Gene J. Puskar / AP

Penn State running back Evan Royster rushed for 174 yards against Michigan on Saturday.

The Wolverines tormented the Nittany Lions over the last 12 seasons, handing them a few lopsided losses and several heartbreaking defeats. In 2005, the last time Penn State was in the hunt for a national title, Michigan scored a touchdown on the final play to hand Paterno’s team its only loss of the season.

The Nittany Lions finally answered with their highest scoring game ever against Michigan.

This one couldn’t have started better for Michigan. After a three-and-out for Penn State, Michigan put together its longest drive of the season. The 14-play, 86-yard march featured all the best of Rodriguez’s spread offense. The option cleared running lanes for Threet and Brandon Minor, who surpassed his season high on the drive with 42 yards rushing.

Minor finished it off with a 5-yard TD run.

“But we’ve been seeing little glimpses of that all season,” Minor said.

A Penn State fumble led to a 27-yard field goal by K.C. Lopata and the Nittany Lions faced their largest deficit of the season.

After Royster’s 44-yard TD romp, Michigan went on the march again.

Another near-flawless drive by the Wolverines, this one 78 yards, was capped by Minor’s 1-yard plunge and it was 17-7 early in the second quarter. Minor had 117 yards on 23 carries

Even Penn State fans must have been wondering if the mere sight of those winged helmets had their team mystified.

Michigan had 185 yards in the first quarter, but only 106 the rest of the way.

“We really stayed calm, we knew Michigan was going to come in and try to play us hard, they do it every year,” Royster said. “We just needed to adjust to it.”

When Clark found Jordan Norwood for a 3-yard touchdown pass with 23 seconds left in the half to make it 17-14, it seemed as if Penn State had come through the worst of it and grabbed control of the game.

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