4B - The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - Monday, October 13, 1997 GAME STATISTIC S Tuman rejoins passing attack after 3- oi week wait; turf slippery as a wet rock PASSING Player Griese Totals C-A 23-36 23-36 Yds 244 244 TD 2 2 RUSHING Player Att Howard 18 Floyd 7 C. Williams 7 Thomas 7 Griese 3 Totals 42 RECEIVING Player No. Tuman 5 Shaw 5 C. Williams 4 Streets 2 Thomas 2 Howard 2 Woodson 1 Campbell 1 Floyd 1 Totals 23 PUNTING Player Vinson Totals Yds 90 18 17 13 3 141 Yds 79 44 40 26 20 5 30 3 -3 244 No. 3 3. A 5 2 T2 1 1 15 8 10 13 10 S 2 t30 -3 t-3 10 Yd 11t 11t KICKOFF RETURNS Player No. Yds C. Williams 2 38 Schanski 1 15 Totals 3 53 PUNT RETURNS Player No. Yds 1I 1! ' 1' vg L9 .W 30 .6 7 .4 8 .9 7 .0 8 .4 30 vg Lg .8 37 .8 12 .0 16 .0 22 .0 11 .5 7 .0 30 .0 3 .o 0 .6 37 s Avg 0 36.7 0 36.7 Avg Lg .9.0 26 .5.0 15 .7.7 26 Avg Lg 8.0 8 8.0 8 Asst T 3 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 TD 0 0 0 0 0 0 TD 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 Lg 42 42 TD 0 0 0 TD 0 0 rot 11 6 5 4 4 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 By Alan Goldenbach Daily Sports Editor After a three-week absence from the focus of Michigan's passing attack, tight end Jerame Tuman ate up Northwestern's pass coverage, catching five balls for 79 yards and both of Michigan's touchdowns. In Michigan's season-opener against Colorado, Tuman snared five passes for 126 yards, giving hints that the 250-pound junior would be quarterback Brian Griese's prefered target. But in the three subsequent games, Griese hit Tuman only once each game as the offense focused more on short passes to running backs. "I can't explain it," said Tuman about his receiving renaissance. "Every week, we're all in the game plan. It's just a matter of what the other team wants to give us." The other teams in past weeks have been trying to pressure Griese, which forces him to look short. The blitzing linebackers leave the run- ning backs wide open for dump-off passes. When that happened, Tuman turned his attention to blocking. "I did what I was supposed to do for this offense," Tuman said. "As long as the plays are being made, I'm happy. We got a lot of guys who can make plays, and that makes it easier on the individuals." "My main thing is that this offense is productive." Tuman's 13 catches are fourth on Michigan and his 249 receiving yard leads the team. Clarence Williams i very poor shape. We had guys falling down from the first play. "I don't know what could have happened that it would be in as bad condition as it was after having great weather." Several plays early in the game showed that many Michigan players were having trouble keeping their footing. Williams slipped just as it seemed he was breaking a kickoff return, Tai Streets fell down as a Griese pass sailed over his head and Charles Woodson's feet came out from under him as he was fielding a punt, and luckily for him, missed touching the ball. The ball still took a Northwestern bounce and ended up being a 71-yard punt. "The turf was real slippery out there," Woodson said. "I tried to make a play on a punt. I probably could have gotten to it, but I chose not to reach for it. Then I slipped paces the Wolverines with 17 recep- tions. WHOOPS!: Michigan's toughest opponent yesterday may not have been Northwestern but the sod at Michigan Stadium, which was unusually slippery. "How that turf ended up as slip- -y - pery as it was, I don't know, because we haven't had any rain," Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said. "I want to find out what hap- pened, because that turf was in once I tried to get back to the ball." BooM!: Backup quarterback Tom Brady underwent an emergency appendectomy Thursday afternoon after his appendix burst. "(He) got up at four in the morn- ing and went to the hospital, but he went to the main entrance, and they were closed, Carr said. "So Brady went back home." Later in the day, after a brutal night of sleep, Brady went to prac- tice, and as the pain lingered, he wound up back at the hospital. But miraculously, Scott Dreisbach recovered from a season-long wrist injury on his throwing hand just in time to fill in as Griese's backup for Saturday's game. "Scott was ready to go," Carr said. "He came to see me Wednesday before practice and said, 'Coach, I want you to know my wrist is fine. I'm ready to go.' That's good news for us." Brady is the second Wolverine to undergo an appendectomy this year. Last spring, tackle Jeff Backus faced a similar injury that he put off long enough that it almost turned fatal. The junior quarterback wasn't the only Wolverine hit with the injury bug this weekend. Fullback Chris Floyd limped off the field a couple of times during the game with an apparent leg injury. Cornerback Andre Weathers injured his right shoulder on the game's opening drive while making a tackle. Right guard Chris Ziemann sat out the game with an elbow injury that he sustained against Indiana last Woodson Totals 1 1 8 8 DEFENSE Player Jones Ray J. Williams Sword Renes Taylor Woodson Peterson Wilson Hall Washington Jackson Steele Frysinger Feazell Whitley Patmon Copenhaver Hendricks Weathers Solo 8 6 4 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 .1 1 0 CNEROUNDUP Enis runs Penn State over Bucks; Spartans' Irvin not far behind PASS DEFENSE Player Int Yds Woodson 1 2 Whitley 0 0 Hendricks 0 0 Totals 1 2 Lg 2 0 0 2 Team Stats Mich First Downs 20 Rushes/Yards 42/141 Passing Yards 244 Offensive Plays 78 Total Offense 385 Return Yards 61 Brk-up TD 0 0 2 0 1 0 3 0 NU 10 30/35 135 52 170 108 Comp/Att/Int 23/36/016/22/1 Punts/Avg 3/36.7 Fumbles/Lost 2/2 Penalties/Yards 7/62 Time of Poss 32:35 MICHIGAN SCHEDULE Sept. 13 COLORADO Sept. 20 BAYLOR Sept. 27 NOTRE DAME Oct. 4 Indiana Oct. 11 N'WESTERN Oct. 18 IOWA Oct. 25 Michigan St.J Nov. 1 MINNESOTA Nov. 8 Penn State Nov. 15 Wisconsin Nov. 22 OHIO STATE 4/44.3 1/1 9/61 27:25 W 27-3 W 38-3 W21-14 W 37-0 W 23-6 12:30 p.m. 12:30 p.m. TBA TBA TBA noon By Nicholas J. Cotonlka Daily Sports Editor STATE COLLEGE - As running back Curtis Enis cut through the line on his way to the end zone Saturday, he cut through doubt and pain, too. His fourth- quarter touchdown gave No.2 Penn State a 31-27 victory over No. 7 Ohio State, providing his previously untested team with the performance it needed to be a national title contender and providing himself with redemption. Ems became the first player in 17 games to run for more than 100 yards against Ohio State, gaining 211 yards on 23 carries before a record crowd of 97,282 at Beaver Stadium. Penn State coach Joe Paterno said Tuesday that this game -not the rankings - would indi- cate whether the Nittany Lions (2-0 Big Ten, 5-0 overall) were for real, but to Enis, it was more than that. It was per- sonal. A native of Union City, Ohio, and the winner of Ohio's 1993 Mr. Football Award, Enis was taunted after he ran for 34 yards on 11 carries in the Lions' 38-7 loss to the Buckeyes last year at Ohio Stadium. One taunt, however, haunted him more than most. A letter from a Buckeyes fan said: "We didn't want you at Ohio State, anyway." Enis, burning inside, kept that letter -- only to rip it up before Saturday's game. And after he helped the Lions back from a 10-point second-half deficit and made up for his fumble in the third quarter, Enis choked back tears. "We just proved to people in college football," Enis began as his voice faded into soft sobs, "that we have a great foot- ball team. Down by 10 in that huddle, we talked about how hard we worked this summer and about how we got embar- rassed by them last year. We weren't about to let that happen in our place. We said, 'Let's get it done."' They did, though nothing seemed cer- tain at the time. The Lions took an uneasy 17-13 halftime lead over the Buckeyes (1-1, 5-1), who threatened to take the lead themselves or tie on several occasions. Penn State could have had its lead reduced to one, but Dan Stultz missed a 27-yard field goal with three seconds to go in the half In the third quarter, the Buckeyes broke through and went ahead, 27-17. A three-play drive that featured a reverse and a flea-flicker culminated in a one- yard touchdown pass from Joe Germaine to David Boston with 7:17 to go, and Pepe Pearson scored on an eight-yard run with 1:42 remaining in the quarter. The trick plays "were way over there, and I was over here; Paterno laughed. "I said, 'What the hell are they doing?"' What they were doing was throwing all over the Lions. The Buckeyes' running game, which produced just 106 yards, was sputtering. So they replaced scram- bling starting quarterback Stanley Jackson with Germaine, who completed 29 of 43 passes for 378 yards and two touchdowns. His favorite targets were Boston, who had 14 receptions for 153 yards and a touchdown, and Dee Miller, who had eight receptions for 149 yards and a touchdown. The Lions' offense, meanwhile, was ranked second in the nation entering the game and first in the Big Ten in passing. But quarterback Mike McQueary was 7- of-15 for 68 yards at halftime and fin- ished 14-of-30 for 129 yards. Joe Jurevicius, the league's leading receiver, only caught five balls for 59 yards. . . That left the running game, which faced the sizable obstacle of star Ohio State linebacker Andy Katzenmoyer. A week before, he and the Buckeyes' defense limited Iowa's Tavian Banks, then the nation's leading rusher, to 84 yards. But "we weren't about to let a one- man defense change our plans," said Enis, who struggled in the first half, with 62 yards rushing on nine carries. MICHIGAN STATE 38, INDIANA 6 Michigan State's Sedrick Irvin rushed for a career-high 178 yards and two touchdowns and returned a punt 80 yards for a score as the 11th-ranked Spartans beat Indiana, 38-6, Saturday. "Last year, I was a baby trying to crawl," said Irvin, who totaled 306 yards in rushing, receptions and returns. "This year, I learned from the mistakes and the things that I didn't know last year. So now I'm beginning to walk." Michigan State (2-0,5-0), offto its best start since 1966, added a 27-yard touch- down pass from Todd Schultz to Gari Scott late in the third quarter for a 24-6 lead. Indiana (0-3, 1-5) had to punt on the next possession, and Irvin broke through for the 80-yard return. WIScONsIN 31, ILLINOIS 7 Ron Dayne ran for 207 yards and two touchdowns against winless Illinois (0-3, 0-6) as Wisconsin (3-0, 6-1) extended its winning streak to six games with a 31-7 victory. Dayne, who needed a walking boot for his swollen left ankle last week, scored on a 1-yard run and a 66-yard scamper at rain-drenched Camp Randall Stadium. PURDUE 59, MNNESOTA 43 Billy Dicken tied a school record with five touchdown passes, one more than his total from the previous three seasons, and ran for a score to lead Purdue to a wild 59-43 victory over Minnesota (0-2, 2-4). Brian Alford caught TD passes of 93 and 89 yards on the way to a school- record 215 yards, and Edwin Watson addedthreeTDs as Purdue (2-0,4-1)won its fourth straight, the longest streak since the 1980 team won six straight. HOME GAMES IN CAPS Scoring summary First Quarter NU - Gowins, 52-yard field goal, 6:21 Second Quarter Mich - Baker, 19-yard field goal, 13:25 Mich - Baker, 23-yard field goal, 10:02 Mich - Tuman, 10-yard pass from Griese (Baker kick), 1:02 Third Quarter NU - Gowins, 42-yard field goal, 11:03 Griese was smacked, bu Continued from Page 1B tthe second time, Russell Shaw just coughed up the ball. Three times in the fourth quarter against Notre Dame the Wolverines fumbled the ball in their own end of the field. And three times the defense came to the offense's rescue. holding the Irish scoreless They've only allowed two touchdowns all year. Both of Northwestern's scores were pretty weak - a 52-yard field goal from Brian Gowins and a 42-yarder that clanged off the post before it went in. For the second straight game, Michigan's oppo- nent had negative rushing yards in the first half. Northwestern didn't fare much better in the second, of the responsibility for winning games. Griese certainly isn't the problem. The fifth-year senior turned in another fine performance Saturday, completing 23 of 36 passes for 244 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. But Michigan can't seem to shake off its penchant for stupid penalties and turnovers that may prove costly when the big boys start rolling into town, starting with