WEST LAFAYETTE — Even with one of his Adidas cleats flying across the Ross-Ade turf, Denard Robinson still outran the Boilermakers.

‘Shoelace’ as he is known, Robinson ran wild against Purdue, and did more damage with his arm as the Michigan Wolverines beat Purdue 44-13 in the Big 10 opener for both schools.

Robinson accounted for 344 total yards, 239 on the ground on 24 carries. While Robinson did not reach the endzone, and only had one touchdown pass to Devin Gardner, his impact was huge in getting Michigan into scoring position.

An eight-yard pass to Gardner on fourth and four kept Michigan’s first drive alive, and Robinson carried the ball down to the one a couple plays later. Fitzgerald Toussaint finished the drive with a one-yard touchdown. A 38-yard rush by Robinson on Michigan’s next possession got the Wolverine’s in business, which Toussaint eventually cashed in again from a yard out.

Raymon Taylor made it 21-0 Michigan when he picked off a Caleb TerBush pass and raced 63 yards to paydirt.

After Purdue got on the board with a 40-yard Paul Griggs field goal, Robinson then finished off a 10-play, 50-yard drive with a 23-yard pass to Gardner for a touchdown.

Robinson passed for 105 yards, but his feet, keeping the untied Adidas’ fleeted in motion, were the stars of the show.

“Yeah, we thought were really going to be able to get them to turn it over,” said Purdue defensive lineman Robert Maci, who had five tackles in the game. “We kept fighting, thinking they were going to screw up or we were going to make a big play, but it just never happened. We kept thinking it might happen all the way to the end, but it just didn’t.”

Purdue (3-2, 0-1) were nearly doubled up on offense by Michigan (3-2, 1-0), 409-213, and had just 56 yards on the ground in the game while Michigan rolled up 304 yards rushing.

“We came back out to play football and did that in the first quarter,” said Michigan head coach Brady Hoke. “The offensive line did a nice job out there. Offense controlled the ball for 12 minutes and set the tempo for the start of the game. We had some bad penalties, three to be exact. One we were fortunate enough to get away from that was a personal foul.”

Purdue’s lack of execution on third down, converting just one of 11 chances, really put the Boilers behind the eight ball.

“It’s hard to judge it without looking at the film,” said Purdue head coach Danny Hope. “What sticks out in my find is that we had some drops. Down and distance was a huge factor. It’s easier to convert on third and shorts. We had some drops that hurt us some.”

Purdue will return to Ross-Ade Stadium next Saturday for a date with Wisconsin (4-2), a 31-14 winner over Illinois Saturday afternoon.