4B - October 17, 2007 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com GAME STATISTICS Tam Stats eRs/Yds Passig Yards Offesive Plys TtalIOffense Comp/Att/Int Punts/Avg Pnatis/Yards PASSINGHS Plae Penne PUSHIN Payer PHarH BrownP ManihamI MinorHIH PU 25/39 253 72 292 122 29/47/2 7/41.7 3/2 /NA 28:7 M I C H I G A N C-A Yds 21-28 264 22-30 269 MICH 43/189 269 73 458 22/30/ 5/38 2/2 5/35 3153 TD Int 2 0 0 0 2 0 Att Yds 21 102 13 66 2 16 3 7 2 5 1 l 1 -8 43 202 Avg 49 2.3 Lg 14 1 1 443 29 TD 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 4 TD 2 0 0 0 0 No. 6 Yds Avg Lg 14 18.4 4s5 1 11 11 1 7 7 1 6 6 22 269 12.2 No. Yds 4 148 5 190 No. Yds Avg 2 39 195 3 39 13 JEREMYCHO/Ga Junior wide receiver Mario Manningham hauled in two touchdown catches and did his part to rove the Wolverines back into the Associated Press Top 25. Blue back in the top 25 WRIGHT From page 1B said. "For us to be up there, we have to play our bestgame, keep improving on this game." And the Purdue beatdown sure looks like a good start. Saturday's game wasn't sup- posed tobe a one-sided affair: The Michigan defense would struggle against the Boilermaker spread offense, and the Wolver- ine offense needed consistency. But the unit ran over the Boilermaker defense with both senior Mike Hart in the first half and third-string running back Carlos Brown in the second. Most important, Henne went to the air early and often. The first play of the game, shockingly, the Wolverines ran a play-action off the traditional Hart rush left. Henne hit wide open tight end Carson Butler for a first down. The offense was supposed to lead the Wolverines this year. Saturday showed what the offense was expected to become. Michigan strayed from its "complicated" but predictable offense and threw just as often as it ran on first down. "Looking at our tendencies, we were pretty much a run-on- first-down kind of team," Henne said. "We had to switch up our tendencies a lot." And Henne could smile after the game because the offense may have found its rhythm. It's taken six weeks longer than expected, but Saturday put together all the earlier flashes the offense showed. "Today, you saw the capabil- ity that our offense has, that we can go out there and score a lot of points and be balanced," Henne said. If the Wolverines want to keep their current winningstreak, they'll need similar performanc- es from Henne and co. Otherwise, Michigan might find itself 0-2 in a different cat- egory - National and Big Ten Championships. - Wright can be reached at kpwr@umich.edu. 6 45 Avg Lg 37 43 38 43 Lg TD 3s 0 No Yds Avg 2 21 10.5 16 TD :olo Asst Tot 2 4 6 5 0 5 2 3 5 4 0 4 4 0 4 3 1 4 3 1 4 2 2 4 2 2 4 2 2 4 0 4 4 0 4 4 By JACK HERMAN Daily Sports Editor After Michigan lost to Appalachian State to open its season, Associated Press voters added insult to insultwhen they dropped the fifth-ranked Wolverines from the top 25 rankings. NOTEBOOK It marked the first time since an Oct. 15, 2005 loss to Minnesota that dropped the Wolverines' record to 3-3 Mich- igan sat unranked. No team had ever fallen further. But one embarrassingloss and five straight redeeming wins later, and Michigan has inched its way back into the rankings. The Wolverines ranked 24th in the poll released this weekend. "It's great to be back in the polls, but it's not good enoughfor us," left tackle Jake Long said. "We want to keep winning, keep going up and keep proving to people that we can be one of those top teams." If Michigan keeps playing like it did in Saturday's 48-21 win over Purdue, that's quite possible. An upset-filled season has created tur- moil at the top of the poll. Including No. 1 Ohio State, six differentteams received first- place votes this week. South Florida - which didn't even play Division 1-A football until 2001- ranks No. 2. The experts had just as much trouble agreeing on Michigan's status. The Wolver- ines appeared on just 42 of 65 ballots. Voters ranked Michigan in every position from No. 16 (ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit) to No. 25. "Ohio State and Michigan, despite its early meltdowns, are two of the most tal- ented teams in the country," blogged San Jose Mercury News writer Jon Wilner, who ranked the Wolverines 22nd. "But no one else in the Big Ten is remotely close to being an elite team." A THIN OFFENSIVE LINE: With injuries to three right guards decimating the offen- sive line, tackle Steve Schilling moved over one spot from right tackle to fill the hole. And although the redshirt freshman has struggled the past two games to adjust to his new pass-blocking role, Carr says he might stick with the young Wolverine at the posi- tion. "It's a very competitive situation," Carr said. "Eventually, Schilling could end up at guard. He could be a great guard, or he could be a great tackle. "What we're trying to decide here is what gives us the best chance to win and what is most comfortable." AS FOR THE REST OF THEM: Although Lloyd Carr dodged providing a concrete answer about the status of running back Mike Hart, the coach did provide some inju- ry updates in his press conference Monday. The good: Linebacker John Thompson should return to full strength by Saturday. The bad: Guard Alex Mitchell won't. And the questionable: Runningback Bran- don Minor. "We'll have to see where they are (yester- day)," said Carr, referring to Minor and Hart. "They made progress (Sunday), certainly, and (Monday). When you spend as much time as they do in the training room ..., the more opportunity you have to heal quicker. That's a big part of it." AFTERNOON DELIGHT: Michigan will play Minnesota at 3:30 p.m. on Oct. 27 in a game televised on ESPN Classic. It will be the Wol- verines' fourth 3:30 game this year. i I Complete effort complements win BIG TEN STANDINGS Team BigTen Overall Ohio State Michigan Illinois Indiana Penn State Wisconsin Northwestern Michigan State Purdue Iowa Minnesota 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 2 2 2 2 2 3 4 75 5 5 5 5 4 5 3 1 0 2 2 2 2 2 3 2 2 4 6 THIS WEEKEND'S RESULTS MIcHIGAN 48, Purdue 21 IowA 10, Illinois 6 Penn State 39, WscoNslN 7 Ohio State 48, KENT STATE 3 MIcHIGAN STATE 52, INANA7 NORTHESTERN 49, MIsstSorA 48 OT AROUND THE NCAA NO.1 LOUISIANA FALLS IN 30T Back in 2002, thousands of Kentucky fans rushed the field after the Wild- cats' game against Louisiana State. Then-Kentucky coach Guy Morriss was doused with Gatorade. The party was on. Not so fast. A 75-yard touchdown catch by Devery Henderson on the final play gave the Tigers the win. Five years later, Kentucky and the Wildcat Faithful could finally celebrate on the field at Com- monwealth Stadium as the Wildcats knocked off No. 1 Louisiana State 43-37 in three overtimes. Les Miles doesn't seem as great as he did last week. SOONERS WIN BIG 12 BATTLE The luster of Missouri's surprise 6-0 start is fading fast. With a 41-31 loss at Oklahoma Saturday, its 17th straight in Norman, the Tigers don't seem to be leaping to the elite level. Add on Illinois, Missouri's marquee win, losing to Iowa, and the Tigers are just an above average team that beat up on a handful of lesser opponents. Oklahoma, on the other hand, has rebounded well from being upset by Colorado with wins over Texas and Missouri. Sooner quarterback Sam Bradford, who threw for just 112 yards and had two interceptions, had 266 yards, two touchdowns and no picks. BEAVERS FLIP SCRIPT, EAT UP BEARS Oregon State completed the dropping of the nation's top two teams with a 31-28 upset win at California. With the Golden Bears deep in Beaver territory with 14 seconds left and no timeouts, Cal quarterback Kevin Riley tried to run and was tackled in bounds. Although the Golden Bears' chance of spiking the ball was slim, the odds of getting the field goal unit on the field and a kick up were none. Jeff Tedford doesn't seem as great as he did last week. EMMA NOLAN-ABRAHAMIAN/Daly Running back Carlos Brown filled in for injured backs Mike Hart and Brandon Minor and rushed for 66 yards. Turnovers turn offensive tides for the Wolverines By SCOTT BELL Daily Sports Editor After back-to-back slow starts, the Michigan offense knew it had to strike quickly against Pur- due. Facing a team with the ability to put up a lot of points, NOTEBOOK the Wolverines had to look to offensive stars Mike Hart, Chad Henne and Mario Manningham to outscore the high-flying Boilermaker offense. And though all three of them had great games, Michigan's best weapon may have come from outside the trio. The most help came from an unexpected place - the defense. Time and again, the Wolverine offense started in Purdue territory because of turnovers forced by their defense. "That's what we've been preaching - we've been coming out pretty lazy in the first half and we really wanted to come out and show people that we could have the excitement in the first half," nickelback Brandon Harrison said. A pair of first-half turnovers forced by Tim Jamison (fumble) and Harrison (interception) allowed Michigan to extend its lead from three to 17 points in a matter of a few minutes, thanks to great field position. Michigan's defense has forced the second- most turnovers in the nation, trailing just Cin- cinnati. "Those are huge," cornerback Morgan Trent said. "That's game-changing when you can go out there and get a turnover on first down and second down and get a short field for our offense. That changes the game significantly." Michigan's first touchdown came just two plays after Stevie Brown recovered a punt that went off the back of a Boilermaker blocker. In all, three of Michigan's first four touch- downs came after turnovers. The touchdown drives were all two plays or fewer and took a total of just 29 seconds. HIS TIME TO SHINE: If there's such a thing as a silver lining when your No. 1 and No. 2 running backs go down with ankle injuries within min- utes of each other, Saturday may have found it. Sophomore Carlos Brown, a five-star running back that seemed immune to good breaks last season, finally got his time in the limelight Sat- urday afternoon. The Georgia native scored two second-half touchdowns on a career-high 13 carries and 66 yards. "He's been through some ups and downs," Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said. "Ithought today he showed some flashes of what he could do." Brown came to Michigan last season as one of the most highly touted backs in recent memory to choose Ann Arbor as his college destination. But by year's end, he had been relegated to snaps during practice as a backup quarterback and seriously considered transferring after trying his hand at cornerback. Brown stuck around for his sophomore season and returned to his natural tailback position. His decisionto stick around finally appears to be pay- ing dividends. Running backs coach Fred Jackson said the performance followed Brown's best week of practice at Michigan. "(Carlos) has really been getting better," offensive coordinator Mike DeBord said. "So it was really great to see him get game experience where he could show it." IT'S ABOUT TIME: It may have seemed like ages, but the Michigan kicking game finally had a flawless afternoon. For the first time in four weeks and just the second time in the seven-game season, the Wol- verines went without either a missed field goal or extra point. SeniorK.C. Lopata was a perfect 2-for-2 on his field goal attempts (34 and 35 yards) and 6-for-6 on his extra point attempts. In every other game excluding Michigan's 38- O victory over Notre Dame, the kicking team had some sort of placekicking miscue. Not everything was perfect on special teams, though. For the second straight week, the Wol- verines allowed their opponents to recover both of its onside kick attempts. FOOTBALL From page 1B collectivesighofrelief.WhenHart told his teammates that he would play next week at Illinois, they relaxed. And when Tim Jamison and Jake Longessentiallyguaran- teed at Monday's press conference that Hart would be in uniform in Champaign, Wolverine nation knew it could breathe easy. "He was still happy," defensive end Tim Jamison said.."He wasn't shrieking in pain or anything like that. He's going to play this week. That's what I expect. He's going to play." Said captain Jake Long: "I have no doubt in my mind he'll play. I saw him (Monday), he looked good, so I have no doubt." With the favorable prognosis, Michigan fans can reflect on the complete game they saw from the Wolverines in their 48-21 blow- out victory over the Boilermakers Saturday. The first-stringdefense allowed just seven points, and those came after Purdue recovered a Chad Henne fumble on the Michigan 5-yard line. The Boilermakers (1- 2 Big Ten, 5-2 overall) entered the game averaging 39 points and 458 yards per game, but against Mich- igan, they managed just 170 yards before garbage time. The Wolverines (3-0,5-2) want- ed to take away the run game, and they did early, allowing Purdue just 20 yards on the ground in the first half. After Michigan stuffed their rushing attack and gained a lead, the Boilermakers became one-dimensional. The Wolverines could attack quarterback Curtis Painter, sacking him twice and forcing him to throw two inter- ceptions. "That's one thing (defensive coordinator) Ron (English) talked to the defense about all week," secondary coach Vance Bedford said. "We wanted to get after (Painter) early. The first play of the game we blitzed. We wanted to set the tempo for the guys - get them going playing fast, playing hard, and I think it carried on throughout the game." Four Purdue turnovers gave the Michigan offense a short field to score, and each time, the Wolver- ines converted for a touchdown, thrice withinjusttwo plays. After Michigan's first drive faltered, the ensuing punt bounced off Boiler- maker Terrell Vinson and safety Stevie Brown recovered the live ball at Purdue's 32-yard line. Two plays later, a Henne bomb to wide receiver Mario Manningham gave the Wolverines a 7-0 lead. And after nickel back Brandon Harrison intercepted Painter late in the second quarter, Manning- ham hauled in another long ball on the very next play for his sec- ond touchdown. "Ithrewitup there,hopingthat Mariowouldgogetit,"Hennesaid. "Not to bust on Mario, but he's not a guy like Braylon Edwards to go up and grab the ball. It definitely instilled some confidence in me and him for (him) going to get the ball and making that play." The junior receiver finished with eight catches for 147 yards and those two scores, making for his best game of the season just one week after he sat out with a suspension. Henne tallied 264 yards and two touchdowns, completing 21- of-28 passes in his best game of the year. And Hart, playing just one half, gained 102 yards and extended his streak of consecu- tive 100-yard games to seven - a new Michigan record. With the offense and defense both finally performing up to their potential, Michigan pro- duced its most complete, impres- sive game Saturday, leading 41-7 when the starters exited. And going into Champaign to play Illinois in a night game this Saturday, the Wolverines could use a similar performance to con- tinue their five-game winning streak and their pursuit of a Big Ten Championship. "We knew when we had those twonon-league losses that we still had the Big Ten Championship to look forward to," Henne said. "For us to be up there, we have to play our best game, keep improving on this game and know what helped us win this game to continue our success." 9 0 0 Web-exclusive stories. michigandaily.com