Is Michigan's Defensive Effort Against Penn State a Sign of Things to Come?

The Wolverines haven’t given up on the season.

With Brady Hoke’s fate hanging in the balance, a large raucous crowd in attendance and an opponent looking for its own signature victory, Michigan found its defensive mojo exactly when it needed it most.

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The team enters the bye week with its first Big Ten victory of the season and proof that its defense is capable of containing an opponent with the game on the line.

After six games of erratic play, the defense has arrived to give Michigan fans hope that the season can be salvaged.

How good was Michigan’s defense? Penn State only eked out a single touchdown while gaining 54 yards on the ground and 160 yards through the air.

Michigan’s defense clamped down and shut out Penn State in the second half to preserve the 18-13 victory in the first Big Ten night game in the history of Michigan Stadium. It even scored two points by forcing the Nittany Lions to take a safety with the game clock running down. The resulting kick was Penn State’s last chance to get back on offense but Michigan recovered the attempted onside kick and smothered the clock to preserve the victory.

Defensive end Frank Clark forced Penn State to attempt the desperate tactic after sacking Christian Hackenberg for a 13-yard loss to set up fourth-and-32 at the Penn State 3-yard line.

Last week Frank Clark whiffed on a big sack while battling Rutgers. This week versus Penn State he made sure not to make that mistake again.

“I knew it was going to be a sack before I even got to him,” said Clark of the big play.

That play and, most importantly, the victory was cathartic for Clark and the defense as a whole.

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“It felt good to finally finish a game, we’ve been going through a lot of scrutiny as a team the last three weeks,” he said. “Against our last opponent we didn’t finish the game after it was put on our back.”

While Clark was emphatic that "this was a team victory—it wasn’t a defensive victory or an offensive victory,” the defense was the highlight of the game.

Defensive back Jourdan Lewis made a big interception that resulted in a second-half Michigan field goal.

“I saw my guy go across the field,” said Lewis. “I just watched the quarterback’s eyes and jumped in front of [the receiver].”

When it came time to stop Penn State late in the fourth quarter with the game on the line the defense was ready.

“We were going to stop them, that’s the only thing we were worried about, “ said Lewis. “That’s exactly what Michigan defense does, we want the pressure.”

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That pressure is about to amp up considerably.

In two weeks Michigan heads to East Lansing where it will face the 24th-ranked offense in the country (496.4 total yards per game) and the 11th ranked defense (297.0 total yards per game).

Michigan State crushed Michigan 29-6 last year at Spartan Stadium and due to a quirk in scheduling will host the Wolverines for a second consecutive season.

It’s an opportune time for Michigan’s defense to prove that its performance versus Penn State wasn’t a fluke.

A win over the Spartans would put Michigan’s season back on track, while a loss will put an expiration date on Brady Hoke's Michigan tenure.

Phil Callihan is a featured writer for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotations obtained firsthand

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