College football: Michigan, TCU avoid major upsets with last-minute field goals

Jake Moody made a go-ahead, 35-yard field goal with nine seconds left, lifting No. 3 Michigan to a 19-17 win over Illinois on Saturday at Ann Arbor, Mich.

The Wolverines (11-0, 8-0 Big Ten) played much of the second half without star running back Blake Corum, who grabbed his left knee after being tackled just before halftime.

Michigan will now turn all its attention to playing rival and second-ranked Ohio State on the road, where they have not won since 2000 with a spot in the Big Ten championship game and likely in the College Football Playoff at stake.

The Fighting Illini (7-4, 5-3) took a 17-10 lead late in the third quarter on Chase Brown’s 37-yard touchdown run. With a chance to run out the clock, they had to punt to Michigan late in the game and failed to hold on and beat a top-three team for the first time since knocking off top-ranked Ohio State in 2007.

Brown finished with 140 yards rushing and two scores in 29 carries.

With Corum out and the passing game off, the Wolverines had to settle for Moody making four field goals in the second half.

J.J. McCarthy was 18 for 34 passing for 208 yards, missing some throws and having some dropped.

Corum had 108 yards rushing and his 19th touchdown this season in 18 carries with only one rushing attempt in the second half. The Heisman Trophy hopeful has 100 yards rushing in eight straight games, tying the school record with current running backs coach Mike Hart, who set the mark in 2007.

Illinois quarterback Tommy DeVito, a Syracuse transfer, was 21 for 30 for 178 yards.

No. 4 TCU 29, Baylor 28

Griffin Kell kicked a 40-yard field goal on the final play of the game, and fourth-ranked Texas Christian remained unbeaten by scoring nine points in the final 2:07 to avoid another potential playoff-busting loss on the banks of the Brazos River.

Emari Demercado scored on a three-yard run with 2:07 left to get the Horned Frogs (11-0, 8-0 Big 12) within 28-26, but he was unable to pull in a pass on the two-point conversion attempt.

After kicking deep, TCU used all three of its timeouts while forcing a three-and-out series, and got the ball back with 1:34 left at its 31-yard line.

Max Duggan converted one third down with a 12-yard scramble, and after Demercado’s third-down run to the Baylor 23, the field-goal unit scrambled onto the field with the clock running. The kick by Kell, who earlier had an extra-point attempt clank off the upright, went through as time ran out.

TCU, which had already clinched a spot in the Big 12 championship game, hasn’t been undefeated this deep in a season since 2010, when it finished 13-0 with a Rose Bowl victory and No. 2 national ranking.