2B — September 17, 2018
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Patterson needs backup
S

hea 

Patterson 
has played 
even better 
than the 
most 
optimistic 
Michigan 
fans could 
have expected.
Saturday’s 45-20 win over 
SMU was the most recent 
example. And yes, it’s only a 
three-game sample, but the 
consistency and prolificity 
with which Patterson has 
played in those three games 
is something that hasn’t been 
seen in Ann Arbor since … 
maybe Denard Robinson, but 
probably Chad Henne.
It’s certainly the best 
quarterback play Wolverines 
coach Jim Harbaugh has had 
in his tenure.
“Accuracy, really. His reads 
feel really good, he’s making 
really good decisions,” 
Harbaugh said after the 
game. “… He’s getting out of 
trouble and creating plays 
when sometimes there isn’t 
one to be there. Just playing 
really — playing the position 
really well. And then making 
the throws when they present 
themselves. He’s hitting 
the short ones, he’s hitting 
the intermediate ones, he’s 
hitting the deep ones. Good 
quarterback play.”
Strong quarterback play 
is something that Michigan 
has been searching for since 
Harbaugh has arrived in 
Ann Arbor. Jake Rudock 
showed flashes in 2015, but 
the supporting cast around 
him wasn’t ready, and Rudock 
didn’t have the physical talent 
Patterson has.
The last two seasons, 
Wilton Speight, Brandon 
Peters and John O’Korn were 
surrounded by elite athletes, 
but couldn’t put it all together 

to lead the Wolverines to the 
promised land.
Patterson is that 
quarterback. The throws that 
were missed in past losses, 
like the ones against Iowa in 
2016 or to Michigan State and 
Ohio State in 
2017 — he can 
make those. 
We’ve already 
seen it.
Patterson is 
now 46-for-65 
for 589 passing 
yards and six 
touchdowns 
this season, 
including three 
touchdowns 
each in the last two games. 
Michigan hadn’t thrown 
three touchdowns in a game 
since Nov. 5, 2016, against 
Maryland. Last season’s 
team didn’t have six passing 

touchdowns until the ninth 
game of the season.
“We’ve had Jake Rudock 
here, and there’s problems 
that are beyond the scope of 
a quarterback, but in terms 
of how our offense efficiently 
played and how 
Shea looked, 
I’d say it’s as 
good as any 
quarterback 
I’ve seen here,” 
said fifth-year 
senior defensive 
end Chase 
Winovich after 
the Wolverines’ 
win over 
Western 
Michigan two weeks ago. 
“It was weird being on the 
sideline and them just scoring 
touchdowns. I remember 
(junior safety) Josh Metellus 
… he goes, I just remember 

him sitting there looking, he’s 
like ‘Man, this is nice!’ I think 
the feeling is mutual from my 
half.”
It’s ironic, then, that now 
that Michigan and Harbaugh 
finally have the quarterback 
who can make 
all the throws, 
question marks 
have popped up 
around the rest 
of the roster.
It isn’t the 
offensive line, 
though they 
have struggled, 
because that 
position has 
been a trouble 
area for at least the last two 
seasons.
What is different is that the 
defense that made Michigan 
a force to be reckoned with in 
the Harbaugh era has looked 

vulnerable at times.
The things that put 
the Wolverines in a hole 
against Notre Dame popped 
up again Saturday. There 
were penalties and missed 
assignments that, against a 
better team, 
might be a 
death sentence. 
Heck, if it was 
last year’s 
offense that 
was on the field 
against the 
Mustangs, the 
defensive lapses 
might have 
been a death 
sentence, too.
But it wasn’t, because 
Patterson made play after 
play and throw after throw. 
Michigan, for the second 
week in a row, scored more 
points than it scored in any 

game last season.
SMU’s first touchdown 
came when the Wolverines 
miscommunicated in 
coverage, and wide receiver 
James Proche ran wide open 
up the sideline for a 50-yard 
pitch and catch. On the 
next drive, Patterson drove 
Michigan right back down 
the field, 60 yards in five 
plays. He capped it off with 
a 35-yard toss to sophomore 
wide receiver Donovan 
Peoples-Jones.
It wasn’t a hard throw, as 
Peoples-Jones was wide open, 
but in the past year or so, 
even the easy throws couldn’t 
be taken for granted.
“The thing about Shea is 
that he just has such a sense 
of confidence that doesn’t 
come off as cocky, but you 
just know and he knows — 
this is my opinion about it — 
that he’s the man,” Winovich 
said last week. “He’s the man 
for the job, and he can get the 
job done. I think for him, it 
was just another day at the 
office.”
I think I have written 
this part in every one of my 
columns, but I do feel it’s 
appropriate to repeat when 
being critical this early in the 
season. It would be misguided 
to say that there are problems 
that will not be fixed, or at 
least patched up enough to 
win any game moving forward 
— especially for a team with 
this talent. 
But if the rest of the 
Wolverines don’t solidify 
themselves, this season 
might feel like a huge missed 
opportunity. Because Shea 
Patterson is the quarterback 
Michigan has wanted. It 
would be a shame to let that 
go to waste.

Persak can be reached at 

mdpers@umich.edu or on 

Twitter @MikeDPersak or 

Venmo @Mike-Persak

The good, the bad and the ugly: SMU

The good: Patterson/Peoples-
Jones connection

In Saturday’s postgame press 
conference, a reporter asked junior 
quarterback Shea Patterson and 
sophomore wide receiver Donovan 
Peoples-Jones about one of the 
duo’s three touchdown connections 
on the day — a back-shoulder fade 
to move the score to 28-7.
Is that something you regularly 
practice?
Both paused. Patterson glanced 
at Peoples-Jones and smiled.
It took everyone in the receiving 
corps some time to feel comfortable 
with the new signal-caller. 
But after some time, it seems 
Peoples-Jones 
and 
Patterson 
— each former glistening five-
star talents — have found that 
comfortability, and the offense, is 
being rewarded in droves.
Saturday, Peoples-Jones notched 
the first three-touchdown game 
from a Michigan wide receiver 
since Jehu Chesson scored four 
touchdowns against Indiana in 
2015. It is also Peoples-Jones’ first 
multi-touchdown game, as the 
former top wide receiver commit 
in the country continues to show an 
ever-expanding toolset.
The first touchdown came on a 
crossing route late in the first half. 
He glided across the field, caught 
a dart from Patterson and turned 
up field for a 35-yard score. Then 
came the back-shoulder fade — the 
first such score in recent Michigan 
history (with only exaggeration). 
The ability to adjust his body, find 
the ball and get his feet down 
offered the clearest sign of a wide 
receiver with a world of potential 
starting to put it together.
The 
throw 
— 
from 
the 
quarterback completing nearly 80 
percent of his passes — was on the 
money.
Then, to cap it off, Patterson 
found Peoples-Jones in stride on 
a 41-yard deep post for a score, a 
route Harbaugh called “terrific” 
and a throw he deemed “right on 
the money.”
Peoples-Jones finished the day 
with four catches for 90 yards and 
three touchdowns, a banner day for 

a receiver and a quarterback who 
seem to just be getting started.

The bad: the secondary

If you’d never heard of James 
Proche before Saturday, the SMU 
receiver 
offered 
a 
memorable 
introduction. 
Proche 
pranced 
around the Michigan secondary 
all day, catching everything in sight 
and drawing pass intereference 
calls on the off chance he didn’t.
In the end, Proche tallied 11 
catches for 166 yards and two 
touchdowns. That seems low.
While Proche, who has over 
100 career catches and nearly 
2000 yards, has clear talent, it’s a 
foreboding sign that an American 
Athletic Conference receiver had 
his way with a secondary that is 
supposed to be one of the nation’s 
best.
Juniors Lavert Hill, David Long 
and Josh Metellus, along with 
several others, took their shot at the 
Mustangs’ top receiver. Time and 
time again, Proche had his way.
One such error included a simple 
wheel route from the slot, crossing 
with a receiver running to the 

middle of the field. Metellus and 
sophomore safety Brad Hawkins 
had a miscommunication on the 
coverage, leading to a walk-in 
50-yard touchdown to tie the game 
at seven.
All this complementing the 
seven penalties that plagued the 
defense — many of which came on 
pass interference calls. 
With Big Ten play set to begin, 
Michigan’s secondary simply has 
to be better. The margin for error 
is going to get much slimmer in the 
coming weeks.

The ugly: penalties*

You won’t win many games with 
13 penalties for 137 yards. Against 
SMU, it can be used as a harmless 
teaching point. Against a formidable 
opponent, it could be a back-breaker.
On the verge of Big Ten play, 
Harbaugh will be sure to emphasize 
the former.
“My point is, you address each 
of them,” Harbaugh said. “And 
penalties are hurting us. That’s 
something we have to clean up and 
get better at. We address each one 
— technique, what we’re using, the 

discipline that we have. Get them 
corrected, get them coached, get 
improved. Don’t want 13 penalties 
in a game.”
Some 
of 
them, 
Harbaugh 
disagreed 
with. 
Some 
even 
emphatically so. 
In the third quarter, junior 
VIPER 
Khaleke 
Hudson 
was 
ejected for targeting. Harbaugh — 
and anyone who was asked about it 
after the game — took objection to 
that call in particular.
The point remains, though, 
that it’s among the flaws the 
Wolverines will seek to correct 
going forward. Perhaps based on 
the sheer randomness of penalties, 
it’s less dire than other flaws (say, 
pass protection or safety play), but 
penalties reared their ugly head on 
Saturday.

*This section noticeably leaves 
out SMU coach Sonny Dykes 
kicking an onside kick with a 
player who wasn’t a kicker, then 
promptly getting penalized for 
it. This is a Michigan publication. 
Unfortunately, this play did not 
qualify for publication. It was, 
however, quite ugly.

FIELD HOCKEY 
‘M’ opens Big Ten play

It wasn’t overtime and it 
wasn’t a game winner but the 
No. 10 Michigan field hockey 
team (1-0 Big Ten, 4-3 overall) 
notched 
its 
third 
straight 
victory Friday night.
Once again, senior forward 
Emma Way is to thank.
After an onslaught of seven 
goals in six games to start the 
season, including two overtime 
winners last weekend, Way’s 
dominance came in a more 
balanced manner on Friday. 
She assisted two goals in the 
Wolverines’ 3-1 win over No. 17 
Rutgers (0-1, 5-1).
Freshman 
midfielder 
Kathryn Peterson opened the 
scoring 25 minutes in with 
her first collegiate goal on a 
left-handed shot past Scarlet 
Knights goalie Gianna Glatz.
“It’s 
just 
fun,” 
Peterson 
said. “And my family was 
here so that was a little more 
significant, but it was just one 
of those goals with a good 
feeling about it.”
Of course, it was Way on the 
assist. Way came around the 
backside of Michigan’s press to 
receive the ball just outside of 
the circle, where she passed it 
beyond the last defender into 
Peterson’s path.
“She’s 
just 
a 
machine,” 
Peterson said. “She’s just a 
captain that gets the job done. 
You can look to her for an 
example.
“Emma’s getting her part 
done, so you gotta go get your 
part done.”
Minutes after the halftime 
break, Way notched her second 
assist of the game. This time, 
she received a corner at the 
top of the circle, dragged the 
ball to her left and unleashed 
a ferocious shot into traffic. 
Another freshman, midfielder 
Sofia Southam, got her stick to 
the ball to deflect it past Glatz.
But once again, Way was at 
the center of the Wolverines’ 
offense.
“She’s just such a special 
player,” said Michigan coach 
Marcia Pankratz. “She does 

some things that a lot of other 
players can’t even imagine 
doing.”
Unfortunately for Pankratz, 
last year’s loss of Big Ten Player 
of the Year Katie Trombetta 
means she no longer has a 
defensive counterpart to Way. 
Early in the season, that posed 
a challenge for the Wolverines, 
who allowed 10 goals in three 
early losses after posting 16 
shutouts in 24 tries last year.
With 
three 
consecutive 
games of allowing just one 
goal, that tide may be shifting. 
Michigan’s 
defensive 
spirit 
was evident on a play late in 
the first half when Rutgers 
appeared to have tied the 
game before redshirt freshman 
defender Abbey Hutton raced 
back to slap the ball away from 
the Wolverines’ goal line.
“It’s not luck that she was in 
the right position to get that 
ball out,” Pankratz said. “She’s 
a smart player, and she was in 
the right position to make that 
happen.
“It’s a very, very young 
defense. … It’s tremendous 
what they’ve been able to 
accomplish. They’ve been really 
disciplined and communicate 
well, and they’ve been playing 
with a lot of confidence, so I’ve 
been proud of them.”
In the end, Way once again 
sealed the win for Michigan, 
extending her goal streak to six 
games in the process.
Like her second assist, she 
received a corner at the top of 
the circle. This time, she baited 
two Rutgers defenders into 
charging at her before calmly 
taking the ball around them 
and ripping a shot to the near 
post to make it 3-1, Wolverines.
With 
that, 
Michigan 
completed a dominating win 
in which it controlled the game 
from start to finish against an 
undefeated Rutgers team.
“We 
owned 
our 
house,” 
Peterson said. “And we shut 
them down when it mattered.”
After whiffing on each of 
their marquee non-conference 
win opportunities, that was 
exactly the start to Big Ten play 
that the Wolverines needed.

THEO MACKIE
Daily Sports Writer

MAX MARCOVITCH
Daily Sports Editor

EVAN AARON/Daily
Junior quarterback Shea Patterson connected with sophomore wide receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones for 18 points.

MIKE 
PERSAK

EVAN AARON/Daily
Junior quarterback Shea Patterson has proven he is the most talented quarterback of coach Jim Harbaugh’s tenure, but he’ll need some help from his teammates.

“His reads feel 
really good, he’s 
making really 
good decisions.”

“He’s the man 
for the job, and 
he can get the 
job done.”

