Michigan football returns to roots for statement win to silence on-the-field critics

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The only questions that should remain about the Michigan football team are those focused off the field.

Because for the 10th time in as many weeks, the No. 2 Wolverines just answered the ones on the field.

After being told they had yet to have a notable win, after being highly scrutinized for their sign-stealing scandal, after finding out coach Jim Harbaugh was not going to be available less than two hours before the kickoff of their first top-10 matchup, the Wolverines still ran over Penn State's previously top-ranked run defense in old-school style, grounding the Nittany Lions, 24-15.

"Yesterday, we just wanted to use that as fuel and motivation," captain and starting offensive guard Trevor Keegan said. "Guys just wanted to prove the haters wrong. ... We wanted to do this for Coach Harbaugh and come in here and get a gritty win.

"We took it extremely well and the adversity that hit, we just punched it right in the face. It was awesome."

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The sign-stealing saga is far from over. Harbaugh is due in Washtenaw County court Friday morning — a few hours before his team is scheduled to leave for Maryland in its final road trip of the season — to try and fight the conference's suspension. The NCAA hasn't had its say, either.

But the Wolverines have talked about controlling what they can control, and Saturday they did exactly that.

In recent years, a grind-it-out victory propelled by an overwhelming rushing attack wouldn't inspire in the way it did Saturday. Some would instead look at quarterback J.J. McCarthy's final stat line — the junior completed just seven of eight passes for 60 yards (and no touchdowns for the second consecutive week) — and lament the lack of a passing attack.

But Michigan's rushing attack, missing in so many games this year, was, ironically, the final piece of the puzzle.

"I'm proud of those guys up front," said acting head coach Sherrone Moore, who now has as many top-10 wins (one) as Penn State's James Franklin. "They've taken a lot of ridicule, saying. 'Oh, they haven't run the ball well' or done this, but they really asserted themselves in practice, you could tell they took a lot of pride in it."

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The Wolverines entered the game well-aware that Penn State was averaging just 60.4 yards rushing per game, but didn't necessarily go in focused on attacking it.

That changed after the first two drives, when the Nittany Lions' No. 2-ranked pass rush (which entered Saturday averaging 4.3 sacks a game) started creating problems. U-M picked up a quick first down, but a Karsen Barnhart false start put the team in an obvious passing situation. On third down, Barnhart was beat and McCarthy was dropped for a sack.

On the next possession, Barnhart was again beat off the line by Chop Robinson, who hit McCarthy to force an incompletion and a punt.

"I mean, they've got a hell of a defense," Keegan said. "Their scheme, their players, they're quick. You can't even tell where the pressures coming, they do a great job hiding it. So we knew it was super important for us to get our feet in the ground and just play ball."

U-M didn't move the sticks until its third possession, a designed McCarthy run that picked up 13 yards on third-and-10, on the final play of the first quarter. A 22-yard Donovan Edwards run followed to open the second; a few plays later, on third-and-6, McCarthy found Semaj Morgan on a screen pass for a gain of 19.

One play later, Corum found the end zone to take a 7-3 lead.

After U-M's defense forced a punt, it was Corum's turn for a long run, as he ripped off a 44-yard carry around the left side — his second longest gain of the season — to get Michigan back in the scoring zone.

"The tight ends did a good job blocking; No. 0 (Dominic DeLuca) kind of went inside and (they) were able to log him," Corum explained. "Then it was just green grass."

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Two plays later, with 7:41 to play, Michigan ran a screen pass to Colston Loveland, who was tackled at the line of scrimmage. It wound up as McCarthy's final pass attempt.

Michigan ran the ball on its last 32 offensive plays, with no official passes over the final 37:41 — and there was still nothing Penn State could do about it. The stretch started with Edwards' touch on third-and-11, when he high-stepped through the right side for a touchdown to go up by 11 with 6:07 in the half.

Penn State responded and scored its first touchdown of the day with 29 seconds remaining in the half, and as U-M went into the break up 14-9, Corum shared a message.

"Going into halftime, it was up front, we're going to dominate," Corum said. "I just kept preaching to them, 'Just push, just fight, fight, fight' and something's going to break and that's what happened."

Push they did, and break Penn State did.

The Wolverines ran 13 times in the third quarter for 47 yards and then 17 times in the fourth quarter for 70 yards; the most consequential of which came on an inside zone, when Corum hesitated behind the line, watched his hole open then ran untouched 30 yards for the put-away score.

"Safety took a bad angle," Corum said. "And that was it."

Not counting the two kneels to end the game or sack yardage, U-M ran 44 times for 241 yards (5.5 yards per attempt) and three scores. As for the defense, it did what it does. Aside from a late touchdown, it suffocated the opponent.

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Drew Allar completed just 10 of 22 passes for 70 yards and the star running back tandem of Kaytron Allen and Nick Singleton was held in check with 115 yards on 25 carries. Meanwhile, Michigan again won the turnover battle, the third-down battle and the time-of-possession.

But no battle mattered more than that of the ground. In Harbaugh fashion, without Harbaugh on hand, against a team hellbent on stopping it.

At least Michigan answered one question on Saturday.

"This game would be won in the trenches," Keegan said. "So it was awesome to put the team on our back."

Contact Tony Garcia: apgarcia@freepress.com. Follow him at @realtonygarcia.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan returns to run game roots, silences those critical of résumé