SportsMonday

Brown’s 
blueprint 
comes into 
focus

In year four of Don Brown running 
Michigan’s 
defense, 
there’s 
little 
question as to what he wants his unit 
to be.
He’s going to play man-to-man. 
He’s going to blitz. He’s going to tell 
his team to swarm the ball carrier 
with abandon. They’re going to do 
all that, and dare the offense to beat 
them.
When Brown coached at UMass, 
UConn and Boston College, the 
first pages of his playbook carried a 
parable about the African plains. He’s 
relayed the story at Michigan, too. 
Every gazelle knows it must outrun 
the fastest lion or be killed. Every 
lion knows it must outrun the slowest 
gazelle or it will starve.
And then, in all caps: “WHEN THE 
SUN COMES UP, YOU BETTER BE 
RUNNING!”
All this is to say that, as words like 
“identity” have gotten thrown around 
the Michigan football team this week, 
Brown has never had any question as 
to what he wants his team to be. It’s 
just a matter of whether they can do 
it.
On Saturday, without question, 
they did.
A week after Wisconsin throttled 
them in Madison, gaining 359 yards 
on the ground in one of the most 
resounding losses of Brown’s tenure, 
his unit held Rutgers to 46 rushing 
yards, 152 total yards and zero points. 
It’s Michigan’s first shutout since 
2016. 
You’d be justified to take that with 
a grain of salt — a 52-0 win against 
Rutgers is, ultimately, a win against 
the Power Five’s perpetual bottom-
feeder. It means little in terms of 
whether the Wolverines can improve 
when they play a team like Wisconsin 
again.
But, if nothing else, it provided a 
pretty good reminder of what Brown’s 
defenses can be at their best.
“We got back to playing how we 
play,” said sophomore linebacker 
Cam McGrone. “How we played 
last season, the two games before 
Wisconsin. We just got back to who 
we were.”
McGrone is one of the bolts on 
which Michigan’s defense hinges, 
a reality that was exacerbated on 
Saturday with Josh Ross sitting due 
to injury. A four-star prospect, he sat 
and watched last year. When he got in 
during the first three games this year, 
he did little to stand out. 
Against Rutgers, he felt like he was 
in high school again, flying all over 
the field, hitting the quarterback, 
viscerally impacting the game. “If 
he keeps playing like this, he’s gonna 
be a star,” said Michigan coach Jim 
Harbaugh.
For a defense that had played well 
on paper but had yet to really click, 
McGrone was one of several puzzle 
pieces that seemed to fall into place. 
A defensive line group that the 
Badgers 
manhandled 
dominated 
the line of scrimmage behind Kwity 
Paye and a healthy Mike Dwumfour. 
Michigan notched two sacks, four 
quarterback hits and six tackles for 
loss. It felt like more.
“I felt like our whole D-Line was 
playing well this week,” Paye said. 
“We really took it upon us in practice 
to really dive for the quarterback and 
make sure we do everything that we 
can (to get) back there.”
McGrone 
played 
sideline-to-
sideline and the linebackers played 
with the energy they sorely lacked 
in Madison. The secondary shut off 
whatever options Rutgers quarterback 
Artur Sitkowski had downfield and 
freshman safety Daxton Hill, a five-
star who was pegged to contribute 
immediately from the moment he 
committed, made a tangible impact.
All of this comes with the obvious 
caveat that it’s what any competent 
team should do to Rutgers. Call it 
a result of that, or call it a result of 
extra motivation stemming from last 
week. Certainly both explanations 
have 
some 
truth 
to 
them, 
and 
replicating the performance against 
Iowa next week is the first real test. 
But Michigan at least has a blueprint 
now.
“I feel like our linebackers played 
well this week,” Paye said. “I feel like 
our safeties played well and I feel like 
our D-Line played well. I feel like we 
were just hungry to just come out 
here and play. Our main objective was 
just to shut them out.”
Mission accomplished.

“

A-to-Z.”
That’s how Jim Harbaugh 
framed the Michigan football 
team’s problems last Monday. Full-
scale. Thorough.
In that context, Saturday was as 
close to a no-win 
proposition as a 
football game can 
be.
Had Michigan 
lost — or even 
played to a close 
win — we’d be 
gathered here 
to eulogize this 
football season 
and discuss the 
dying pulse of the 
program writ large. Instead, the Wol-
verines beat Rutgers, 52-0. The Scarlet 
Knights turned around and fired their 
head coach Sunday morning, casting 
their net for a savior from seemingly-
interminable irrelevance.
Which is to say: Beating the worst 
Power Five program in modern histo-
ry (using SP+ and common logic) does 
not nullify last week’s loss at Wiscon-
sin, nor is anyone pretending it does.
But that doesn’t mean Saturday’s 
game was devoid of meaning. There 
are real things worth carrying for-
ward. Here are a few.
The kids are alright
It’s not just that sophomore Cam 
McGrone and freshman Daxton Hill 
showed promise of a bright future 
Saturday, though both did. It’s that 
they’re ready to play — right now — for 
a defense that could really use talent 
of that ilk.
McGrone filled in at middle line-
backer admirably for junior Josh Ross 
as the latter sat with an injury. He 
showed signs of the promised speed 
and physicality that those who fol-
lowed his recruitment expected.
“If he keeps playing like this, he’s 
going to be a star,” Harbaugh said of 
McGrone.
Hill is one of those five-star talents 
who does things that make it plainly 
clear why he was so highly-coveted. 
Saturday, there were multiple instanc-
es in which he identified a target, beat 
his man to the spot and finished the 
tackle with authority. The tackle on 
a punt return stands out, of course, 
but so did his ability to set the edge on 

runs to the sideline. 
His performance Saturday was 
remiscent of Jabrill Peppers early in 
his career. It’s hard to say whether 
Hill, akin to Peppers, is ready to play 
starter-level snaps in big games, but 
boy does that talent make it worth 
finding out.
“(Hill is) growing as a football 
player very quickly,” Harbaugh said. 
“He’s just so fast; that speed shows 
up. It shows up when it shows up. You 
see it with Dax Hill. You see it with 
Cam McGrone. You see it with guys 
like that.”
Then the key.
“I think you can probably predict 
he’ll be getting more and more time.”
Surely, that’s music to Michigan 
fans’ ears. It’s time to throw Hill and 
McGrone into the fire and see if they 
can hang. If they can, the potential of 
this defense grows noticeably.
Gattis is growing
Put the scoreline aside for a 
moment. Notching 52 points and over 
450 yards against any semi-functional 
team is a good sign for this group, but 
that’s almost secondary to the bigger 
point.
It can be easy to forget Josh Gattis 
is no more than a month into a major 
coaching adjustment. Think about 
where you were the last time you were 
mere months into such a formative life 
transition. Everything at this juncture 
is still experimental. And so, even 
against defenses that stand no chance, 
there are realizations to be gleaned as 
Gattis and his personnel work toward 
a coherent marriage. 
Saturday, Gattis had senior quar-
terback Shea Patterson on the move 
more frequently. For the first time all 
season, he found a balance of run and 
pass, with a near even split until gar-
bage time featured largely runs.
And while body language can fre-
quently mislead, Gattis looked like 
a coach back in his element on the 
sideline, conversing with the receiver 
group during breaks, yelling at the ref-
erees, high-fiving players after scores. 
Everyone is quick to judge this 
offense, and thus far, there’s been little 
to feel good about. But Gattis talked a 
lot about trust this week. Trust with 
his players. Trust in his system. Trust 
in himself. Trust that all of this will 
work.

“All week, (Gattis) emphasized 
believing in his players, and we just 
have to believe in him,” said junior 
running back Christian Turner. “I 
think him being on the sideline just 
emphasized that even more.”
Success breeds belief. Belief breeds 
success.
Both clearly take time, and if you 
asked those around the program right 
now, they’ll say it takes adversity like 
the kind they’ve faced.
Moving to the sideline is not the 
magic elixir to ensuring that bond, nor 
is bludgeoning a lowly foe. But it’s rea-
sonable to have some patience as that 
trust — and hope — builds.
Shea Patterson is not, and has 
never been, the problem
What you thought Shea Patterson 
would be is not his fault, nor has it 
ever been. He’s not good enough to 
overcome offensive line struggles. 
He’s not good enough to work through 
schematic confusion. He, himself, 
cannot overcome the pervasive issues 
present in this offense early in the 
season.
If you thought otherwise, that’s on 
you, not him.
He’s the best quarterback on this 
roster. Saturday, he showed what 
he can do when he has time and a 
coherent flow. From his throw to 
sophomore Donovan Peoples-Jones 
on the second drive of the game to his 
three rushing touchdowns, Patterson 
showed, above all, that he remains 
capable of being a well above-average 
quarterback and doing things no other 
quarterback on this roster can. His 
lone interception came on a go-route 
to junior Nico Collins, a throw that 
required a bit more air, but was far 
from a fatal error. 
Shea Patterson is who he is — no 
more, no less. What he’s not is the root 
of any problem with this team.
Those “A-to-Z” problems did not 
suddenly vanquish simply because 
Rutgers was next on the schedule. 
Much of it still lingers. But to dismiss 
60 minutes of gameplay, no matter the 
opponent, would be a mistake, par-
ticularly heading toward a legitimate 
test against Iowa next weekend.

Marcovitch can be reached 

at maxmarco@umich.edu or on 

Twitter @Max_Marcovitch.

ETHAN SEARS
Managing Sports Editor

KEEMYA ESMAEL/Daily
The Michigan football team bounced back from its loss at Wisconsin with a 52-0 over Rutgers on Saturday afternoon at the Big House.

Behind 
Patterson, 
‘M’ offense 
rebounds

It took all of two minutes and eight 
seconds Saturday afternoon.
Two minutes and eight seconds for 
Shea Patterson to find Nico Collins on a 
48-yard touchdown down the sideline.
Two minutes and eight seconds for 
Collins to sprint toward his teammates, 
shoulder bumping Mike Sainristil and 
Tarik Black in celebration.
Two minutes and eight seconds 
for Michigan to discover its offensive 
groove after four vexing weeks of 
trying.
The natural caveat, of course, is the 
Wolverines’ opponent. Rutgers ranks 
118th of 130 FBS teams in ESPN’s 
adjusted 
efficiency 
metric. 
Even 
Michigan’s backups had no trouble 
shredding the Scarlet Knights en route 
to a 52-0 win.
But four weeks ago, the same could 
have been said of Middle Tennessee 
State, which ranks 122nd in the same 
metric. That night, the Wolverines left 
Michigan Stadium with a 40-21 win that 
prompted more questions than answers. 
Saturday, they did the opposite.
“Josh Gattis, all the offense coaches 
and offensive players, the precision they 
had, they improved and it showed,” said 
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh. “Put 
together a really good gameplan and 
the players knew it. … And it’s good to 
see it paid off in a victory that was much 
needed.”
Through three games, the questions 
swirling over Michigan’s offensive 
identity were unavoidable. In week 
two’s overtime win over Army, the 
Wolverines ran 14 more times than they 
passed, including an inexplicable run 
of 13 straight rushing plays at the end 
of regulation. Last week, en route to a 
21-point loss at Wisconsin, Michigan 
gained just 40 yards on the ground, 
opting for an air game that proved 
equally ineffective.
At the center of it all was Patterson. 
It’s a natural place for a quarterback 
to sit when his team struggles, but 
Patterson’s start to the season only 
added fuel to the fire.
His completion percentage was down 
nine points from a year ago. His yards 
per attempt had dropped from 8.0 to 7.0. 
On the ground, he had dropped from 21 
yards per game to three.
Saturday afternoon, he was back to 
his old self. The final line — 17-for-23 for 
276 yards, four total touchdowns and an 
interception — says it all.
“Any time after a loss like that, it 
can go two ways,” Patterson said. “And 
we worked hard every single day in 
practice, trusted the game plan. I just 
really like the way we responded as a 
team.”
Patterson’s natural reaction when 
he’s asked about himself is to deflect. 
When the questions inevitably came 
Saturday, he credited the coaches’ 
gameplan, the offensive line’s pass 
protection, the receivers for getting 
open and the defense for advantageous 
field position. Not once did he mention 
himself.
But ask anyone else and you’ll find out 
what Patterson means to this team.
“Shea’s one of the best guys I know 
about handling his mentality,” said 
sophomore running back Christian 
Turner. “Media likes to bash him and 
stuff like that, but Shea’s a baller and we 
all believe in Shea and Shea believes in 
us.”
If you don’t believe him, you could 
just watch the game.
All afternoon, Patterson was clicking. 
Two plays in, he found Ronnie Bell for 
a 14-yard gain that would have been 
his second-biggest of the first three 
quarters against Wisconsin. A minute 
later came the touchdown to Collins. 
On the next drive, it only took him two 
completions to get Michigan inside the 
Rutgers’ five-yard line, because the 
second of those was a perfectly thrown 
deep ball to Donovan Peoples-Jones on 
the left sideline.
Three plays later, he strolled into the 
end zone untouched for his first rushing 
touchdown of the year.
“He did really good,” Peoples-Jones 
said. “Sat back there and made some 
really good throws. His reads. Every 
assignment that he did, he did well 
today.”
As for the questions about Michigan’s 
offensive identity? Those came with 
a notably different twist — is this your 
identity, not what is your identity?
“It 
definitely 
helps,” 
Peoples-
Jones said of the connection between 
Patterson’s 
performance 
and 
the 
Wolverines’ identity.
“… 
Whenever 
he 
plays 
good, 
everybody plays good.”

THEO MACKIE
Daily Sports Editor

Sportsmonday Column

Not a lot mattered on Saturday. Here’s what did:

2B — September 30, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

MAX

MARCOVITCH

KEEMYA ESMAEL/Daily
The Michigan defense held Rutgers scoreless on Saturday behind a stalwart performance from sophomore Cam McGrone (left).

