Photo courtesy of James Coller/The Michigan Daily

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The Terrapins football offense and quarterback C.J. Brown faced a third-and-6 from their own 26-yard line Saturday at Michigan with less than nine minutes remaining in a tie game. The drive had just started, but it seemed as though the Terps’ chance at a go-ahead touchdown was slipping away.

The offense set up in shotgun formation as the announced 101,717 at The Big House came to life. Brown took the snap and dropped back four steps before scrambling to his left. As the sixth-year signal-caller approached Wolverines defenders, he took a hit to his right hip.

Falling to the ground and out of bounds, Brown extended the ball forward with his right arm, reaching for the first down. The referees originally ruled him down short of the marker, but after reviewing the play, they overturned the call and provided the Terps with a fresh set of downs.

Brown then led his team the final 68 yards for the eventual game-winning touchdown. And after a week in which his starting job was in jeopardy for the first time all season because of underwhelming play, Brown responded with a clutch performance that sparked a 23-16 win in Ann Arbor.

“A lot was being put into question, and we had to go out there and make a statement, not only personally, but offensively,” Brown said Saturday. “We called ourselves out. We knew we put a lot of pressure on ourselves this week to go out there and execute. And we were able to do that today.”

Later in the drive as the Terps approached midfield, thanks to a 10-yard rush from running back Brandon Ross, Brown completed back-to-back passes.

First, on second-and-8 from his own 44-yard line, Brown rolled to his right on a bootleg and fired on the run to Jacquille Veii.

On the next play, offensive coordinator Mike Locksley called a fake bubble screen. The Wolverines bit, and Amba Etta-Tawo broke free down the sideline. Brown delivered a smooth long ball right into the hands of the sophomore wide receiver for a 36-yard pickup.

Two plays later, running back Wes Brown powered into the end zone from 1 yard out to give the Terps a seven-point lead they never relinquished.

But that score would not have been possible without the Terps’ previous possession, a 11-play, 68-yard drive that Brown capped off with an 8-yard touchdown run.

“He’s a competitor, and he came out today and did all the things that [he] needed to do,” coach Randy Edsall said of Brown. “He was a warrior today. He was a great leader out there in the huddles and on the sideline.”

A big factor in Brown’s resurgence was his willingness to move outside the pocket, just as he did during that crucial third-and-6 in the final quarter.

Brown finished with 87 rushing yards on 18 carries in the game, the bulk of which came on a 30-yard scramble in the first quarter. Locksley also sprinkled in a fair number of zone-read plays, two of which Brown kept for more than 10 yards on the touchdown drive that tied the game at 16.

“If it wasn’t there, I was just going to use my athletic ability to make plays,” Brown said. “I wasn’t going to hold anything back. And it helped today.”

That mindset nearly cost Brown his afternoon early in the second quarter, though. On a third-and-2 from the Michigan 20-yard line, Brown took the snap, rolled out to his right on a bootleg and tried to run for the first down before he was tackled short of the marker.

While being tackled, Brown’s helmet came off. And at the bottom of the pile with no protection, the quarterback said he took a shot to his head near the corner of his eye. Brown stayed down as trainers sprinted onto the field to tend to him.

“I got a little blurry,” Brown said. “I didn’t really know what was going on.”

But as he did previously this season against West Virginia in September, Brown didn’t let an injury prevent him from staying on the field.

He returned for the Terps’ next series and played the rest of the game.

“When C.J. went back on there, it just showed that when he said we have to lay everything on the line, he meant it,” said Wes Brown, who finished with 39 rushing yards. “So if he’s putting it on the line, we have to protect him — do the same thing that he’s doing and put our bodies on the line.”

In a loss to Michigan State two weekends ago under the lights at Byrd Stadium, Brown threw three interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown, and led an ineffective offense all night.

The next day, Edsall hinted at the possibility of a quarterback switch.

Brown’s response was a virtually mistake-free game Saturday against the Wolverines and several important plays down the stretch.

And with two games left in a career in which he’s accounted for more touchdowns than any player in program history, Brown captured a historic victory for the Terps while quieting conversation about a potential switch under center.

“As a quarterback and a head coach, you get too much credit when you win and you take too much blame when you lose,” Edsall said. “I know that he’s feeling good. And he should, because he played a whale of a game.”