Position by position report card from the Purdue vs. Michigan game

Quarterback: D+

Bryce Underwood was not good in this game, his second poor performance in a row. He would finish the game 13/22 with 145 passing yards and 1 interception with 7 carries for 44 yards on the ground. He also lost a fumble near the end zone which ended up being a touchback for Purdue. He had the two critical red zone mistakes which cost Michigan points both times. It was really the main reason the score looked so close on the scoreboard. He never looked comfortable in this game, which is becoming a bit of a trend these last two weeks. He’s been missing open receivers and it looks to me like he’s rushing through his footwork and it’s causing him to be inaccurate. It’s a common mistake for young quarterbacks, but he’s really got to snap out of it and get back to playing in rhythm like he has in other games this season. 

Running backs: A-

Jordan Marshall was tremendous in this game for Michigan as he took over the lead ball carrier duties with Justice Haynes out due to injury. Marshall carried the ball 25 times for 185 rushing yards and 3 TD’s and also had 1 reception for 25 yards as well. He has such a knack for churning out tough yards and he’s also shown he can make a big play when he has the chance to as well as he scampered for a 54-yard TD in this game. It’s such a luxury to have a guy like him be your second running back on the roster and I’m honestly not sure Michigan wins this game without him. 

Bryson Kuzdzal also chipped in as the second guy off the bench and he ran pretty well himself, carrying the ball 4 times for 23 yards. Michigan has great depth at this position overall and it’s probably Michigan’s best position group at the moment. 

Wide receivers and tight ends: B

The wide receivers were decent in this game, there were a couple times they were open and Bryce Underwood just failed to get them the ball. There were also some passes they could’ve corralled to help their young quarterback out and failed to do so. Donavan McCulley in particular has struggled these last two games and he also left this one due to an injury so I wonder if it’s something he’s been trying to play through. Andrew Marsh led the wide receivers with 4 catches for 25 yards as that group didn’t do much through the air. 

The tight ends were emphasized quite a bit in this game, Zack Marshall caught 3 passes for 58 yards. Marlin Klein caught 2 passes for 16 yards and Deakon Tonielli caught 1 pass for 4 yards. They were without Hogan Hanses again due to an injury but the rest of this group played well. Zack Marshall has really come on strong lately and he’s been a nice addition to the passing attack in the middle of the field for the Wolverines.

Offensive line: A-

The offensive line was quite good against Purdue. They rushed for 252 yards in total and averaged 6.5 yards per carry. They only gave up 2 sacks as well which has been one area the offensive line has struggled with at times this year but were fairly solid in this game. There were many plays where the offensive line did a great job creating holes for Jordan Marshall against this Purdue defense and it looks like they’re hitting their stride as a position group as the season enters the home stretch which is a really encouraging sign. I’d still like to see them give Bryce Underwood a little bit more time back there in the pocket on passing plays but it’s a minor concern at this point in my opinion. The running game has proven to be elite and it looks like they’ll be able to run the ball with at least moderate success in every opponent they face the rest of the year. 

Defensive line: B-

The defensive line wasn't bad in this game per se, but they also weren't good either. Purdue's offensive line is not a good one, as they've struggled to sustain much offense against other Big Ten opponents but they had little issue sustaining drives against this Michigan defensive line in this game. Purdue was able to run for 138 yards in this game, but it was on only 3.5 yards per carry. Like I said, it's not a bad number for a defensive line to hold the opposing offense to on the ground but it's also not their best effort. The defensive line is capable of limiting opposing teams on the ground even more than they did in this game and I hope they can play better moving forward.

They did a good job of pressuring Purdue's quarterbacks when the had chances to do so. They had 3 sacks as a team, but Derrick Moore was responsible for 2 of them. If I'm getting a little pickier, I'd like to see someone other than Derrick Moore emerge as a consistent pass rush threat. They did have 7 tackles for loss as a team which is a solid number and refelcts fairly well on the defensive line. Overall it was a decent performance from this group but I want more from them because I know they're capable of giving more.

Linebackers: B+

This group is hard to grade because Michigan was forced to play a lot of depth players who don't normally see the field due to injuries. Cole Sullivan and Jimmy Rolder were out for this game and Jaishawn Barham left very early on with an injury as well. Ernest Hausmann was still there though and he played really well. He led Michigan with 11 tackles and 1 tackle for loss. Troy Bowles and Chase Taylor also played pretty well, especially considering they don't normally get a lot of snaps. Neither of them were exposed much by Purdue's offense and that's a big credit to them. Nathaniel Owusu-Boateng also got some run in this game and he looked lost at times but he's only a true Freshman so it's not anything particularly concerning to me. Let's hope this group can get healthy again over the bye week but even if they're missing guys for another week or two the backup options of Bowles and Taylor played well enough against Purdue that I wouldn't be overly concerned moving forward.

Secondary: A-

Michigan's secondary covered pretty well in this game in my opinion. Opponents continue to avoid throwing at Jyaire Hill as he's been locking down most wide receivers he matches up against. Zeke Berry always does a nice job of staying on top of the wide receivers he's covering and making the tackle right after a catch is made to prevent yards after catch. In a perfect world, he'd be a little stickier in coverage to where his matchup isn't catching passes in the first place, but that's not the most realistic expectation on any given snap.

The Michigan safeties played much better than the previous week against Michigan State, but they still need Rod Moore back healthy to play up to their capabilities back there. Mason Curtis looked good when he was out there, and Jaden Magham and Brandyn Hillman also rebounded from tough games last weekend. TJ Metcalf did get called for a pass interference in this game but he wasn't in poor position necessarily, it was one of those typical under thrown deep passes that makes it really tough on the defensive back to avoid from interfering with the wide receiver. Other than that, this group played much better in coverage and made some nice tackles against the run as well.

Special teams: D

Special teams is becoming one of the bigger areas of concern to me if I'm a Michigan fan. Every week there's big mistakes being made in this area and it's deep enough into the season now that they really shouldn't be happening any longer. Andrew Marsh made a couple bad decisions on kickoff returns that resulted in bad field position for Michigan's offense. Semaj Morgan continues to not field the punts in the air for some reason which gives up field position nearly every time the other team punts the ball. Hudson Hollenbeck was bad in this game at punter and he's been way too inconsistent this year for Michigan. The only bright spot in this special teams units is at least they aren't having kicks blocked or dropping snaps or anything crazy like that. But still, this group has been quite poor all year for Michigan and sadly I don't see that changing anytime this season.

Coaching: B+

Overall I thought Sherrone Moore did a better job at time management in this game at the end of half/end of game situations. He didn't make any clear or obvious blunders which he's made in other games so credit to him for being better in this game.

Chip Lindsey called a great game in my opinion. He dialed up multiple deep shots and schemed open Michigan pass-catchers multiple times that Bryce Underwood just wasn't able to hit. The run game was elite once again and Chip did a nice job of leaning on that but also continuing to take shots to try and get the passing game going despite Bryce Underwood's struggles through the air.

Wink Martindale was also quite good in this game. He was hamstrung quite a bit by the injury bug at linebacker which can be a tough thing to have to scheme around as a defensive coordinator. It's a credit to him that Michigan's depth players didn't really get exposed against Purdue as he did a nice job of protecting the players from being put in bad situations.

Overall the coaching in this game was quite good even though the score might not really reflect it. Michigan's coaches did everything they could to put their players in good positions against Purdue, it was just mostly on the players for not executing at a high enough level to reflect a better effort on the scoreboard. Hopefully the team can learn from this and execute the coaches game plans better in future weeks.