Moving On
Chase Winovich wasn’t
chosen as a captain this
season, but he has proven to
be a leader for Michigan on
and off the field.
» Page 2B
Blitzed
Michigan falls back to .500,
as Northwestern scores four
goals in a game for the first
time in two seasons against
the Wolverines.
» Page 3B
Michigan avoids near-devastating loss to Wildcats
EVANSTON — Shea
Patterson and the Michigan
football team’s offense stepped
onto the field with 10:05 left in
the game.
The 14th-ranked Wolverines
(4-1 overall, 2-0 Big Ten) had
struggled all night on that side
of the ball, especially in the
first half, when they fell into a
17-0 deficit on the road against
Northwestern (1-3, 1-1). And
after halftime, when Patterson
and company did string together
some positive plays, they
struggled to punch it in the
endzone, settling for two field
goals from inside the 10-yard
line.
With that, Michigan’s
offense faced a 17-13 deficit and
an opportunity to reverse its
fortunes.
On the first play of the drive,
Patterson found fifth-year
senior fullback Jared Wangler
for nine yards. Patterson hit
redshirt junior tight end Zach
Gentry for 13 yards on a corner
route on the next set of downs,
then he scrambled for a key
third-down conversion after
that.
Patterson then put the
Wolverines in striking position
when, on second-and-10 from
the Wildcats’ 28, he threaded a
pass through three defenders to
Gentry, who fell to the ground at
the six-yard line. Senior running
back Karan Higdon completed
the comeback two plays later,
plowing into the endzone for
a five-yard score with 4:06 on
the clock, as Patterson wildly
pumped his fist behind him.
Michigan’s defense took it
from there, snuffing out any
Northwestern late-game heroics
and finishing off a nail-biting
win, 20-17.
“A lot of guys really left it out
there, you know, played their
hearts out,” said Michigan coach
Jim Harbaugh. “Tested in the
ball game and had to show what
we were made of. And (I) like
what we’re made of.”
Despite the happy ending for
the Wolverines, the rest of the
game was surely not how they
drew it up.
After building momentum
with three, dominating wins in
the last three weeks, Michigan
came in heavy favorites against
the Wildcats, who were fresh off
losses to Duke and Akron.
With that, when the
Wolverines won the opening
coin toss, they opted to receive
in an effort to seize momentum
from the jump.
But their first drive
went three and out, and
Northwestern responded with a
56-yard drive for a touchdown.
7-0.
On the next possession,
Michigan went three and out
again, and the Wildcats drove
back down the field to kick a
field goal. 10-0.
The Wolverines’ third drive
started to build momentum, but
a key drop on a would-be big
play by junior tight end Sean
McKeon ended that threat, and
Northwestern’s offense went
straight into the endzone again.
It was 17-0 with 12:56 left in the
second quarter.
Michigan’s offense had 21
yards at that point. The Wildcats
had 145.
The Wolverines scored on
a 4-yard run from Higdon on
the next possession for a much-
needed response, but they still
went to halftime down 17-7.
“Just keep pushing. Keep
pushing,” Higdon said. “You
know, there’s four quarters for
a reason, and that first half they
were up, and we remembered a
lot of the adversity we faced over
the summer. You know, summer
workouts and stuff like that, and
we dug deep, and we came out
with a win.”
Added Harbaugh, on his
halftime message: “I mean, what
you’re made of. Can you dig
down and, you know, continue
to execute and execute better
than what you did? So, yeah, it’s
self-explanatory. Do you have
the metal? Got the gravel in your
gut to win a game on the road
under tough circumstances? I’m
proud of our guys.”
Michigan’s defense,
especially, seemed to take that
message to heart.
Northwestern gained a total
of 51 yards in the entire second
half. It went 1-for-6 on third
downs. The Wolverines sacked
Wildcats quarterback Clayton
Thorson five times in the final
30 minutes. Four of them were
on third down, and the other
one was the last play of the
game, when junior linebacker
Josh Uche brought down
Thorson on a would-be Hail
Mary attempt.
And most importantly,
Northwestern didn’t score
another point.
“Coming out (of halftime), we
knew they couldn’t really hang
with us,” Uche said. “We (were)
just having a lot of self-inflicted
wounds. Went into the locker
room, got our minds right, came
back and dominated like we’re
supposed to.”
For a while, though, it looked
like the offense didn’t have
enough.
But when Michigan needed
it most, the unit, and especially
Patterson, came through.
In front of a road crowd that
was half-filled with Wolverines
fans, Patterson ended things
with a fist pump after his
signature drive to this point in a
Michigan uniform — in a game
that wasn’t supposed to need
one.
“I can’t even describe it,”
Patterson said. “It’s such an
exhilarating feeling, and you
know, that’s why you play the
game. You play the game for
these moments, and like I said,
man, I’m just proud to be a part
of this team and help out any
way I can.”
MIKE PERSAK
Managing Sports Editor
The Michigan Daily | michigandaily.com | October 1, 2018
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