s lone touchdown on an 8-yard pass from McSorley early in the fourth quarter, but a 40-yard Karan Higdon touchdown run and a 3-yard Ty Isaac run set the final score.

Barkley had another strong game with 136 all-purpose yards including 59 yards rushing on just 15 carries and a team-best five catches for 77 yards.

McSorley, who was sacked six times in the game, threw for 121 yards with a touchdown and an interception. He went 16 of 27.

Smith ran for 107 of Michigan’s 329 yards with Speight throwing for 189 with his 21 completions going to nine different receivers.

A lot of Penn State’s defensive struggles landed on an inexperienced linebacking corps, which took even more hits Saturday.

The Nittany Lions were without the three linebackers penciled in as starters at the start of the season — Brandon Bell, Jason Cabinda and Nyeem Wartman-White (Wartman-White is out for the year) — leaving Penn State with three career starts among its starters, one of whom, Brandon Smith, was disqualified on the first play of the second quarter for targeting. To make matters worse, Smith’s replacement, Jan Johnson then suffered a season-ending injury in the second quarter.

That forced Penn State to go with true freshman Cameron Brown, who showed signs of good things with 10 tackles. Manny Bowen, only a sophomore, added seven stops.

Penn State (2-2, 0-1) will host Minnesota Saturday.