U-M overwhelms PSU; tempers flare at halftime
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — No. 5 Michigan bullied No. 10 Penn State on Saturday, from the line of scrimmage to the scoreboard to the newly named Lloyd Carr Tunnel at Michigan Stadium.
Tempers flared as both teams entered the shared tunnel with the Wolverines holding a 16-14 halftime lead. While video showed the teams exchanging verbal volleys, the situation never became physical.
“How they were emotionally all game, I wouldn’t be surprised if [it was] them starting it,” Wolverines quarterback J.J. McCarthy said of the altercation. “We just finished it.”
Michigan defensive lineman Mike Morris said the standoff stemmed from Penn State players talking trash on social media before the game.
“We all told each other, ‘They want to have those Twitter fingers, they want to talk on social media,’ and then they didn’t talk on the field,” Morris said. “They wanted to talk at halftime because they got lucky.”
After dominating the stat sheet but not the scoreboard in the first half, the Wolverines finished Penn State with a resounding third quarter en route to a 41-17 victory. Michigan took some time to pull away but held massive advantages in rushing yards (418-111), first downs (28-10) and possession time (41:56-18:04).
In a game in which Penn State briefly had more touchdowns (2) than first downs (1), Michigan looked every bit like the defending Big Ten champion and a team poised to push Ohio State for the league crown and a likely College Football Playoff spot.
“Like Coach [Jim] Harbaugh said in the locker room, ‘It was a butt-kicking in every which way a butt could be kicked,'” McCarthy said. “Just being able to do it in the fashion that we did was just awesome to see. Obviously, the first half, we wish it went a little different way scoreboard-wise, but they only had one first down and we had 18. We’ll take that any day of the week.”
Harbaugh was more diplomatic but clearly pleased, acknowledging that Michigan’s line-of-scrimmage dominance is his favorite way to win games. Despite a 6-0 start, Michigan had not been fully branded a CFP contender because of its competition. Penn State also came in undefeated but was no match for the Wolverines.
“The team made a real positive statement today,” Harbaugh said. “They call it a statement game? OK, it’s a statement game.”
Harbaugh’s team wasn’t concerned at halftime, even though it led by only two points after holding Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford to 17 passing yards, the lowest for a Nittany Lions starter since at least 2004, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
Penn State allowed more rushing yards to Michigan than it had in its previous five games (399), as Donovan Edwards and Blake Corum combined for 339 yards and four touchdowns. Michigan’s inability to convert red zone opportunities into touchdowns plagued the offense in the first half, but Edwards and Corum had touchdown runs of 67 and 61 yards, respectively, in the third quarter to break the game open.
“I feel like [I’ve] been [ready] for a game like this for a while now,” said Edwards, who missed two games with a leg injury in September. “I had to just sit back and wait my turn and show the world what I’m capable of being able to do.”
Corum has 666 rushing yards in his past four games, the most by a Michigan player since quarterback Denard Robinson in 2010 and the most by a Wolverines running back since Mike Hart in 2004, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Hart, who had a medical emergency on the sideline last week at Indiana and had to be hospitalized, returned to his duties as running game coordinator Saturday.
Corum and Edwards became the first Michigan tandem to each eclipse 150 rushing yards and record multiple rushing touchdowns since 2017.
“Blake’s really fast, Donovan’s really fast,” Harbaugh said. “When they get in the open, they’re rolling.”
McCarthy, who threw his first interception of the season last week at Indiana, had a pass tipped, intercepted and returned for a touchdown in the second quarter. He had a season-low 145 passing yards as a starter but added 57 rushing yards in the win.
“I keep saying week-to-week that I need to use my legs more,” McCarthy said. “When you go back to the 2019 season and [former LSU quarterback] Joe Burrow and everything he was able to do with that, and I’m faster than Joe Burrow, so I should be able to do it.”
Clifford left the game in the second half with an injury and was replaced by heralded true freshman Drew Allar, who completed 5 of 10 passes for 37 yards. Michigan had two sacks and five quarterback hurries.
Other than Clifford’s 62-yard run to set up a first-half touchdown, Penn State had 49 net rushing yards on 21 carries.
“People look at it as we haven’t played anybody, but in reality, we have, and we showed up and showed out,” said Morris, who had a tackle for loss, a pass breakup and a quarterback hurry. “Now people say we haven’t played anybody, and now Penn State, again, we showed up and we showed up. That narrative can keep going, but we’re in the business of proving people wrong.”
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Greg Wyshynski, ESPN
Vancouver Canucks right wing Brock Boeser is not expected to play in Game 7 of their second-round series against the Edmonton Oilers on Monday because of a blood-clotting issue, a source told ESPN, confirming a report.
There’s no timeline for his return to action. The Canucks had no comment on Boeser’s status.
Boeser didn’t skate in practice Sunday. Coach Rick Tocchet would only say at a media availability that “he needed the maintenance day.”
Boeser, 27, leads the Canucks in goals (7) and is tied for the lead in points (12) during the postseason. He established career highs in goals (40), points (73) and games played (81) during the regular season.
The Canucks winger has had some MVP moments during their playoff run. His hat trick in Game 4 against the Nashville Predators led them to a comeback win. Boeser’s three points in the first period of Game 3 led Vancouver to a win over Edmonton.
It’s the second significant injury for Vancouver in the playoffs after a regular season of relatively good health for the team’s core players. Starting goaltender Thatcher Demko, a finalist for the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s best netminder, hasn’t played since Game 1 of the first round because of a knee injury. Edmonton won Game 6 at home Saturday night to force Monday’s Game 7, the only seventh game of the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The winner faces the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference finals.
The Boeser injury news was first reported by Vancouver-based hockey journalist Irfaan Gaffar.
RALEIGH, N.C. — The Carolina Hurricanes re-signed coach Rod Brind’Amour and his staff to multiyear contracts, keeping one of the best in the NHL behind the bench around for the long term.
The team announced the re-signings Sunday for Brind’Amour, assistants Jeff Daniels and Tim Gleason, goaltending coach Paul Schonfelder and video coach Chris Huffine.
“Rod has been instrumental to the success we’ve had over the last six seasons,” team president and general manager Don Waddell said. “Ever since he joined the organization 24 years ago, Rod has embodied what it means to be a Hurricane. We hope to keep him a Hurricane for life.”
Brind’Amour was in the final year of a deal reached in 2021, when he was the winner of the Jack Adams Award as the league’s top coach. His status had become a talking point around the NHL as jobs changed hands, though Brind’Amour — as well as Waddell — had expressed confidence that a deal would get done.
“I never had a doubt in my mind he [would] come back,” Carolina center Sebastian Aho said earlier in the day when asked about the reports of a deal. “Not surprised, I would say.”
Brind’Amour took over in 2018 to lead a franchise that had missed the playoffs for nine straight years. The Hurricanes have gone to the playoffs six times in as many seasons under the captain of Carolina’s 2006 Stanley Cup winner. Carolina has also won at least one series in each of the past six postseasons, marking the first time a team has accomplished that since the Detroit Red Wings did it from 1995 to 2000. The Canes also reached the Eastern Conference finals twice in the past six seasons.
Carolina finished three points behind the New York Rangers for the Metropolitan Division title and Presidents’ Trophy (presented to the league’s top regular-season team), another season in which it ranked among the NHL’s top teams with an aggressive forechecking style.
The Hurricanes beat the New York Islanders in five games in Round 1 then lost to the Rangers in a six-game second-round series after falling in a 3-0 hole.
Brind’Amour, 53, arrived in Raleigh in a January 2000 trade from the Philadelphia Flyers and played there until his retirement in 2010. He then spent seven seasons as an assistant coach before taking over as a first-time head coach.
Multiple players were asked earlier Sunday about Brind’Amour’s status during end-of-season interviews. None expressed concern that he wouldn’t return or that it had been any type of distraction.
“He’s one of the main pieces that turned this organization around from where it was when I first got here,” defenseman Jaccob Slavin said. “So I think anyone would want him to stay as well. I know he wants to be here. I’m confident it’ll get done.”
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