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| "It's just a shot away, it's just a shot away." (Jacob Hamilton | MLive) |
Ooh, a storm is threateningMy very life todayIf I don't get some shelterOoh yeah, I'm gonna fade away
"Gimme Shelter" by The Rolling Stones from their 1969 album Let It Bleed.
It was certainly not a boring bye week for the Michigan football program. It was a week that required a lot of incredulity, skepticism, and steeling oneself against wish casting in both directions. Facts were few and far between, but information still needed to be presented as such, with conflicting interpretations of what was, what is, and what shall be. I found myself wanting to exclude myself from any of these conversations because I was not comfortable with what I actually knew about things.
But I can talk about this game.
One of the most challenging things about setting a high standard for yourself or your team is that it can be challenging to maintain that standard. Standards are not set over one game or two games, but eight games into the season, everyone around the country had a pretty good sense of what Michigan is capable of doing.
Early on, the best feeling about the game was that Michigan looked sharp in all phases of the game in the first quarter, something that had not been happening with regularity at home this season, getting out to a 17-0 lead in the first quarter and while there was a slightly off-target pass from JJ McCarthy here or there, it looked very much like this was the match-up of an 8-0 team and a 2-6 team.
Then, the flatness settled in.
It did not actually show up mathematically in the analytics because of the weirdness of how Purdue got to this point. Still, a long Hudson Card completion where a freshman DB appeared to give up on the play (which is probably not what happened, but the way it looked in real time was rough), Purdue extending a drive by getting a punt to carom off one of Michigan's blockers, and Michigan trying to get a 4th and 1 on their own 34. The latter two events gave Purdue excellent field position, with which they could only garner two field goals. Simultaneously, Michigan just could not move the ball with any regularity or consistency,
The malaise continued after the half, and it could be chalked up to a combination of Michigan perhaps believing that they had enough points to win the game and not wanting anyone to get hurt, seemingly telling JJ not to take off and run after the first quarter, and a little bit of post-bye week rust. But cracking the playbook back open just a little, a nifty end around to the speedy Semaj Morgan, bolstered by a neat fake on the counter, and Michigan extended the lead to 21 points and got things unstuck. A couple more fourth quarter touchdowns would put a bow on things, tarnished only slightly by Purdue's late drive that found the end zone on a hanging arm punt on a fourth and three. This pushed Purdue to 13 points, the highest total of any opponent this season. But Michigan came into this game and handled its business ahead of its first ranked match-up of the year in State College next Saturday against the Nittany Lions. No one knows what the week ahead holds, though many would like you to think they do to sell premium subscriptions. But for now, we wait, and we hope.
Tales from the Spreadsheet
- Win 0998
- 41-13 is a Scorigami (41-6 would have also been.)
- 110,245 was the attendance (106th largest crowd in Michigan Stadium history.)
- Michigan moves to 47-14 all-time against Purdue University.
- Michigan has won six straight over Purdue.
- Michigan moves to 14-6-1 all-time on November 4.
- Michigan moves to 19-1 when scoring exactly 49 points (you may remember the one loss).
- Michigan moves to 45-12-1 all-time when allowing 13 points to the opposition.
- Michigan has won 31 games all-time by precisely 28 points, including once already this season against UNLV.
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