You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind; a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's the signpost up ahead — your next stop, the Twilight Zone.

WEST LAFAYETTE — Rain cloaked the scene as the clouds overhead darkened a field that was deteriorating under the weather’s conditions. What took place here was like nothing you've ever seen before.

When the inclement weather set in, the crowd scurried for cover, naturally. But you had a feeling something was peculiar — this wasn’t going to be an ordinary Michigan football game.

Everything you thought to be true was flipped right on its head. Michigan’s offense: struggling. The defense: playing well?

Is it true, though? Can we believe what we see when everything is so out of the ordinary?

In the Twilight Zone, nothing is quite as it seems. History will show that Michigan won the game 27-16. That much is true. The rest is left up to your interpretation.

The first sign of abnormality came when redshirt freshman safety Cam Gordon returned a Purdue fumble 58 yards for a touchdown to give the Wolverines a 7-0 lead.

After that, the Boilermakers couldn’t move the ball for the majority of the game. Everyone else had exploded for an average of 34 points per game against this Wolverine defense — Purdue didn’t score an offensive touchdown.

Prior to its final drive, Purdue had 79 yards passing. Michigan’s pass defense usually allowed that many yards in less than a quarter. Just five teams in Division-I football had given up more yards through the air per game than the Wolverines entering Saturday.

Sophomore quarterback Denard Robinson, who usually steals the show, did very little and the Wolverines' offense struggled to score. Robinson turned the ball over four times, and Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez decided to rotate the former Heisman frontrunner with backup quarterback Tate Forcier. That’s what this game was coming to.

Adding to your confusion, Rodriguez said that his defense tackled well, and redshirt junior defensive end Ryan Van Bergen said they were “assignment-sound for the first time in a long time.” That doesn’t sound like the Wolverines you knew.

And Michigan did this without two of its best defensive players: nose guard Mike Martin and linebacker Jonas Mouton, who weren’t on the field due to injuries.

There’s no question that the Wolverines' defense won the game on Saturday. And who would’ve thought those words would have been uttered this season?

Michigan can take some comfort in the fact that its defense played well, forced five turnovers and scored a touchdown to dominate the game. Its secondary that starts three freshmen might be able to even gain some confidence.

Don’t get ahead of yourself now though — not everything is as it seems in the Twilight Zone. This performance doesn’t prove much, other than that Michigan's defense took a small step in the right direction.

Purdue’s lack of offensive talent combined with the poor weather resulted in some ugly offense. If it wasn’t for Purdue quarterback Rob Henry, I don’t know if the Boilermakers would have had a first down. Their offense looked like Michigan’s circa 2008, when Steven Threet and Nick Sheridan were rotating at quarterback for the Wolverines. Third-stringer Sean Robinson split time at quarterback with Henry, but he has averaged a meager 3.2 yards per pass attempt this season.

This had more to do with Purdue’s ineptness than an amazing turnaround on the part of the Michigan defense. It will take an improvement on this weekend’s game to convince me that this was more than an illusion. Continue to tackle well and, as Van Bergen pointed out, maintain assignments and stop teams on third downs (Purdue was 2-of-17) — then we can talk.

Wisconsin and Ohio State are next, two teams that would likely square off in a Big Ten championship game if it happened this season. I don’t know if the weather will be a factor, but I do know there won’t be a lack of talent lining up across from Michigan’s defense down the stretch.

Saturday afternoon, you saw the tale of a defense that showed it could do all of the little things it needed to do to win. It hasn’t yet defied the reality that we all came to believe.

For now it remains another mystery shrouded in the depths of the Twilight Zone.

(Cue the music).