UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — At some point Jim Harbaugh needs to win one of these. Needs to find a way to hit the road and beat a good team. Needs to instill whatever is missing from his program so that his players are the ones taking a knee to run out the clock. Needs to stop running up the middle on third and long. Or punting on fourth and relatively short. Or sending his field-goal kicker out when the goalpost is close to 60 yards away. Because right now, nothing's working. None of it. Yeah, his Michigan team showed mettle Saturday night at Beaver Stadium in a 28-21 loss . They deserve credit for that. But this isn't Little League, and U-M shouldn't get a participation trophy for making it close against Penn State. It would rather have a Big Ten trophy. But that’s out. Gone for another year, unless Ohio State collapses, which isn’t likely, which means it’s time to adjust the goals — again. At least this time U-M made it a game. Maybe you’ll find comfort in that, considering how these games against top-10 opponents have gone for Harbaugh these past four years. Not only does he lose, he loses big. It was headed that way against the Nittany Lions when U-M fell behind by 21 in the second quarter, looking out-manned and out-gunned. Then the defense tightened, the quarterback loosened up in the pocket — Shea Patterson played the best game of his career — and the Wolverines outplayed Penn State for most of the rest of the game. And when Patterson scored on a fourth-down sneak with eight minutes left in the game to bring U-M within seven, it felt for all the world like this would be his and Harbaugh’s moment. Heck, he’d predicted it at halftime. All the Wolverines needed was to make a few more plays, to find a break. They got one when Patterson snuck in on that first down. It was hard to tell at first if he’d scored, considering he’d wedged himself into a pile of all that beefy mass. But he kept tunneling and eventually broke through to the light. The officials took their time before they raised their hands. A review concurred, though I’m not certain the film provided any more evidence. In any case, U-M had been on the right side of a difficult call, the kind it desperately needed and frankly, the kind of break it deserved in that moment. Patterson finally looked free, decisive, confident. A week ago at Illinois, he’d played hesitantly, as if he were fighting the instincts that made him such a coveted prospect in high school. He stayed in the pocket when he needed to run. He ran when he needed to stay and dig in. On Saturday night, except for an interception on a screen pass, he was the difference in the game, the reason U-M got to within a few yards of tying it at 28 with a couple of minutes to go. In the end, he’d done all he could, hitting Ronnie Bell in the chest for what should’ve been a game-tying score. But Bell couldn’t hold on. And U-M fell one play short. Again. Is that the fault of the coach? Of course not. Players make mistakes every game. It happens. But players also take their direction from the one who leads them. For a while at Beaver Stadium, Harbaugh, with the help of his quarterback, led his team to the edge of a monumental win, a season-changing win. And if you’re feeling charitable, you might call that progress. Then again, this is Year 5, past the time to measure success incrementally. It’s time for Harbaugh to win one of these games. Time for him to prove he is who he thinks he is. Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @shawnwindsor.