Week 7: Purdue at Michigan

Last week was a disappointing one for Purdue, which laid an egg in a primetime game against Ohio State. Its well-publicized high-powered offense was a no-show, and its quarterback had one of his worst outings. In fact, Curtis Painter barely completed 50 percent of his throws (31-of-60 attempts) and for the first time all year he recorded fewer than two touchdown passes.

Now that all of the Big Ten title talk and Heisman hoopla is done, Painter and the Boilermakers can get back to being the team they really are – a mid-level conference squad contending for a respectable bowl bid. That starts this week with a very winnable matchup against a down-but-not-out Michigan club.

Painter and his wide receiving corps will give Michigan a variety of looks and try to expose a pass defense (fourth in the Big Ten, 89th in the country) that has struggled against quality opponents.

“There are only so many things you can do defensively when there's five wide receivers or when there's four wide receivers and a tight end or there's nobody in the backfield,” said Michigan coach Lloyd Carr of the Purdue attack.

Carr’s defense has had trouble with a variety of offenses this season. Somehow Michigan allowed Eastern Michigan to stay in the race last week, only to explode in the final 20 minutes on the fine running of Mike Hart. It’s been the formula for success for Carr’s club this year: self-destruct early, have Hart bail out the team late.

Purdue’s defense did its job against last week by creating turnovers. If the Boilermakers can prompt Michigan’s Chad Henne into forcing passes, or somehow get Hart to cough up the football (not likely) it will put the offense in a position to make amends for last week’s stumble.

Still, we don’t see that happening, not in Ann Arbor. The Wolverines are a hungry team focused on getting back on track, and their legitimate Heisman contender, Hart, will be too much for Purdue to deal with.

Michigan by 4