Second-half meltdown puts Michigan football in a deep freeze again

November 7, 6:13 PMMichigan Wolverines ExaminerFrank Benson

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Brandon Minor ran for three touchdowns in Michigan's loss to Purdue  AP/photo

Another game, another second-half meltdown for the University of Michigan football team.

Facing a must-win game against Purdue, the Wolverines built up a 24-10 halftime lead and then lost to the Boilermakers, 38-36 at the Big House on Saturday.

Stop if you’ve heard this before.

It’s the third straight week Michigan has lost a lead in the last 30 minutes. And things couldn’t be much worse. Michigan, which began the season with four straight wins, including a win over a then-Top 25 team Notre Dame, has now lost three straight and five straight Big Ten games. Michigan is 5-5 overall, 1-1 in Big Ten play.

In order to finish the season with a ..500 record and a chance to play in a bowl game, the Wolverines must win one of their two final games. And the schedule isn’t favorable. Michigan plays at Wisconsin next Saturday and then closes the season at home in the traditional season-ender against Ohio State.

Michigan will be an underdog in both games. The Wolverines were a four-point favorite against Purdue.

“I know Michigan fans are frustrated and coaches and players are frustrated, too,” said Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez.

“This thing is going to take time to turn around. We’d all like to have it happen right away and real soon but we’re going to have to be patient.”

Rodriguez said while Purdue “played a good game,” he added, “we didn’t play well enough to win.”

Purdue was coming off a shutout loss to Wisconsin last week, its worst loss in a decade. The win at Michigan Stadium was the team's first in Ann Arbor since 1966, when Bob Griese led the team and Lyndon Johnson was in the White House. The Boilermakers are 4-6.

The game featured plenty of offense on both sides until Michigan’s offense stalled in the second half. It was similar to Michigan losses to Penn State two weeks ago and Illinois last week. Michigan has been outscored 75-12 in the second half the last three weeks.

The game’s momentum shifted in the third quarter after a long, 14-play Purdue drive ended with a 10-yard touchdown run by Ralph Bolden, one of three touchdowns on the day for the Purdue runner. It cut Michigan’s lead to 30-24.

On the next play, Purdue surprised Michigan with an onside kick and on the first play from scrimmage, Purdue quarterback Joey Elliott lofted a 54-yard touchdown pass to Cortez Smith on a blown Michigan coverage to give Purdue a 31-30 lead and the Boilermakers never looked back.

“They had momentum but there was a lot of time left,” said Rodriguez.

Elliott threw for a career-high 367 yards and two touchdowns as Purdue racked up 494 yards of offense. Michigan pulled within two points with 2:10 to play on a one-yard touchdown run by Brandon Minor.

Minor, who has been injured much of the season, had a career day with 154 yards rushing and three touchdowns on 19 carries. Michigan went for two points to tie the game but quarterback Tate Forcier was sacked on the play.

“We had to go for two there,” said Rodriguez. “We weren’t stopping anyone on defense and didn’t know if we could get the ball back.”

With 6:38 to play Michigan drove to the 19 yard-line and had a fourth down and nine to go from the 18. Carlos Brown took a pitch from Forcier and cut to the sideline and was tackled three yards short of the first down marker but as he was being pushed out of bounds he appeared to lateral the ball to Mark Hugye, a lineman, who appeared to run for the first down.

But after an officials review, the lateral was called an illegal forward lateral and on the loss of down penalty, the Wolverines turned the ball over.

Michigan had one last chance, getting the ball back with 28 seconds to play, but failed to move the ball.

A bright spot for Michigan was the play of sophomore wide receiver Roy Roundtree, who caught 10 passes for 126 yards. Stevie Brown led Michigan on defense with nine tackles, including one for a loss.

For more info: mgoblue, espn college football, cbs sportsline