ANN ARBOR, Mich. - Joe Paterno had spent the last seven weeks wondering whether Penn State could handle being in a tough football game.
So when Michigan took the opening kickoff yesterday, drove 70 yards, and scored a touchdown less than four minutes into the game with most of the 110,377 on its home field screaming at the top of its lungs, Paterno could see whether his players would show the toughness he desired.
A little more than three hours later, the Nittany Lions' head coach, smiling as he wiped the rain off his glasses for the umpteenth time, had his answer.
Daryll Clark tied a career high with four touchdown passes - three to Graham Zug - and the Penn State defense again proved itself, this time against one of the top offenses in the Big Ten, in the 13th-ranked Lions' masterful 35-10 victory over the mistake-prone Wolverines.
In winning for the first time at Michigan Stadium since 1996, the Nittany Lions (7-1 overall, 3-1 Big Ten) broke a five-game losing streak here. They now have back-to-back wins over the Wolverines (5-3, 1-3) after dropping nine in a row, a run that ended last year.
Paterno said he never dwelled on the drought - "I don't pay any attention whether we won here 10 years ago or 20 years ago," he contended - but he was pleased to see the Lions play this well in a daunting environment.
"I think they needed it, maybe more than I needed it," the Penn State coach said. "I kept telling them, 'You're pretty good, you're pretty good, and now you've got to go out and play a big, tough game.' I think they rose to the occasion."
The Lions' defense forced four turnovers. After Michigan scored its first touchdown and got four first downs en route, the unit held the Wolverines to 49 total yards and three first downs on their next six possessions, and picked up a safety when a shotgun snap sailed past Tate Forcier and over the end line.
After the Lions' Jeremy Boone punted to the Michigan 8-yard line, defensive end Jack Crawford played a role prior to the safety. Crawford induced holding and false-start penalties against Michigan left tackle Mark Ortmann that moved the ball back to the Wolverines' 2.
"It was a good series of plays," said Crawford, a graduate of St. Augustine's Prep in South Jersey, who also forced a third-quarter fumble. "Jared [Odrick] had the center startled, they couldn't get the call right, and they threw it back and over the end line. That's when things started going downhill for them."
On Penn State's first play after the free kick, Clark found tight end Andrew Quarless behind linebacker Obi Ezeh and caught him in stride on a 60-yard touchdown pass and a 19-7 lead.
Clark, playing in the rain for the fourth time in the last five weeks, completed 16 of 27 passes for 230 yards. He found Zug, a former walk-on, with scoring passes of 10, 11 and 17 yards, perfect throws on precise routes each time.
"It's a great feeling knowing that Daryll trusted me three times for touchdowns," said Zug, a junior who had four career TDs going into yesterday. "It's a good feeling coming here and winning and having the offense play as well as it did."
Evan Royster contributed 100 yards rushing. He ran for 41 on his first carry of the day as the Lions answered Michigan's early touchdown with a four-play, 63-yard drive that ended with Clark's first scoring toss to Zug.
In a meeting of the top two offenses in the Big Ten, Penn State outgained the Wolverines, 396-250. But the Lions' defense held the conference's No. 1 scoring team to 27 points fewer than its 37.3-point average.
The Nittany Lions sewed things up with a 10-minute drive that took a huge chunk of the fourth quarter, leading to Collin Wagner's second field goal. By this time, more than one-third of the Michigan faithful had left, and the sound was more "We Are . . . Penn State" rather than "Hail to the Victors."
A short time later, the Nittany Lions headed for the airport with a huge sense of satisfaction.
"When people ask us about the monkey being off our back, I just answer that this is just an all-team win right here," Clark said. "Both sides of the football made plays and got the job done. We knew how hostile it was going to be. And we responded."
Contact staff writer Joe Juliano at 215-854-4494 or jjuliano@phillynews.com
