Michigan 28, Purdue 10

By Kevin Schroeder
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Updated: October 6, 2017

Michigan had a tough first half in West Lafayette. The Boilermakers (and the heat) were giving them all they could handle. Then during the second half, adjustments were made. John O’Korn made some big plays in relief of the injured Wilton Speight, the defense totally shut Purdue down, and as the sun literally set to bring an end to the stifling heat, it figuratively set on the Boilermakers

Player Grades

The grading scale goes from -3 to +3 for each play. Penalties are counted in whatever phase they were committed. “Short” throws are 10 yards or less, “Medium” is 10-20, “Deep” is over 20. Everything else (scrambles, throwaways, etc.) is under “Miscellaneous.”

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So what happened?

This wasn’t the performance we’d hoped for against a poor Purdue defense. The Boilermakers came into this game with 1 total sack on the season and picked up 4 in this game. A couple were the result of bad blitz pickups that might have been bad line calls by Kugler. A couple were just bad plays. I don’t know how much better this is going to get. If the line struggles again against Michigan State, coming off the bye, then I think this just is what it is.

John O’Korn performed very well in relief of Speight. After last year’s Indiana game, there were serious doubts that O’Korn would ever be a viable QB for Michigan. There was chatter during camp that he had improved and was actually battling Speight for the starting job. That was largely dismissed by those that had seen the aforementioned Indiana game. Well, the chatter appears to have been correct. Which is a big relief not only because Michigan needed a shot in the arm from the QB position, but also because it means O’Korn was ahead of Brandon Peters because O’Korn could really play, rather than because Peters was struggling.

The defense allowed one long drive where Purdue got them on misdirection plays. After that, the Boilermakers did not get much. The second half went punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, fumble for a total of 10 yards for Purdue. Michigan lost nearly all of last year’s #1 defense to the NFL and is dominant on defense again. All hail Don Brown.