No. 19 Michigan stomps No. 8 ND
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Zach Charbonnet ran for two touchdowns in the first half and Shea Patterson threw for two scores in the second, helping No. 19 Michigan rout No. 8 Notre Dame 45-14 in driving rain Saturday night.
The Wolverines (6-2) ended an eight-game losing streak against top-10 teams under coach Jim Harbaugh, who needed a signature win in his fifth season that likely won’t end with the Big Ten title he and college football’s winningest program desperately covet.
“We played our best game,” Patterson said. “When we do that, we’re a really tough team to beat.”
The Fighting Irish (5-2) were knocked out of the College Football Playoff
MICH: 6-2 overall ND: 5-2 overall
picture on the rain-filled night that seemed to affect them much more than Michigan.
“It wasn’t necessarily that they threw anything at us that we weren’t ready for, we just didn’t hit our standard of offense,” Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said.
Notre Dame took advantage of a questionable call on pass interference to set up Ian Book’s 7-yard TD pass to Cole Kmet to pull
within 10 points late in the third quarter.
Michigan responded with Patterson’s 8-yard touchdown pass to Donovan Peoples-Jones on the ensuing drive, which got off to a good start with Hassan Haskins’ 49-yard run. The former linebacker fin- ished with a career-high 149 yards on 20 carries.
Charbonnet had 74 yards rushing on 15 carries, giving Michigan a tandem of running backs to control the game behind an offensive line that created huge holes.
Patterson threw his second TD early in the fourth, connecting on a 16-yard pass to Nico Collins, to put Michigan ahead 31-7.
On a windy and wet night, it was difficult to throw the ball and Michigan’s defense made it tough for the Irish to run.
Book was 8 of 25 for 73 yards the senior’s lowest total since last year’s opener when he threw just three passes and a TD that averted a shutout.
“We knew once we hit (Book) a couple times we knew that he was going to be jumpy in the pocket,” Michigan safety Josh Metellus said. “I know what this defense is capable of. We can shut anybody out. If everybody is locked in, doing their job, we can shut out anybody in the country.”
With the game out of reach, Kelly put in sophomore Phil Jurkovec and he threw a 14-yard TD pass to Javon McKinley late in the game to cut the deficit to 31 points.
Notre Dame’s Tony Jones Jr. was held to 14 yards on eight carries, reminiscent of the game he had in a loss to No. 3 Georgia last month when he had just 21 yards rushing on nine carries. Jones ran for 100-plus yards in his previous three games before being shut down by the swarming Wolverines.
BATON ROUGE, La. — Joe Burrow bounced up immediately from a high-speed hit that looked like it could have given the LSU quarterback whiplash as he was sent crashing into the Auburn bench area.
Trotting resolutely back to the line of scrimmage, Burrow resumed his schoolrecord eighth career 300yard passing performance in a tense, top-10 clash that put a premium on grit and perseverance.
Burrow passed for 321 yards and a touchdown, ran for 47 yards and another score, and second-ranked LSU edged No. 9 Auburn 2320 on Saturday.
“If your quarterback shows toughness like that, it can kind of get your team going,” Burrow said. “If you lay down on the field and don’t hop right back up, it shows your team that you are not really into it.”
The victory ensured LSU (8-0, 4-0 SEC) would be unbeaten heading into its highly anticipated Nov. 9 tilt at Alabama, which entered this weekend ranked No. 1.
Clyde Edwards-Helaire rushed for 136 yards and a touchdown for LSU, which wasn’t able to put away Auburn (6-2, 3-2) until Derrick Dillon recovered an onside kick with 2:31 left.
“It was a gut check tonight,” LSU coach Ed Orgeron said, praising the way his players stuck together. “They didn’t want to be denied.”