Aside from a Denard Robinson fumble that led to easy Purdue points, the Boilermakers were unable to get things done against Michigan Wolverines team that racked up four touchdowns en route to a dominating 44-13 victory on Saturday.
Caleb TerBush connected with O.J. Ross for Purdue's only touchdown late in the second quarter but, other than that, they only managed a pair of Paul Griggs field goals (37 and 40 yards) in the losing effort.
In what is something of a rare occurrence, Fitzgerald Toussaint had a very poor game running the football. He notched two touchdown runs, but they were both for 1 yard, and his long on the day was just 6 yards. It's a rarity for such a noted playmaker to carry the ball almost 20 times (18 carries) for just 20 yards. His per-carry average was a paltry 1.1.
Robinson picked up the slack there, though, rushing for 236 yards with a long of 59, off of 24 carries altogether. He had four times more rushing yards than Purdue had rushing altogether. Their leading rusher was Akeem Shavers, who only managed 34 yards off of 10 carries. Michigan's defense was simply dominant in this one, as TerBush managed only 105 yards through the air to go with their lack of rushing attack.
Box Score Hero: Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson was the player to watch in this one, as he managed to put up decent yardage in the air and big yardage on the ground. He threw for 104 yards and was 8-for-16 with a touchdown, while rushing the ball 24 times for 236 yards and one touchdown, good for a 9.8-yards-per-carry average.
Rankings Ramifications: Michigan was ranked to start the college football season, but fell off after a 2-2 record. It's unlikely a dominating win over Purdue puts them back in the thick of things, but at least they're back on the right track with their first road victory of the season.
But Did They Cover? Michigan was only favored to win this one by 3 points, so if you picked Purdue to cover, you made a bad play. The over/under opened at 57, so it depends on where the line settled for you on which was the smarter bet.
Next Week's Schedule: The Wolverines will try and make it two-straight when they take on Illinois Oct. 13, while Purdue will look for win No. 4 when they take on Wisconsin on the same day.
This story originally appeared at SB Nation.