INDIANAPOLIS — Donovan Edwards ran for 185 yards and a score, J.J. McCarthy threw three touchdown passes and No. 2 Michigan beat Purdue 43-22 on Saturday night for its second straight Big Ten title and a likely No. 2 playoff seed.
College football’s winningest program has the first 13-win season in school history. Two more victories would give the Wolverines (13-0, No. 2 CFP) their first national championship since 1997.
And with injured star Blake Corum sidelined by a season-ending left knee injury, Edwards stole the show for the second straight week.
“He’s the best running back in college football and he deserves the Heisman. If he hadn’t gotten hurt, he would have easily won the Heisman so this is for Blake Corum,” Edwards said after being named the game MVP. “I think it’s kind of self-explanatory what our goals are. I believe we’ve talked about them all year I don’t think much more needs to be said.”
After shredding rival Ohio State for 216 yards and two scores last week, Edwards broke open this game with a 60-yard run on the first play of the second half to set up one score. He added a 27-yard TD sprint on Michigan’s next series to make it 28-13.
Purdue (8-5) never recovered from Michigan’s quick, seven-play onslaught after it trailed 14-13 at halftime.
But quarterback Aidan O’Connell and receiver Charlie Jones helped the Boilermakers make it interesting for a while.
O’Connell was 32-of-47 with 366 yards and two interceptions after missing some practice time early this week to mourn the death of his oldest brother. Jones, who lost to Michigan in last year’s game while playing for Iowa, had 13 receptions for 162 yards.
It just wasn’t enough.
Michigan showed no signs of a hangover after last week’s rout over the Buckeyes, taking a 7-0 lead on its opening possession with a 25-yard TD pass from McCarthy to Colston Loveland.
Purdue answered with Devin Mockobee‘s 1-yard scoring run to tie the score then took the lead on Mitchell Fineran‘s 33-yard field goal.
Michigan answered by taking advantage of an offside call on fourth-and-6 by going for the first down, picking it up and eventually converting the drive into a 7-yard TD pass from McCarthy to Luke Schoonmaker. The Wolverines never trailed again.
Edwards’ big run set up Kalel Mullings‘ 1-yard TD plunge before Edwards celebrated his own scoring run.
All Purdue could muster was three more field goals.
McCarthy was 11-of-17 with 161 yards and one interception.
Corum posted a message on Twitter on Saturday morning to say his knee surgery went well.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.