ANN ARBOR -- Players on the Michigan football team had no problem revealing their motivation behind playing Penn State this week.

They felt the Nittany Lions made it a point last season to run up the score in Michigan's 29-point loss in Happy Valley, and it was evident in James Franklin's decision to run one last play with a second left on the clock.

So, how did Michigan respond on Saturday? With a 42-7 win of its own before 111,747 at Michigan Stadium.

"Our mindset was to come out here and play the best game," said quarterback Shea Patterson, who completed 11 of his 17 passes for 144 yards and two touchdowns.

"If we had a chance, we were going to run it up too."

Michigan (8-1, 6-0 Big Ten) took a 14-0 lead into halftime, then tacked on 14 more points in the third quarter.

The first touchdown of the second half came on a 7-yard pass from Patterson to tight end Zach Gentry, then cornerback Brandon Watson returned an interception 62 yards for a score 47 seconds later. By the time the game reached the fourth quarter, Michigan led 28-0.

"It was personal from the start," senior running back and offensive co-captain Karan Higdon said. "From the jump. We jumped out, making sure we wanted to turn the intensity way up so there was no coming back from that."

It was Higdon who tacked on Michigan's fifth touchdown of the game, on a 4-yard run with 9:49 left, and the defense forced its third interception of the game on the next drive when cornerback David Long intercepted a Trace McSorley pass.

The Wolverines, already with favorable field position to begin with, followed with a four-play drive and 1-yard touchdown run by running back Chris Evans to make it 42-0 with 8:28 on the clock.

"Those guys bullied us (last year)," defensive end Chase Winovich said. "We wanted our lunch money back. Last year, they ran the score up and there's five seconds left on the clock and they're laughing. It was a jolly time."

Winovich made sure to clarify his comments after that it was nothing personal. If he was a coach, he'd probably try and the score up on an opponent too, he said.

But like Patterson said, they were going to take advantage if the opportunity presented itself. And it did. Michigan's 42 points scored was the most allowed by Penn State all season.

Head coach Jim Harbaugh even called a timeout with 3:13 remaining to challenge a fourth-down conversion by Penn State, to try and keep it off the scoreboard. The challenge ultimately failed, and the Nittany Lions ended up scoring a touchdown with 1:59 left.

But the point was apparent. After the game, Harbaugh didn't try and dispute it either.

"You're striving for happiness. You're striving for elation," Harbaugh said. "You want to win. And you want our guys to play well. And they did tonight. That's just really impressive."