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.”