The ground game has driven the Michigan offense all season. But as the Wolverines fell more and more behind in their 35-10 loss to Penn State on Saturday, they had to look more to the air.

Freshmen quarterbacks Tate Forcier and Denard Robinson attempted 33 combined passes Saturday, tied for the most this season.

“They're trying to make plays, they’re trying,” senior wide receiver Greg Mathews said of the quarterbacks. “It’s not like they’re not trying. They just have to be smart with the ball in certain situations.”

Michigan still racked up 110 yards on the ground, which was 35 more than the stout Penn State defense had allowed on average before the game. And senior Brandon Minor, who has battled a nagging ankle injury all season, brought a physical presence to the game on just 12 carries.

“Yeah, he runs hard,” Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez said. “Again, he still wasn’t at 100 percent. It’s a chronic thing, and if he hits it a certain way, it bothers him, but he tries to fight through it."

Catching concerns: After completing all three of his passes on the Wolverines’ first drive, Forcier was just 10-of-27 passing the rest of the game. But those numbers were certainly impacted by the number of dropped passes.

“You know, it was the first time this year — we’ve had a few drops (this season) but it seemed like today, a lot of them were on third down or crucial situations, and we had done a really good job all year of making the catches on the catchable balls,” Rodriguez said.

Several dropped passes from the tight end position — by both sophomore Kevin Koger and junior Martell Webb — stunted drives throughout the day. Although it rained for most of the afternoon, which could hinder a team’s passing attack, Rodriguez only partially attributed the drops to the weather.

“It was a little wet, but I don’t know if it was just a concentration thing, and sometimes you try too hard or whatever,” Rodriguez said. “In particular, early, I think maybe even on the second drive, we still had some momentum and that drop kind of hurt us there.”

Joe Pa: Running out of the tunnel and leaping to touch the “Go Blue” banner during pregame festivities may be one of the most well-known traditions in college football.

But from an outsider’s perspective, Penn State quarterback Daryll Clark didn’t seem too impressed by the pageantry of the moment.

“Both teams come out of the same tunnel,” Clark said. “We were out in the tunnel, waiting for Michigan to go down. They were ‘Ra-Ra,’ making a lot of noise, running down the tunnel and what not.”

According to Clark, the most pumped up guy in the pregame tunnel was at least 60 years older than the players wearing the winged helmets.

“We look over at (Joe Paterno), and he's jumping up and down,” Clark said. “He's jumping up and down talking about, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah,' and I'm looking at him and I'm like, 'OK, it's time to play football, seriously.' But you've got to love the guy.”

The banner is about nine feet off the ground, which one might think would be a very difficult task for the 82-year old Paterno if given the opportunity to tap it.

But Clark seems to think differently.

“Who, him? Aw, he'd have jumped over it,” Clark said.

Notes: There is still no word on whether wide receiver Junior Hemingway and center David Molk, who were both injured in Saturday’s game, will be ready to go next week at Illinois. … Saturday marked the sixth time in eight games that punter Zoltan Mesko averaged more than 40 yards per punt. Mesko did not punt once against Delaware State and averaged just 32.5 yards per punt against Notre Dame. Mesko currently ranks fifth in the nation, averaging 45.49 yards per kick.