2B — Monday, September 10, 2018
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

A gunslinger comes to town
A 

gunslinger walked into 

Michigan 
Stadium on 
Saturday 
afternoon, 
and no, 
it wasn’t 
Western 
Michigan 
quarterback 
Jon 
Wassink.
After nine months, Shea 
Patterson played his first 
game at home. And if you’re 
a Michigan football fan, the 
wait was well worth it.
Patterson, of course, went 
up against a team some would 
politely describe as a ‘tomato 
can.’ His overall numbers — 
12-of-17 passing, 125 yards, 
3 touchdowns — weren’t 
amazing.
Who the hell cares? There 
are three throws I want 
to bring to your attention. 
You can go watch them on 
YouTube again, if you need 
any refreshing. 
1st quarter, 10:14: Patterson 
rolls to his left off of play-
action. Tight end in the flats 
is covered. Patterson keeps 
running. And running. Then 
he twists, throws across 
his body — and finds Oliver 
Martin on the sideline.
2nd quarter, 2:09: Patterson 
rolls to his right this time. 
Within seconds, he’s already 
more than 10 yards behind the 
line of scrimmage. A Western 
Michigan defender dives and 
misses. Patterson continues to 
roll right … he brings his left 
arm in the air for an instant, 
as if he’s directing traffic … 
and then he uncorks a dart to 
Donovan Peoples-Jones, who 
is more than 20 yards upfield 
on the right sideline.
3rd quarter, 6:26: 3rd-and-
goal, Patterson working out 
of the shotgun, looks, still 
looking, off his first read now, 

then he tosses the ball to the 
corner, where ...
Okay. Let me stop you there. 
At that moment, how many 
of you assumed, based on 
the past year of throws out 
of bounds … 
throws sailing 
out of the back 
of the end zone 
... throws that 
had no chance 
of finding a 
receiver … 
that Patterson 
was going to 
find Peoples-
Jones for a 
touchdown?
How many of you thought, 
as you watched Patterson 
bring his arm forward, that 

the ball was going to be 
caught?
I mean, I didn’t.
Jim Harbaugh told the 
story behind the play after 
the game. Michigan thought 
it had the right 
play called. 
The primary 
read was Nico 
Collins, who ran 
a slant from the 
outside receiver 
position on 
the boundary. 
Harbaugh 
thought that 
was where 
the ball would 
go. Then he saw a Western 
Michigan linebacker drop into 
that space.

Patterson saw that, too.
“For him to calculate that, 
and then change the channel 
— if I was playing quarterback, 
that’s where I’d have been 
going with the ball, reading 
the initial 
coverage,” 
Harbaugh said. 
“To change the 
channel and go 
to the corner, 
and throw it to 
Donovan, (to) 
make that split-
second decision 
and then make 
that accurate of 
a throw, you’re 
really seeing things well.”
Last week, Patterson 
saw things well against the 

Fighting Irish, too, only 
sometimes that meant he saw 
three Notre Dame defensive 
linemen running straight at 
him. A quarterback can’t be 
expected to do everything by 
himself for an 
entire game. 
He needs his 
receivers to 
catch the ball, 
his offensive 
line to block and 
his coaching 
staff to put him 
in a position to 
succeed.
But 
sometimes, 
even when some of those 
things go wrong — let’s say the 
receivers can’t get open, or the 

offensive line doesn’t protect 
the pocket for long enough, or 
the play called doesn’t work as 
intended — a good quarterback 
can make things look okay. He 
can roll out, to his left or to 
his right, and buy some time 
for his receivers to work their 
way back to the ball before 
hitting them in the tightest 
of windows on the sideline. 
He can look off his first read 
when a linebacker drops into 
the space where the ball is 
supposed to be delivered, and 
throw a perfectly-placed ball 
that would make Jon Gruden 
swoon.
The third touchdown, the 
one to Peoples-Jones, was 
the type of throw I could see 
Patterson making all the way 
back in December, when he 
first announced his transfer 
to Michigan. I wrote a column 
about him then, too.
Some of it hasn’t aged 
well — “There’s no squinting 
required to predict a season 
that ends with Michigan’s 
first appearance in the College 
Football Playoff.”
Well, that was before I saw 
the offensive line at Notre 
Dame.
Some of it has aged better 
— “Shea Patterson doesn’t 
project to be good. He is 
good.”
Michigan’s quarterbacks 
combined for nine touchdowns 
all of last season. Patterson 
threw for three in the first 
three quarters against the 
Broncos. 
And then, of course, there’s 
the headline: “Patterson 
would be difference-maker at 
Michigan.”
Shea Patterson would be 
a difference-maker at a lot 
of schools. He already is a 
difference-maker at Michigan. 
Would anyone disagree?

Sang can be reached at 

otsang@umich.edu or on 

Twitter @orion_sang

AMERLIA CACCHIONE/Daily
Junior quarterback Shea Patterson played in his first game at Michigan Stadium on Saturday, racking up 125 yards and three touchdowns against Western Michigan.

A necessary blowout
B

efore the benches emp-

tied and the 
blowout took 
shape, ten-
sion ferment-
ed inside 
Michigan 
Stadium. As 
the Wolver-
ines’ offense 
jogged off the 
field after a 
fruitless opening drive against 
Western Michigan on Saturday, 
boos rained down onto the field.
Fans had just seen Michigan 
shoot itself in the foot yet again. 
This time, a timeout followed 
by a false start penalty just 40 
seconds into the game led to 
a conservative, discombobu-
lated series for the Wolverines’ 
offense. Last week, it was the 
offensive line’s litany of mis-
takes that allowed Michigan 
to score only one offensive 
touchdown at then-No. 12 Notre 
Dame.
The boo birds were hasty 
— patience has never been a 
hallmark of any college football 
fanbase. But they weren’t com-
pletely baseless.
Everyone has heard the Wol-
verines’ unseemly stats. A 9-9 
record dating back to November 
of 2016. Zero wins in their last 
four games. Another loss to a 
rival.
“There was a feeling everyone 
wanted to get rid of (this week),” 
said Michigan coach Jim Har-
baugh.
Much of that has been tied to 
Michigan’s offensive struggles, 
which were well summarized 
during its first five plays from 
scrimmage. The penalty, confu-
sion and boos made that quite 
clear.
But what happened the rest of 
the game should inspire much 
needed confidence in the Wol-
verines. Michigan dominated 
with 49 points, 451 yards of total 
offense, a touchdown catch by 
wide receiver — something that 
hadn’t occurred in exactly 364 
days — and then two more.
“There were a lot of questions 
about our offense, and I think 

we put a close to that today,” 
said senior running back Karan 
Higdon. “… I think it’s a great 
kickstart for us.”
So how did the Wolverines’ 
offense improve so much in 
one week? Well, the opponent 
certainly matters. The Broncos’ 
front seven is not close to as tal-
ented or physically dominant as 
that of Notre Dame.
But it also goes back to that 
emotion of losing — a pain that 
Harbaugh says hurts both his 
“mind and body.” You can bet 
he expects his players to feel 
the same way, and thus began a 
hyper-focused week of practice.
“Notre Dame punched us 
in the mouth because we were 
laughing and taking everything 
for granted,” said junior run-
ning back Chris Evans. “But 
this week we were a lot more 
focused.
“We’re not allowing all those 
smiles no more. We’re strictly 
business unless we’re outside 
the lines after practice.”
In his post-game press con-
ference, Harbaugh also men-
tioned he noticed none of his 

players “flinching” or “asking 
to come out” during 90-plus 
degree practices on Tuesday 
and Wednesday. It’s all a cli-
ché — “a good week of practice” 
is almost always coach-speak. 
Still, last week’s loss seems to 
have genuinely sparked the 
Wolverines, just as it should 
have.
“I just think the expectation 
we have for ourselves and then 
meeting something else with 
the loss to Notre Dame, it was 
a little different this time,” said 
fifth-year senior defensive end 
Chase Winovich. “We knew we 
had to get it out, and we knew 
this was the week.”
A win wasn’t all that was 
necessary, however. Michigan 
needed a dominant performance 
— something to temporarily 
reverse the negative narrative 
that’s justly surrounded the 
program’s recent performances. 
And for the first time in nearly 
two seasons, the Wolverines 
finally got their domineering 
rout.
“It feels good (to win like 
that),” Winovich said. “Coach 

Harbaugh used to say to us 
last year — he hasn’t said it in 
a while — ‘It doesn’t have to be 
close. You don’t have to keep 
people in the game, there’s no 
rule that says we have to.’ ”
Immense pressure is a real-
ity at Michigan. Losing, even 
in season-openers on the road, 
only amplifies that burden. 
Some national pundits suggest-
ed last week was the beginning 
of the end for Harbaugh in Ann 
Arbor. Even University Presi-
dent Mark Schlissel, for the first 
time in his tenure, answered 
questions about the coach’s job 
security on Wednesday.
But on Saturday, the Wol-
verines quieted that noise and 
those boo birds by thrashing 
Western Michigan. Finally, 
Michigan can take its breath.
“Obviously, there are a lot 
of people talking about us — 
Michigan’s always a hot topic,” 
Higdon said. “I think we took 
that today and threw it back.”

Calcagno can be reached 

at markcal@umich.edu or on 

Twitter @MWCalcagno

FOOTBALL
The good, the bad and 
the ugly: ‘M’ vs. WMU

The Michigan football team 
that 
played 
against 
Western 
Michigan was the team that most 
fans dreamed about heading into 
this season.
From the second drive on, the 
Wolverines dominated every facet 
of the game en route to a 49-3 win 
— the most points Michigan has 
scored since 2016.
The Daily breaks down the 
good, the bad and the ugly from 
the blowout.
The Good:
Junior 
quarterback 
Shea 
Patterson showed exactly why 
people were so excited about him 
before the season.
He showed his mobility on 
several occasions and his arm 
strength on several more. He 
finished with just 125 yards 
passing but three touchdowns, 
including 
the 
first 
receiving 
touchdown 
by 
a 
Wolverines 
receiver in 364 days.
The 
kicker 
to 
Patterson’s 
success is that he actually had time 
to throw this week.
The offensive line, unlike last 
week, protected Patterson well, 
and they also opened huge running 
lanes for junior running back Chris 
Evans and senior Karan Higdon.
Higdon had 140 yards in the 
first quarter alone, and Evans ran 
for two touchdowns.
“There was holes you could 
drive a car through, and people 
in there with nobody to block, 
because everybody was blocked 
and taken care of,” Evans said.
On 
the 
defensive 
side 
of 
things, the Wolverines were just 
as dominant. The Broncos did 
manage 208 yards, but until late in 
the game, when the backups were 
in, they didn’t get any deeper into 
Michigan territory than the 44 
yard line.
The only reason the Wolverines 
didn’t get the shutout was because 
Western Michigan decided to kick 
a meaningless field goal on 4th and 
10 at the end of the game rather 
than make any effort at a comeback 

attempt.
“Their offense, I think, going 
into the game — I’d have to go back 
and watch — but I felt like they 
came in and basically said, ‘
The Bad:
There really isn’t much bad. 
In fact, it’s really hard to say that 
there was any bad.
The one facet of Michigan’s 
game that was at all concerning 
was that redshirt sophomore 
kicker Quinn Nordin missed a 
39-yard field goal.
This wouldn’t be an issue if 
Nordin hadn’t been shaky down 
the stretch last season. But he was, 
missing an extra point against 
Penn State, Minnesota and Ohio 
State, and missing three straight 
field 
goals 
against 
Rutgers, 
Minnesota and Maryland.
Nordin still clearly has the 
talent, and there likely isn’t a kicker 
controversy or anything, but the 
Wolverines have to be at least a 
little perturbed by Nordin’s miss.
The Ugly:
You’ll 
notice 
that 
at 
the 
beginning of the story, it says “from 
the second drive on.” That’s the 
because Michigan’s first drive of 
the game was a mess.
The Wolverines got the ball first, 
and the first place was a first down 
toss from Patterson to redshirt 
junior tight end Zach Gentry.
Then things went sour.
Patterson had to call a timeout 
after what seemed like personnel 
confusion. When Michigan came 
back on the field from the timeout, 
fifth-year 
senior 
right 
tackle 
Juwann Bushell-Beatty moved 
early and incurred a false start 
penalty.
The next two plays were two-
yard runs from Higdon, and the 
one after that was a pass to Evans 
out of the backfield that netted 
zero yards.
The Michigan Stadium crowd 
actually booed the unit as they ran 
off the field. That was absolutely 
not a preview of things to come, 
but at least for a moment, it looked 
like the Wolverines’ offensive woes 
against the Fighting Irish might 
bleed into this game too.

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh admitted that his team wanted to get rid of the bad feelign they had after Michigan.

ORION 
SANG

MIKE PERSAK
Managing Sports Editor

There are three 
throws I want 
to bring to your 
attention.

(Patterson) 
already is a 
difference-
maker

MARK 
CALCAGNO

