– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN — The first half of today’s monumental Big Ten matchup at Michigan Stadium was all Wolverines on the football field, but the scoreboard after north of 30 minutes of play saw its opponents in the lead and in position to steal a victory.
From then on, the Michigan running back duo of Donovan Edwards and Blake Corum carried the Wolverines across the finish line…and carried, and carried, and carried, and carried the ball some more for good measure.
Either Edwards or Corum seemed to touch the ball on every play in the second half, and their long touchdown runs on consecutive offensive plays in the third quarter gave the Wolverines the breathing room they needed in their defeat of No. 10 Penn State 41-17 on Saturday afternoon. Of the 563 yards of total offense racked up by the Wolverines, a whopping 418 of those came on the ground, with Edwards going for 173 yards on 16 carries and Corum amassing 166 yards rushing on 28 carries. Both ran for two touchdowns.
Penn State gained just one first down in the first half compared to the Wolverines’ 18, but the Nittany Lions were ahead at halftime thanks to a 47-yard interception return by Curtis Jacobs late in the first half to give Penn State a 14-13 lead. Michigan kicked a field goal just before halftime to take a 16-14 lead into intermission before Jake Pinegar capped off the Nittany Lions’ first drive of the second half with a 27-yard Jake Pinegar field goal to retake the lead.
The Edwards and Corum show then kicked into high gear. On the first offensive play after Pinegar’s field goal, Edwards ran right before cutting up field and exploding for a 67-yard touchdown run that gave the Wolverines the lead for good at 24-17.
Penn State followed with one of its best drives of the game, but was stopped on a fourth-down play from Michigan’s 39 to turn the ball over on downs.
Seconds later, Corum took a handoff and burst up the middle for a 61-yard touchdown, giving Michigan a 31-17 lead late in the third, the beginning of the end for the Nittany Lions.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Saturday afternoon’s game, with all photos taken by Detroit-area photographer Aaron J. Thornton. After clicking on the first photo to enlarge the picture, make sure to press the left and right arrow buttons to scroll through the rest of the pictures. There are 23 pictures in total.
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