Offense notes: Michigan puts up 41 points but doesn't get run game going in win over Purdue

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan Wolverines football is nine games into the season and still hasn’t had one of those signature dominant rushing days. The Maize and Blue have hit 200 rushing yards in only two games (Rutgers, 201; Nebraska, 249), despite their best efforts, after doing so in nine of 14 outings a year ago, including seven occasions against Big Ten opponents.

Michigan rushed for a season-low 110 yards on 34 carries (144 on 31 rushes when taking out sacks) in a 41-13 win over Purdue Saturday night, ahead of next week’s road clash against No. 11 Penn State. Senior running back Blake Corum averaged 2.9 yards per carry (15 rushes for 44 yards) and junior Donovan Edwards registered 2.6 (21 on 8 attempts). Additionally, the Wolverines saw 44 of their 110 rushing yards come from freshman wideout Semaj Morgan, who took a jet sweep 44 yards for a score in the third quarter.

“Just like we said at the beginning of the year, we want to be as balanced and efficient as possible on both sides,” junior quarterback J.J. McCarthy said. “So being able to take this week as a blessing in disguise and get to the drawing board and see what the problems are and how we can fix them. We do a great job of that.

“Obviously, it’s not to the standard we want as a run game, but we’re gonna do everything and anything to get that going. It’s going to be huge in these next coming weeks.”

“Things to work on,” Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh said when asked about the run game.

“… I thought our running backs ran hard again. Four or 5 rushing touchdowns tonight. Blake was really good. I think Donovan, he had the big catch early in the game, but I thought he was running hard, running to form.”

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Michigan still didn’t get the ground production it wanted. A key example came on 4th and 1 from its own 34-yard line, when Harbaugh rolled the dice and ran senior running back Kalel Mullings up the middle. There were defenders who knifed into the backfield and tackled him for no gain. Purdue capitalized but only with a field goal, and Harbaugh said the decision had a lot to do with trusting his defense.

The Maize and Blue did have success at the goal line, as they have all year. Corum ran in 3 touchdowns, 2 from 3 yards out and a 2-yarder, and Edwards had a 1-yard score.

Michigan put itself in some third-and-long situations, averaging 7.1 yards to go on its 14 attempts, due in large part to the run-game issues. The Wolverines went 7-for-14, lower than its 56.7 percent rate for the season but still solid.

McCarthy completed a pass to senior wideout Roman Wilson for a 20-yard gain on Michigan’s first drive, which resulted in a Corum touchdown run. He went 7-for-13 on third down

“Judge a quarterback on third down,” Harbaugh said. “Judge how his numbers on third down, because that’s the money down. He’s been lights out.”

McCarthy is now 33-of-44 passing on third down this season.

J.J. McCarthy: ‘Wasn’t my best day with accuracy’

McCarthy misfired on a few throws, uncharacteristic compared to how the rest of his season has played out. But as Harbaugh pointed out, he still completed 65 percent of his throws and passed for 335 yards, which would be a career night for most signal-callers. In fact, it was a season-high in yardage for the 6-3, 202-pounder and the second-most he’s put up in a game during his career (TCU in 2022, 343).

“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,” McCarthy said.

“Guys were getting open. I just gotta put the ball on them in the right spot where it can make it easy to make the catch.”

“Some things to clean up,” the Michigan head coach added. “Missed on a location on a couple balls and we had some drops. But great to get the win and still have a couple things to work on. I don’t know what J.J.’s competition was coming into the game, 78.1. Now … might have dropped a couple points. We had probably three balls would have been a little better location, three or four balls that would have been caught. Made the tough catch. Would have been close to 435 yards. That’s a big, big night.”

The Wolverines were productive, scoring on 7 of 13 possessions excluding a kneel down at the end, but did settle for two red zone field goals even though they scored on all six trips inside the Purdue 20-yard line. They went three-and-out once and punted 4 times.

McCarthy made big plays down field, with 7 completions of 20-plus yards. Three of those went to Wilson, who notched career bests in receptions (9) and receiving yards (143). He leads Michigan with 12 20-plus-yard plays this season.

Miscellaneous Michigan football offense notes

• Michigan has won nine straight games by 24-plus points for the first time since an 11-game stretch spanning from the end of the 1903 season into the 1904 campaign.

• Only Illinois (44) has put up more points on Purdue this season. Ohio State beat the Boilermakers, 41-7, matching Michigan’s point total.

• With 41 points against Purdue, Michigan has scored (239) points over their last five contests against Big Ten opponents, which is the most across five conference games in program history.

• Michigan has scored 30-plus points in 12 straight outings, the longest streak in program history. The 1976 team (eight in a row) previously held the record.

• The Wolverines’ 110 rushing yards are the least amount they’ve amassed in a game since putting up 91 in a 34-11 loss to Georgia Dec. 31, 2021.

• The Maize and Blue surrendered 3 sacks, the second-most they’ve given up in a game this season (Indiana, 4). Michigan has now allowed 11 sacks this year. They’ve had four outings with no sacks.

• McCarthy now has 5,369 career passing yards, which ranks ninth all time in program history after overtaking Tom Brady (5,351). He’s 80 yards shy of Harbaugh (5,499).

• Corum now has 47 rushing touchdowns in his career, tied second in Michigan history with Tyrone Wheatley. He’s 8 shy of Anthony Thomas (55). Corum leads the nation with 16 rushing touchdowns. Saturday marked his second 3-rushing-score game of the season (UNLV, 3) and fifth of his career.

• Edwards now has 62 career receptions, which ranks eighth among Michigan running backs throughout history, passing Chris Howard, who caught 60. He’s 2 shy of Gerald White for seventh on the list (64). Edwards ranks fourth in receiving yards by a U-M running back with 690, 120 shy of the career record held by Anthony Thomas (810).

• Morgan’s rushing score was the first of his career and the second-longest rush of the season for Michigan. Morgan has 2 receiving scores on the year.

• Michigan scored 20 or more points in the first half for the fifth consecutive game. The Wolverines have hit that mark in seven of nine games this season.