Michigan football far from crisp but overwhelms Purdue, 41-13

Plenty of questions remain for the Michigan football program off the field, and perhaps a few more presented themselves on the field Saturday night against Purdue.

For the ninth consecutive game, the No. 2 ranked Wolverines dismantled an opponent. This time, it was a 41-13 thrashing of the lowly Boilermakers to set up a high stakes clash next week at No. 9 Penn State, even if it wasn't quite as crisp as recent beatdowns.

"I was just so impressed with the squad tonight," said coach Jim Harbaugh. "A bunch of stalwarts."

Quarterback J.J. McCarthy was good, but just a tick off, as his Heisman Trophy campaign took a step back. McCarthy, who played until the final kneel down for the first time this season, completed 24 of 37 passes for a season-high 335 yards and no scores.

He wasn't helped by, at least, four drops by pass catchers; however Roman Wilson finished with a career-high nine catches for 144 yards.

"I just got to put the ball in the right spot where I can make it easy to make a catch," McCarthy said. "Today it wasn't my best day with my accuracy. Missed a couple throws that I want back big time, but it's a good problem to have when you're putting up 41 points still."

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The running game also struggled.

U-M ran 33 times for 144 yards (4.6 yards per attempt) when adjusting for sacks, numbers which were only boosted because of a 44-yard touchdown on an end-around by wide receiver Semaj Morgan. Blake Corum did the bulk of the work on the ground, but had a hard time finding open lanes as he ran 15 times for 44 yards (2.9 yards per carry) and had just one carry go for more than 5 yards.

"Obviously it's not to the standard we want as a run game," McCarthy said. "But we're going to do everything and anything to get that going, it's going to be huge in these next coming weeks."

That said, it was far from all bad for U-M's reigning All-American back; the senior scored three times to bring his nation-leading total to 16 touchdowns on the season and move into a tie with Tyrone Wheatley (47 touchdowns) for second all-time in program history.

Donovan Edwards also ran eight times for 21 yards and a score and caught three passes for 41 yards.

Defensively, U-M entered leading the nation in scoring defense (5.9 points per game), total defense (227 yards per game), and passing defense (141 yards per game), and nearly improved on all of those numbers. Defensive back Will Johnson came away with an early interception and the only points the unit allowed came when Purdue's offense started drives inside U-M's 35 until a garbage time TD with 18 seconds remaining.

The defense held Hudson Card to 12-for-28 passing for 144 yards, a touchdown and an interception.

"It was a dominant performance," Harbaugh said. "I didn't see rust, I saw our guys were fresh, ready to play."

Picture perfect start

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Outside of allowing a 10-yard run on the first play of the game, Michigan couldn't have gotten off to a better start.

The defense forced a punt three plays later, then the offense needed just six plays of its own to go 76 yards before Corum punched in a 2-yard touchdown. McCarthy connected with Roman Wilson for 20 yards on third-and-4 to cross midfield he found Edwards deep down the left sideline for a gain of 37 yards to set up first-and-goal.

The Wolverines' defense forced a three-and-out in less than a minute the next time it took the field, which set up the offense on its own 33. Seven plays later, Corum scored another touchdown, this time from 3 yards out.

Prior to that, McCarthy completed 3 of 4 passes for 45 yards, that included a 21-yard connection with Tyler Morris to keep the drive alive on third-and-6. On the next play, Cornelius Johnson took an end-around 14 yards and nearly scored, but was tripped up at the three to set up the Corum score.

Sloppy second quarter

Gifted with a short field after a Johnson interception at the Purdue 12, U-M failed to move the sticks and settled for a chip shot field goal.

On its next series, U-M again went three-and-out, this time it was caused in large part by drops by Edwards on first down and AJ Barner on third down. The series after that, Michigan was aided by 30 Purdue penalty yards with two personal fouls, and still U-M had to settle for a 29-yard James Turner field goal when McCarthy and Colston Loveland failed to connect on third-and-7. Michigan went up, 20-0, with 7:10 left in the half.

The Wolverines defense came out once again and forced its sixth punt in seven possessions (the other was an interception), however the ensuing put return was muffed when it hit an errant blocker in the back and the Boilermakers fell on it deep in at the U-M 34.

The defense forced a field goal.

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U-M's staff then made its most questionable decision of the night, when its offense faced fourth-and-1 on its own 34, opted to go for it and short yardage back Kalel Mullings was stuffed with 2:17 to play in the half. Once again, U-M's defense held strong and forced a field goal to go into the locker room up 20-6.

"It sure does," Harbaugh said of the faith in his defense allowing his offense to try something so risky. "The flow of the game, just from beginning to end our defense was dominant tonight."

Purdue out-gained U-M in the second quarter, 108-75, and was almost even in time of possession (7:35-7:25) and plays (20-19).

Close it out

Though the second half started as slow as the first half ended, Michigan's first team offense punted on consecutive possessions for just the second time all season, it got a spark when Semaj Morgan took an end-around 44 yards for a touchdown to go up 27-6 with 3:12 to play in the third quarter.

"So proud of that guy," Wilson said. "This guy comes in, best attitude I've ever seen in a person, best work ethic. He comes to me for answers, asks me questions when I was his age I didn't ask older guys. He really wants to be great, seeing him come in here and make plays, it's just a blessing to be around this guy."

Jake Thaw returned the ensuing Purdue punt 32 yards to set U-M up inside Purdue territory and the Wolverines would only need five plays before Corum found the end zone for his third time.

The offense was forced to punt once in the fourth, but Tommy Doman pinned Purdue at its own 3. After that, U-M got the ball back with good field position, and put together a six-play, 57-yard drive which was capped by a 1-yard Edwards score.

The Boilermakers finished the game when Card found Deion Burks who beat Mike Sainristil on a double-move in the corner of the end-zone on fourth-and-2 in the final minute.

Contact Tony Garcia at apgarcia@freepress.com. Follow him @realtonygarcia.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football far from crisp but overwhelms Purdue, 41-13