Nebraska’s Malcolm Hartzog pushes Michigan’s Blake Corum out of bounds Saturday at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich.
ANN ARBOR, MICH. — A primary-quarter snowstorm made it tough to see an inconvenient fact.
4 years after struggling an embarrassing loss within the Huge Home, Nebraska was no nearer to happening the street and competing towards one of many Huge Ten’s flagship applications.
That the rating line wasn’t much more one-sided than it was is a credit score to a Nebraska protection that made life tough for its opponents as soon as once more. However, for the third week in a row, Nebraska produced nearly nothing offensively and ended the sport with out having scored a landing in its final seven quarters of soccer.
No. 3 Michigan defeated Nebraska 34-3 at Michigan Stadium on Saturday, formally eliminating the Huskers from bowl eligibility for the sixth yr in a row.
Making his second begin of the yr, Nebraska (3-7, 2-5 Huge Ten) quarterback Chubba Purdy’s greatest throw of the sport got here on the opening drive. Purdy linked with Marcus Washington for a 30-yard achieve down the sideline, however Nebraska failed to return away with factors on its opening drive.
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As a substitute, Michigan (10-0, 7-0) responded by marching 80 yards down the sphere for a Blake Corum 2-yard dashing landing.
Then got here the punts. Nebraska and Michigan mixed to choose up one first down and punt 5 instances on the following 5 drives, with Purdy heading up a trio of three-and-out possessions. On the opposite finish of the sphere, stress from Nebraska’s edge rushers and tight one-on-one protection within the secondary stored Michigan from extending its 7-0 lead.
That modified after Nebraska’s fourth punt in 4 drives. Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy linked with Colston Loveland for a 28-yard achieve earlier than tossing a 9-yard landing go to Ronnie Bell two performs later.
To its credit score, the Nebraska offense responded with its greatest drive of the primary half. Purdy picked up 4 first downs, together with two through quarterback scrambles, however the closing first down of the drive proved to be expensive. Purdy was hit mid-slide, and the redshirt freshman stayed down on the turf earlier than exiting the sport.
Sophomore Logan Smothers was unable to get Nebraska a lot nearer to the tip zone, and Timmy Bleekrode transformed a 37-yard discipline purpose to place Nebraska on the board. Michigan quickly adopted with a discipline purpose of its personal, and the Wolverines took a 17-3 lead into the halftime locker room.
Nonetheless, the Nebraska offense suffered one other loss late within the second quarter even when it wasn’t on the sphere.
On the finish of a play, a Michigan participant bumped into offensive coordinator Mark Whipple on the Nebraska sideline. Whipple gave the impression to be hit within the knee, and interim head coach Mickey Joseph stated at halftime that Whipple was present process X-rays and that Nebraska would work collectively to name performs as a employees within the second half.
The offensive effort didn’t go significantly better within the second half with out Purdy and Whipple on the sphere. Nebraska had simply 4 offensive possessions after halftime, failing to drive previous midfield on all of them. In complete, Nebraska gained simply eight first downs and had 137 yards of complete offense, in comparison with 27 first downs and 412 yards of offense for Michigan.
The Michigan offensive line started to exert its will as the sport dragged on, opening up a number of spectacular lanes for Corum to run via on a six-minute landing drive. McCarthy scored the 3-yard dashing landing on a quarterback energy that prolonged Michigan’s result in 24-3 and put away the sport for good late within the third quarter.
Michigan tacked on one other landing within the fourth quarter when Bell evaded a number of tacklers earlier than fumbling proper earlier than crossing the purpose line. Officers dominated that Andrel Anthony fell on the ball for a landing, making it a 31-3 recreation in Michigan’s favor.
The Wolverines tacked on a discipline purpose with 1:17 left within the recreation to provide the ultimate rating.
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