Rodriguez: Give us time

What some thought might be the capper to a four-game winning streak became Michigan’s third loss in a row and fifth straight Big Ten setback at the expense of another subpar opponent. Purdue’s 38-36 victory over Michigan, its first at the Big House since 1966, was similar to many of Michigan’s other losses this year.

Big gains to uncovered receivers, a turnover that changed the course of the game and two new wrinkles … a missed extra point and a third quarter onside kick … were U-M’s undoing this time.

“I’m going to have to watch the film and talk to the defensive coaches to see what broke down,” Rodriguez said of the big plays, which included touchdown passes of 35 and 54 yards to uncovered receivers. “That’s the disappointing part. The effort may be good, but the execution’s not. You just can’t give up cheap touchdown running gree.

“There were two times in man coverage where the guys in man had their eyes somewhere else and were too late. Those are avoidable mistakes. I wish I could tell you why they happen. We’re certainly not good enough to overcome those things. Two of them were man coverage, and one of them was zone coverage, the one they threw over our head. I’ll have to watch the film and ask them how that happened.”

The biggest offensive miscue—a fumble on the option that led to a Purdue touchdown that made it 24-17 Michigan early in the second half - opened the floodgates, similar to last week’s loss at Illinois. Ralph Bolden scored on a 19-yard run on the first playing following the mistake. The Boilermakers answered a Michigan touchdown with a 91-yard drive, and then caught U-M napping on an onside kick.

A play later, the Boilermakers went up 31-30 on a 54-yard touchdown from Joey Elliott to Cortez Smith.

“That was momentum [lost], but even then, we’re still in the game. The onside kick I was really disappointed because we say it every time we go out there … see the ball kicked. Every time. There are about 20 people screaming, ‘see the ball kicked, no penalties.’ That’s the first reminder, last reminder we do, just for that reason.

“One guy makes a mistake here, one miscue here … maybe we had a call that didn’t match up exactly right, something like that. We’re close at times, but I’ve said it all year, even at the beginning of the year when we were playing better, we’re not good enough to make some big mistakes and beat anybody on our schedule. We’re not there in our program … it’s a process we’re in. It’s painful, but we’ve got to move on.”

Which is tough when you’re sitting at the bottom conference standings with two games to go. Rodriguez reiterated it would take time, but had no answer when asked what he’d say to disappointed fans.

“What do you want me to say? I feel their frustration, and we have it as well,” he said. “But it’s a process we’re going through. Our fans, they’ve been outstanding. They’re frustrated, we’re frustrated, but we’re not going to give up on them. We’re back to work, and we’ve got a couple of big games out front of us.”

Notes

• Michigan had a chance to tie with a two-point conversion with 2:10 remaining, but freshman Tate Forcier was sacked on the attempt.

“We had a little double move route with all the wide receivers. I don’t know until I watch the film if he had the second guy underneath or not,” said Rodriguez. “I don’t know where his eyes were. We just didn’t execute well.”

• Redshirt freshman Roy Roundtree posted career highs with 10 catches for 146 yards and a 43-yard touchdown. The one-time Purdue commitment said he was motivated to play against the Boilermakers.

“Tay Odoms was hurt and Roy had a pretty good week of practice. They were bringing some blitzers early and we hit a few passes, so we felt comfortable with it, and even felt comfortable in the second half,” said Rodriguez. “We just didn’t execute it.

“He’s got great ball skills. He’s playing for the first time as a redshirt freshman. I thought he played really well, made some big catches, and it looked like he blocked pretty well on the perimeter, too. He’s going to keep getting better because he’s a thin guy playing for the first time. Once he gains some strength, as he matures and gets older, he’s going to be a very, very good player for us, I think.”

• Purdue head coach Danny Hope pulled a Bush League move when he brought guard Zach Reckman to the postgame handshake to say, “Thanks Coach, we appreciate what you did.”

Reckman was suspended for a game because of a late hit against Northern Illinois in September, a play Rodriguez brought up when Michigan linebacker Jonas Mouton was suspended for punching a Notre Dame player the previous week.

“I was a little disappointed,” said Rodriguez. “Their coach brought him over like I was the reason his lineman got suspended for that one game. He brought him over there and said thanks for this, whatever. I don’t know where that came from. I talked to him on the phone and said that wasn’t me … that was way back when. I didn’t have anything to do with that young man getting suspended for that one game.”

Rodriguez said he’s never engaged an opposing coach in a similar manner after a game.

“I usually go over and shake hands, say, ‘good luck for the next game,’” he said. “He came over and shook my hand, introduced me to Reckman and said, ‘thanks Coach … I really appreciate what you did.’”