Tommy Carr Leads Michigan Past Rutgers 28-21 With 75-Yard Go-Ahead Drive

Michigan spent the week fielding the same question it has fielded for most of October: who is the quarterback? On Halloween afternoon in Piscataway, Tommy Carr gave the clearest answer yet, and it came in the form of a 7:19 drive that swallowed most of the fourth quarter.

The freshman ran for two touchdowns, threw for another and completed 22 of 27 passes for 266 yards as Michigan beat Rutgers 28-21 at SHI Stadium. Carr's 9-yard keeper with 4:24 left broke a 21-21 tie, and a Wolverines defense that had been stretched for most of the afternoon closed it out. Michigan improved to 5-3 and 2-3 in the Big Ten. Rutgers fell to 2-6 and 1-4.

This was only Carr's second career start. The first was a 13-6 overtime loss to Indiana in which Michigan's offense managed all of six points. A week later, the same unit piled up 426 yards and 22 first downs and converted 11 of 15 third downs. Against that backdrop, 28 points felt like a breakthrough.

A fast start, then a haymaker

Michigan's first possession set the template for the day. The Wolverines marched 92 yards in 10 plays and 5:52, and Carr finished it with a 6-yard touchdown pass to JJ Buchanan with 7:23 left in the first quarter. Rutgers answered with a 10-play drive that stalled at the Michigan 28, and Dane Pizzaro bailed it out with a 46-yard field goal.

Jordan Marshall pushed the lead to 14-3 with a 2-yard run early in the second quarter, capping an eight-play, 75-yard drive. Then Rutgers landed its one real haymaker. Three plays into the next possession, facing third-and-15 at the Rutgers 20, AJ Surace found Jourdin Houston behind the Michigan secondary for an 80-yard touchdown, and it was suddenly 14-10 with 11:31 left in the half.

That throw explains most of the Rutgers passing game on Saturday. Surace, who started with Dylan Lonergan coming off a head injury suffered against Northwestern, finished 3 of 12 for 123 yards. Eighty of those yards came on one ball. Pizzaro tacked on a 32-yard field goal with 3:21 left in the half, and Rutgers went to the locker room down only 14-13 despite spending most of the half chasing Michigan receivers.

Carr takes the wheel

The opening drive of the second half belonged to the quarterback. Michigan went 75 yards in 11 plays and 6:04, mixing short throws with designed runs, and Carr capped it by running in from 15 yards out with 8:56 left in the third quarter. At 21-13, the Wolverines looked ready to put the game away.

They did not, and the reason was a familiar Michigan problem: points left on the field. After a Rutgers three-and-out, Michigan drove 31 yards to the Rutgers 16, where a third-down throw to Andrew Marsh fell incomplete. Trey Butkowski then missed a 35-yard field goal with 3:11 left in the third, his second miss of the day after a 48-yarder in the second quarter. Against Indiana, a red-zone stall had cost Michigan the game. Here, it kept Rutgers within one score heading into the fourth.

The turning point: the punt that wasn't

Early in the fourth quarter, Michigan appeared to catch the break of the game. A Rutgers returner fumbled a Michigan punt, and the Wolverines pounced on it at the Rutgers 20. Then the flag came out. Zeke Berry was called for kick catch interference, the recovery was wiped away, and Rutgers took over at its own 37 with a fresh set of downs.

On third-and-4 from the Rutgers 43, Antwan Raymond burst through the middle of the Michigan defense for 54 yards to the Michigan 3. Clay Thevenin punched it in from a yard out on second down, Rutgers converted the two-point try, and the score was 21-21 with 11:43 to play. In the span of about two minutes, Michigan had gone from first-and-10 at the Rutgers 20, with a chance to go up two scores, to a tie game on the road.

Raymond finished with 85 yards on 11 carries, and most of the damage came on that single run. For a Rutgers team that had been blown out at Northwestern 42-14 a week earlier, it was the kind of swing that changes the temperature in a stadium.

Seven minutes and 19 seconds

What came next was the best drive of Carr's young career, and it may end up being the most important one of Michigan's season. Starting at its own 25, Michigan went 75 yards in 11 plays.

Carr hit Hogan Hansen for 16 yards on third-and-3. A Rutgers pass interference flag on a deep shot to Marsh moved the ball to the Rutgers 37. Carr lost the ball on a run and fell on it himself, a nervous moment for the visiting sideline. Then, facing third-and-10, Carr found Hansen again for 14 yards to the Rutgers 23. Savion Hiter carried three straight times to the 9, and on third-and-7, Carr kept it up the middle and ran it in with 4:24 left.

Rutgers got one more look. Another pass interference call on Berry handed the Scarlet Knights a first down at their own 40, but Smith Snowden and Mason Curtis each broke up deep throws, and Rutgers punted with 3:17 to go. Michigan took over at its 21, leaned on Hiter while Rutgers burned its last timeouts, and Carr's 3-yard run on third-and-1 just inside the two-minute mark moved the chains and sealed it.

The numbers that tell the story

The time of possession was lopsided. Michigan held the ball for roughly 37 of the 60 minutes, which is how you protect a defense that had been giving up chunk plays. The third-down gap was even wider. Michigan converted 11 of 15. Rutgers converted 3 of 10 and finished with nine first downs. Neither team turned the ball over, and every snap is in ESPN's box score (opens in a new tab).

Hiter led Michigan with 76 rushing yards on 20 carries, and Carr added 51 yards and both rushing scores on 11 attempts. Michigan ran 43 times for 160 yards. Buchanan caught five passes for 63 yards and the opening touchdown, Marsh had seven catches for 51, and Hansen's three receptions for 42 yards included the two biggest third-down conversions of the day.

On defense, Benny Patterson III led Michigan with seven tackles, and Enow Etta recorded a sack. For Rutgers, Moses Walker made nine stops and Sekou Kromah had a sack.

The one blemish for Michigan was the flags. The Wolverines were penalized seven times for 90 yards, and two of those penalties, the kick catch interference and the late pass interference, nearly handed Rutgers the game. Rutgers also scored 21 points on just nine first downs, which says something about the big plays Michigan allowed even while controlling the clock.

What it means

For Michigan, the quarterback debate looks a lot quieter tonight. Kyle Whittingham said before the game that the staff wanted to settle the position, telling reporters, "We think it's in our best interest to get that defined." Carr, who took over for a benched Bryce Underwood in the 21-18 win over Penn State on Oct. 17, has now delivered two wins in three appearances, and this was the first time the offense looked like it had a real identity with the freshman in charge.

The Wolverines sit at 2-3 in the Big Ten, and next up is the rivalry game, a home date with Michigan State on Nov. 7.

For Rutgers, this one stings in a different way. Greg Schiano's team hung around all afternoon with a backup quarterback who completed three passes. The Scarlet Knights generated just enough explosive plays to make it a game, and the defense made Michigan earn every yard on the final drive. But a 2-6 record leaves almost no margin, and the passing game cannot keep living on one 80-yard throw a week. Rutgers heads to Wisconsin on Nov. 7.

The last word

Michigan has spent the season winning with defense and apologizing for its offense. On Saturday, with the game tied and the road crowd awake, it was the offense that went and took the win: 11 plays, 75 yards and a freshman quarterback carrying it the last 9. If that is what Carr looks like with two starts on the résumé, the question Michigan kept asking in October might finally have its answer.

Sources: ESPN box score and play-by-play, Michigan Athletics, Field Level Media via Deadspin and The Associated Press via theScore. More college football coverage on Undrafted.

Photos: Michigan Athletics.