Michigan Football: 3 takeaways from the punishment of Purdue

With an ongoing investigation hovering over them, Michigan football plowed through Purdue for another comfortable victory at home.

Michigan football soared out of the gates in the first to a 17-0 lead. Blake Corum scored two of his three touchdowns and continues to climb the charts for most trips to the endzone in a prestigious class of running backs. Will Johnson snagged a pick from Hudson Card that he nearly returned to the house to get Corum that score.

Purdue won the second quarter 6-3 and they outgained the Wolverines as well. J.J. McCarthy was off on some of his throws and the running game pretty much vanished. Michigan’s defense did its job though, as they kept the Boilermakers out of the endzone. Johnson almost had his second pick of the night thanks to a forced pass by Card.

In the third period, Purdue was held scoreless. That’s become commonplace for Jesse Minter’s unit all season long. Semaj Morgan took an end around and went the distance to provide a spark that got the maize and blue going again. Morgan blew past the defense on a play where his teammate, Cornelius Johnson had to choose which defender to block for him.

McCarthy played in the fourth, which has been a rarity for him this year. He drove the offense to a pair of touchdown drives. The defense did give up a garbage touchdown on fourth down that spoiled it for some Michigan fans at the conclusion. Otherwise, it was another successful flattening of a Big Ten basement feeder.

Afterwards, Ryan Walters had to shake the hand of Jim Harbaugh and it was tense, to say the least. Walters reached his hand out and passed Harbaugh like he didn’t want anything to do with him and the feeling was probably mutual with Harbaugh. These handshakes are only going to get more interesting as the weeks go by, especially when Ohio State enters Michigan stadium.

Here are the three takeaways.

1. Sherrone Moore needs to get Semaj Morgan more involved

The freshman speedster had a highlight-worthy night. A 44-yard scamper to the house that he just outran the defensive back on the edge and left him in the dust. On that one play, he matched Blake Corum with 44 yards rushing under the lights. He also caught a couple of grabs and was targeted by J.J. McCarthy later in the contest.

Morgan actually had the most combined yards between himself, Donovan Edwards, and Corum. All three scored five touchdowns on the ground for the offense. Once Roman Wilson and Cornelius Johnson depart for greener pastures, Morgan will surely be a home run threat for whoever is playing quarterback next season and beyond.

More importantly, though Morgan got the offense back on track when they were sputtering. He has the speed to make explosive plays and that should only grow as his development progresses over the years. Coach Moore has to find different ways to get him the football as much as possible. Kickoff returns are a good start to hone his craft.

2. Purdue outrushed Michigan football

Believe it or not, Michigan football lost the rushing battle to the Boilermakers. The last time that happened Michigan lost the game too. Tyrone Tracy had more yards than Blake Corum did and Devin Mockobee had about half the yardage that he did in the Big Ten championship game 11 months ago.

Corum has only gone over 100 yards once this season despite scoring 16 touchdowns. He’s averaging 72 per outing, which is the worst of his career since 2020.

Edwards is not any better. He’s at 26 a game. Entering Saturday night Michigan was inside the top 50 at 175 yards a contest. Those numbers will certainly decrease after the Purdue win.

Last year Corum had over 100 yards against Ryan Walters and the Illini defense before getting hurt. Penn State’s defense is the most aggressive unit they will face to date. They are top five when defending the run. They controlled Maryland and only surrendered one rusher in positive yards on the day, a negative 49 for the record. McCarthy had a negative 31 by himself because he got sacked three times on Saturday.

3. A top 10 tilt in Happy Valley is on the horizon

The excuses for Michigan football not playing anyone officially ends next Saturday. The Wolverines will travel into a stripe out, not a white out, where immense pressure will be on James Franklin to beat a top-five team on his home field.

This could be his last chance to do so if the fanbase has anything to say about it.

The Nittany Lions offense disappeared in the Ohio State affair. Michigan’s defense is arguably better than Ohio State’s, but Penn State will be at home this time around.

It will all depend on how Drew Allar does. He was 18-42 with a 27.9 passer rating. He was 50% in mop-up duty when he saw action in the Big House in 2022.

Michigan’s defense hasn’t allowed any quarterback to gain any rhythm against them all season. Bowling Green’s signal callers had the best completion percentage, but they also threw two interceptions.

Allar has only thrown one interception leading up to next Saturday’s clash. Something has to give between these two brand names.