It may not have garnered much attention in what was an uber-eventful day in the college football world, but for the first time in the still-young 2016 season, the Michigan Wolverines found themselves—and potentially their playoff hopes—on the ropes this past weekend.
Fortunately for the Wolverines, they eventually overcame their slow start against the Colorado Buffaloes, ultimately beating the Buffs by a seemingly lopsided score of 45-28.
That was enough to keep No. 4 Michigan from dropping in the polls, as bigger games between the University of Louisville and Florida State, Alabama and Ole Miss, and Ohio State and Oklahoma overshadowed its out-of-conference finale. But you couldn't blame anyone who kept a closer eye on the Wolverines for walking away from Saturday's showing with a more skeptical view of Jim Harbaugh's squad. Some potentially fatal flaws made their first appearance as the Wolverines head into the gauntlet that is the Big Ten portion of their schedule.
That season-defining stretch will start this Saturday, when the Wolverines welcome Penn State to Ann Arbor for a 3:30 p.m. ET kick. In a lot of ways, the Nittany Lions are the perfect opponent at the moment for Michigan, which will now have an opportunity to measure itself against one of the Big Ten's more talented teams.
At the very least, we should learn whether the Wolverines are worthy of remaining in the present playoff picture or if the shortcomings shown against Colorado—which resulted in the Buffalos jumping out to a 21-7 lead in the first quarter—were a sign of issues to come in Ann Arbor.
"We're always concerned. Where can we get better? Where can we get a mile an hour faster? How can we improve?," Harbaugh said. "We're concerned to get better. We're striving to get better."
A large part of that improvement for Michigan starts with the play of quarterback Wilton Speight, who on Saturday, struggled for his first time as the U-M starting signal-caller.
After completing 35 of his 50 pass attempts for 457 yards, seven touchdowns and one interception in Michigan's first two wins of the current campaign, the redshirt sophomore's 9-for-21 first half start—which included a 2-for-9 first quarter—played a large role in the Wolverines putting themselves in a hole against the Buffaloes. While his final stat line of 16-for-30 passing for 229 yards and one touchdown may have seemed steady enough, Saturday marked the first time it appeared worth questioning whether or not Speight is a championship-caliber quarterback.
"Wasn't as clean as the quarterback would have liked," Harbaugh conceded of Speight's showing. "I thought that really the best things he did was hit the crossing routes in stride where they could catch the football and run with it."
Facing a Penn State passing defense that currently ranks 21st in the country, having surrendered an average of 168.7 yards per game through the air, Speight now finds himself with an opportunity to show he is indeed capable of bouncing back from what was his least impressive outing in the 2016 campaign so far.
A strong showing could go a long way toward Speight proving to be a worthy successor to Jake Rudock's spot behind center in Harbaugh's offense. It could also help stave off a potential quarterback controversy that could come with another shaky performance and the toughest stretch of Michigan's schedule still ahead. However, Harbaugh isn't close to entertaining that idea yet.
"I thought he showed a lot to his teammates," the second-year Wolverines head coach said on Monday. "It's another rung you grab and rise yourself up—the respect in the eyes of others. That was his opportunity and he did it. So yeah, he goes up another rung."
Perhaps the same could be said of the Michigan defense, which having surrendered 195 yards in the first quarter alone, also played a role in the Wolverines falling behind by 14 points in Saturday's first quarter. But the Buffaloes only managed to total 130 more yards the rest of the way, converting just one of their 13 third-down attempts for the entire afternoon.
With All-American cornerback Jourdan Lewis expected to make his 2016 debut after an injury kept him out of the Wolverine's first three games, the 24th-ranked Michigan defense could soon be climbing another rung of improvement. Another slow start this Saturday could be particularly alarming, especially against a Penn State offense that ranks just 83rd nationally (387.7 yards per game) through the first three games of the 2016 season.
But don't let the numbers fool you—despite currently lacking consistency, the Nittany Lions lay claim to one of the more talented rosters in the entire Big Ten. Despite unprecedented sanctions hindering its program, Penn State has recruited a top-four class in the conference in each of the past four years, including the league's No. 2 overall class just a year ago.
That's resulted in a roster that includes the likes of running back Saquon Barkley, wide receiver Chris Godwin and defensive end Garrett Sickels—players unlike anything the Wolverines have seen in these past three weeks.
"It's a big game. It's a championship [type of] game," Harbaugh said of his team's upcoming matchup. "That's the way we're going about every game on our schedule."
Harbaugh may be downplaying the significance of his squad entering conference play, but make no mistake, Saturday should serve as a measuring stick for a Michigan team still searching for a dominant win over a high-caliber opponent.
In terms of at least talent, Penn State could prove to be just that. In one way or another, the Nittany Lions should help the Wolverines find answers to questions they weren't even asking a week ago.
With a convincing win, Michigan will take a step toward staking its claim as one of college football's top teams entering the second month of the season.
Get off to another sloppy start—or worse—on Saturday, and the sport's most-talked-about team of the offseason could find itself in the headlines for all the wrong reasons sooner, rather than later.
Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Big Ten lead writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BenAxelrod.
Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained firsthand. Recruiting and class ratings courtesy of 247Sports' composite ratings.
Read more Big Ten Football news on BleacherReport.com