UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- When you lose your fastball, what are you left with?

Michigan entered Happy Valley on Saturday night with one thing it thought was reliable.

And in less than five minutes, that pillar crash landed in the vapor trail left by Saquon Barkley's feet.

Michigan's defense, the last remaining shining light in the Wolverines' sea of clouds, was exploited Saturday night in Beaver Stadium. The entire team was exploited. Outplayed, outcoached, out-everything'd.

So, now what?

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"It's all about us and from here on out, that's what it's going to be about: Us as a team," Michigan quarterback John O'Korn said Saturday after a 42-13 drubbing at Penn State. "Nobody outside. We'll find out a lot about this team and this program over the next few weeks."

Yes, we will.

If Saturday proved anything, it proved that Michigan's problems are layered well below the surface.

This never was about one player or position group. Benching Wilton Speight in favor of someone else wasn't going to fix this. Just like benching John O'Korn in favor of Brandon Peters on Saturday wasn't going to stop Michigan from taking that medicine from the Nittany Lions for four quarters.

"We're 5-2, I think everybody's freaking out on the outside of our four walls, but we're 5-2," O'Korn added. "We just didn't make enough big plays tonight."

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Yeah, Michigan's 5-2.

But it's also 1-2 over the past three weeks and 6-4 over its last 10 games.

This is a flawed football team. A young football team, but still a flawed team that isn't being pushed forward fast enough by a coaching staff that makes enough money to make Scrooge McDuck blush. Not fast enough by fan standards, not fast enough by their own standards.

So, now what?

The answers aren't easy, because there's so much to fix.

Michigan's pass protection, three years into Jim Harbaugh's tenure, still is a complete mess. The Wolverines are allowing more than three sacks per game and are on pace to give up a whopping 39 sacks this season. That's terrible.

O'Korn and the passing game were far from Michigan's biggest issue Saturday night — which is a separate problem on its own — but they were far from perfect. The fifth-year senior went 16 of 28 for 166 yards. Those numbers are better than they've been the past two weeks, but they're still nowhere near good enough.

And now, suddenly, the defense has problems. Safeties struggled with man-to-man coverage. Tackling looked suspect. And, perhaps most surprising, Michigan looked unprepared to play football when the game began.

Penn State is really good. Saquon Barkley is a legit Heisman Trophy candidate and Trace McSorley has improved his game as much as any quarterback in the Big Ten over the past year.

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But my goodness, Michigan beat this team 49-10 just 13 months ago. And Saturday, it had no chance. No chance. And that is why those people "outside" Michigan's walls are "freaking out."

They knew this would be a young team with growing pains; the defense lost 10 starters, after all. But gradual improvement was expected as the year wore on. And no one's seeing that. This was the worst Michigan's looked all season and it's Week 7. Penn State might be a playoff contender; it might win the Big Ten.

But Michigan fancies itself as a program on that level. After Saturday, the Wolverines looked miles away from being anywhere near that stage.

So, what happens next?

Michigan gets Rutgers and Minnesota at home over the next two weeks for games the Wolverines will be favored and expected to win. The Wolverines won't face an offense this talented again until they play Ohio State, so reasonable logic has Don Brown getting the defense patched up and improved in the coming days and weeks.

The offense, however, is another issue.

At some point Michigan is going to have to find out what Peters can do in a real game. O'Korn probably didn't play poor enough to lose his job Saturday, but he's only got five regular season games left with this program. Maybe you rep them both; maybe you make a change and see if it helps.

The offensive line already has been shuffled once, but maybe that needs to be looked at again, as giving up seven sacks in a game — which U-M did against Penn State — is unacceptable.

Michigan's 5-2 with games against Rutgers, Minnesota, at Maryland, at Wisconsin and vs. Ohio State left on the schedule. And right now, nothing — outside of probably Rutgers — looks like a guarantee.

Harbaugh put in a lot of work to develop a culture here two years ago.

And over the next five weeks, we'll find out if it's still standing or in need of sizable repair.

Contact Nick Baumgardner: nbaumgardn@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @NickBaumgardner.

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