Rich Rodriguez defends his decision to go for it on fourth down

In what turned out to be a turning point in the game, Michigan running back Carlos Brown prepares to lateral the ball to lineman Mark Huyge as he is pulled down two yards short by Purdue's Torri Williams on fourth and ten Saturday.

Lon Horwedel | AnnArbor.com

“Maybe we would call another play or something that hopefully we would execute,” Rodriguez said at his Monday press conference. “But no, I was really concerned that we weren’t stopping them. That was my biggest concern.

“Normally you’d go ahead and (kick) if you knew you were going to get a three-and-out and get the ball back. But my concern at that point was we hadn’t really done a good job stopping them.”

Michigan (5-5, 1-5) failed to convert the fourth down when Carlos Brown was stopped after an 8-yard run and replays showed his lateral to offensive lineman Mark Huyge was an illegal forward pass.

Purdue finished with 494 yards of offense in the game, but went three-and-out on its last three possessions.

Michigan forced a Purdue punt the drive before it got stopped on downs and held the Boilermakers again on the ensuing possession. Brandon Minor followed with a 1-yard touchdown run, but Michigan missed the two-point conversion and lost, 38-36.

Cornerback Troy Woolfolk was asked about Rodriguez’s lack of faith in the defense Monday.

“Honestly, I’m going to back him because he’s my coach regardless, but I think that he - I don’t know,” Woolfolk said. “That’s an iffy situation. I don’t really want to talk about that. But I just think he made a decision, you can always think about decisions after the fact and make judgments on them, but he made a decision in the time and he thought it was the best one. If he would have got it, everybody would have been praising him.”

Dave Birkett covers University of Michigan football for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached by phone at 734-623-2552 or by e-mail at davidbirkett@annarbor.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.