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FOOTBALL Offensive Coordinator Gary Nord Defensive Coordinator Tim Tibesar Michigan, the Boilers had 205 yards on 79 carries, averaging only 2.6 yards per attempt. But offensive coordinator Gary Nord says the reason for the inefficien- cy was different for the games vs. the Herd and the Wolverines, leading big vs. the former and trailing big against the latter. "Your running game goes good when everything is even," he explained the day after Pur- due's 44-13 loss to Michigan. "Our running game is based off our four base runs, which come off our play-action pass and when you're ahead by a lot or behind by a lot, they're not going to bite on play-action pass. They're go- ing to sit there and play different last two weeks, to say the least. In games vs. Marshall and Rushing Offense Slowed Purdue's rushing offense KCharters@GoldandBlack.com BY KYLE CHARTERS hasn't been producing the coverages in that. So the running game, you have to be in the ball- game and it has to be on the line, to make it work really, I think. due's offensive line, a question mark much of the season, is af- fecting the rush offense, Nord strongly disagreed. "No, I think the offensive line When suggested that Pur- " played the best game they've played this year, I really do, fourth-year coordinator said. "They probably protected bet- ter than they've ever protected. I think Michigan's defensive line was probably as good as any that we've played. They were very good. They held Notre Dame to about the same number of yards we had and they had five turn- overs on them. They played two of the better teams in the coun- try in Alabama and Notre Dame, those two, so their stats were screwed up a little bit going in, " the but watching them man-for-man and for the four-down guys and two linebackers, they're as good as there is in the country. " Michigan offense than the one the Boilermakers had viewed on film from the first four games of the season. Against Purdue, the Wolver- ines seemed intent on running the ball, particularly with quar- terback Denard Robinson. And the senior responded, rushing for 235 yards and simply domi- nating the game. "In a lot of ways, they took the ball out of (Robinson's) hands from a throwing standpoint and said we're going to put it in your hands and you're going to win it with your feet, STOPPING ROBINSON Purdue saw a different sive coordinator Tim Tibesar said. "Early in the year against Alabama and Notre Dame, he threw the ball a lot more. And maybe it was because they got an early lead " Purdue defen- son why. "Two out of the three big Missed tackles were a big rea- Offensive coordinator Gary Nord, with head coach Danny Hope, says the offensive line had its best game of the season, and hasn't been a factor in Purdue's slumping running game. Tom Campbell (against us) and said they were just going to run the ball and do those things. But it certainly seemed like that was their plan, to say we're going to simplify it for him and to say you're going to win it with your feet and not your arm." Robinson torched the Boiler- makers, but it was three plays in par- ticular that Tibesar' the slow the dynamic playmaker. On those three, Robinson accumu- lated nearly 150 of his 235 yards. s defense failed tackles are part of football, but you don't want to miss them against him, and yet at the same time he's a very hard guy to tack- le. There's a reason he's a Heisman Trophy candidate and has been setting records in the Big Ten. He's a great player and has been for a long time in this league. We just GOLDANDBLACK EXPRESS • volume 23, express 6 • 25 runs we missed tackles on," Tibe- sar said. "We had chances to tackle him and we didn't. Actual- ly, on all three of his runs we had guys within five yards of the line of scrimmage who had a chance to tackle him, and didn't make the tackle, and he gets out. You play in such a way that guys have an opportunity to make a tackle on him and if you make it you look good and hold them then. If the tackles are made on him, then at the end of the day, he's got 25 carries for 110 yards and not 200 yards. Because he had 143 yards on those three runs. And we had guys in posi- tion, basically, to make the tack- le within five yards of the line of scrimmage and some in the backfield, and (when) we didn't make it and then he's gone. "So unfortunately missed