8A — Wednesday, October 23, 2019
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Perhaps too late, offense settles in

It took a loss, 26 quarters and a 
21-7 deficit heading into the 27th, 
but we finally know what speed in 
space looks like.
Senior 
quarterback 
Shea 
Patterson slinging it. Freshman 
running back Zach Charbonnet 
bursting through open holes. A 
talented receiving corps getting 
put to use. Run-pass options 
and tempo wearing down the 
opponent. Explosive plays putting 
an exclamation mark on the whole 
thing.
It was easy to forget as 
Michigan football slogged through 
its first six games of the season 
with one unconvincing offensive 
performance after another, as 
coaches and players faced media 
and seemed to ignore the obvious 
issues right in front of them. 
But this was what offensive 
coordinator Josh Gattis came to 
Ann Arbor advertising 10 long 
months ago.
And for the last two quarters 
in a whiteout at State College on 
Saturday night, against a Penn 
State defense that came into the 
game ranked top-10 in SP+, the 
Wolverines lived up to the billing.
“Everybody saw it,” said senior 
left tackle Jon Runyan Jr. “(Being) 
able to move the ball with ease, 
running RPOs, wide receivers 
getting open, catching the ball. 
Really important, we weren’t 
getting in those second and third-
and-longs. 
“We were able to run our style of 
offense that we wanted to. Banging 
out the explosive plays, I think we 
had five explosive runs and seven 
explosive passes.”
It is, of course, no mere footnote 
that football games last four 
quarters, not two. Nor is it trivial 
that Michigan ultimately came up 
short, losing, 28-21, and as a result, 
those first 26 quarters where the 
offense looked lost will likely cost 
the Wolverines all of their goals. 
A College Football Playoff is out. 
A Big Ten title would require a lot 

of dominos falling in Michigan’s 
favor. The jury is still out on 
Gattis as a coordinator, though, 
and Saturday was the first time, 
sans-Rutgers and Illinois, that 
his offense looked like what was 
promised.
Michigan went on the road and 
outgained Penn State, 417-283. 
Patterson commanded the pocket 
like he hadn’t all year, throwing for 
276 yards with one costly mistake, 
an interception to Tariq Castro-
Fields. The Wolverines ran over 80 
plays and by the end of the game, 
the Nittany Lions were gassed.
“That’s 
kinda 
sorta 
the 
confidence we’ve had all year,” 
Patterson said Tuesday in a 
surprise appearance in front of 
reporters. “No matter how many 
times that happened, just so proud 
of our O-Line. ... Charbonnet had 
a great second half on the ground. 
The receivers were getting out on 
the perimeter and making big-time 
plays. It was really exciting.”
It’s hard to reconcile that with 
the loss and all it means, with the 
cold hard fact that the needed 
offensive progress ultimately came 
too late in the season. The most 
Michigan can reasonably hope 
to get out of the next five weeks 
are feel-good wins over its three 
biggest rivals. As much as that 
would mean (particularly beating 
Ohio State), it isn’t a Big Ten trophy.
The offense, ultimately, holds 
a lot of the fault for that. Even 
against Penn State, dropped balls, 

penalties and an early failure 
to convert a fourth down will 
haunt the Wolverines. They had 
four drives end in Nittany Lion 
territory without a point, and a 
fifth at midfield. Even in what 
was arguably his best game since 
taking the job, there are spots to 
nitpick Gattis’ performance.
Yet, it’s hard to argue with 
tangible progress. 
“I feel like our guys just went out 
there and played loose,” Patterson 
said. “I was battling some injuries 
all year, and for the first time, I 
think I went out there and was 100 
percent healthy. I felt good, and 
our guys felt good.”
For 
much 
of 
the 
season, 
Michigan has harped on how the 
offense has worked in practice and 
merely not translated into games. 
Otherwise, the Wolverines pointed 
to a lack of outside knowledge on an 
offense that came into Saturday’s 
game ranked 53rd in offensive SP+.
Outside of two games against 
the Big Ten’s bottom-feeders, 
Saturday was the first time the 
offense backed up those claims to 
the naked eye.
“We were just moving the ball,” 
said junior receiver Nico Collins. 
“We were focusing on our deals, 
fundamentals. And it worked.”
It worked. And Michigan lost. 
If Gattis is to succeed over 
the long term, he’ll need greater 
consistency than his unit has shown 
thus far. But Saturday was at least a 
step in the right direction.

Patterson shows fight in PSU loss

Michigan 
was 
scrapping 
and clawing, and its senior 
quarterback was leading the 
charge.
Down 28-14 on Saturday, Shea 
Patterson marched his team 
down to the one-yard line in the 
middle of the fourth quarter, 
facing a fourth-and-goal with 
the game in the balance. The 
Wolverines 
called 
Patterson’s 
number, a quarterback sneak, in 
hopes of muscling their way to a 
one-possession game. There was 
literal scrapping, clawing — and, 
apparently, gouging.
“The dude has his index finger 
up my eye, in my eye socket, for 
like 10 seconds,” Patterson said 
Tuesday, unable to identify which 
Penn State defensive player. “That 
wasn’t good.
“I was trying to reach the ball 
across the plane, and for a good 
while I was screaming for my life. 
I wasn’t too happy about that.”
After 
the 
referees 
finally 
signaled for a touchdown, the 
lengthy quarrel finally dispersing, 
Patterson walked over to the 
sideline, vision blurred, with 
tears streaming from his eyes. His 
team had life, if only temporary. 
Some hindered vision would not 
deter him.
It 
is 
in 
that 
context 
— 
complementing 
his 
24-for-41, 
276-yard performance — that the 
praise for his best performance 
of the season takes on a new 
meaning.
“Each game, Shea’s getting 
better and better,” said junior 
wide 
receiver 
Nico 
Collins. 
“During the season, he had a 
couple turnovers and he learned 
from turnovers. That’s hard. We 
want Shea back right now. He’s 
the quarterback and we all trust 
in Shea. He believes in us.”
Added Michigan coach Jim 
Harbaugh: “I think Shea has 
been 
playing 
great 
football. 
Heroic. Really pleased. He’s into 
it, his demeanor every game. 

Confident, excited about it. Likes 
being in that type of atmosphere 
and playing in that type of game. 
Sense it from everything about 
him.”
It’s the kind of praise Harbaugh 
has heaped on his signal-caller all 
year, through the good and bad. 
Patterson’s performance in the 
first six games underwhelmed 
relative 
to 
high 
external 
expectations, 
undoubtedly 
hindered by an oblique injury 
suffered on the very first play 
of the season against Middle 
Tennessee State — a play that 
resulted in a Patterson fumble.
Tuesday, Patterson noted the 
game in State College was “the 
first time I think I went out there 
and was 100 percent healthy.” It 
would help explain the newfound 
agility and tenacity that was 
readily on display last season. A 
little swagger, too.
In those six games, he made 
no such excuses, though. He 
regularly demanded better, both 
from himself and his team, and 
took the blame when things went 
awry. On the converse, Patterson 
was hesitant to accept any praise 
in the aftermath of a 28-21 loss to 
the Nittany Lions.
“Any time you don’t win, for 
me, I’m trying to do everything I 
can to win it for that locker room,” 

Patterson said. “And this offense 
is doing everything it can to win 
because we hate losing. It really 
doesn’t matter how I played. All 
that matters is the end result, and 
we didn’t win.”
A reinvigoration of Patterson’s 
season 
would 
be 
at 
once 
encouraging and deflating for 
a two-loss team now ostensibly 
eliminated from Big Ten- and 
College 
Football 
Playoff-
contention. It’s not difficult to 
envision a second-half resurgence 
lifting this Wolverines offense 
to new heights — a strong close 
to the season, maybe some 
important rivalry wins. 
Who knows where this season, 
Patterson’s last, might be if he 
had found his footing earlier in 
the year. Or if he’d never taken a 
hit to the oblique in the first place. 
Ask him, though, and he’ll tell you 
it’ll take a whole lot more than 
an index finger in his eye to stop 
fighting.
“We have an opportunity — 
we have a decision to make,” 
Patterson said Tuesday, very 
matter-of-factly. “Our goal is to 
win every game the rest of the 
season. I love this team. We’re all 
so close, and we trust each other, 
and we love playing together. 
“I don’t think there is any 
other goal than to just win.”

ETHAN SEARS
Managing Sports Editor

MAX MARCOVITCH
Managing Sports Editor

Play with Pearson: Jack Summers’ game-winner

The Daily sat down with 
Michigan coach Mel Pearson on 
Monday and pulled out a hockey 
whiteboard.
“Okay good,” Pearson said. 
“Some X’s and O’s.”
Pearson 
drew 
up 
the 
intricacies of a play from last 
weekend’s matchup against Lake 
Superior State that led to a Jack 
Summers goal. He broke down 
where players went with the 
puck, what they were thinking 
with the play they made and how 
it all went down — with the X’s 
and O’s on a whiteboard.
The Daily deciphered the 
board and pieced together a 
series of drawings that represent 
what Pearson had to show.
Here’s what he drew up.
***
Saturday, the Lakers scored 
back-to-back goals in the second 
period to bring their deficit to 
3-2. With tension in the air and 
momentum against them, the 
Wolverines breathed a sigh of 
relief when Summers scored 
an insurance goal to bring the 
Michigan lead back up to two. 
The 
sophomore 
defenseman’s 
tally would later turn into the 
game-winner after Lake Superior 
State scored a third, the final 
score, 4-3.
TMD: I was wondering if 
you could walk us through what 
happened with Jack Summers’ 
goal. Starting from the point 
when it was brought into the 
zone.
Pearson: 
Yeah. 
So 
what 
happened is, the thing about 
Summers’ goal is the shot itself. 
You see a lot of guys when they 
receive the puck, the first instant 
is you take it from your forehand 
to your backhand and then back 
to your forehand. And even just 
that split second, it allows a 
goalie to get in position or slide 
over. 
Pearson: 
And 
you 
see 
Summers, he just goes in. You’ll 

see (sophomore forward Nolan) 
Moyle, if you look at a two-on-
one, gets it here, but instead 
of just shooting, he gets it and 
then he goes like this — brings it 

back like that, and then shoots. 
Summers, when you watch him, 
just comes in and just shoots it. 
So the goalie is moving in and it’s 
not a great shot. It’s not top shelf. 
I mean it sort of 
beats him here, 
but the goalie’s 
moving and he 
just can’t stop it. 
He’s not set and 
it just beats him 
because he got it 
away too quick.
Pearson: But 
on the goal, it 
happened to be 
a two-on-one, so 
they’re like this, 
(junior forward) Mike Pastujov 
and (freshman forward Johnny 

Beecher), who tries to pass it. 
Instead he probably should have 
went and shot it.
Pearson: So (Summers) is 
coming up, like we tell one of 

our defenseman to be the fourth 
player in the rush. So he’s coming 
in here and Becker’s on this side 
and Becker comes in later but 
after the pass fails, it goes in the 
corner.
Pearson: 
Mikey goes and 
stays 
with 
it. 
Beecher 
comes 
with 
him, 
so 
Beecher picks it 
up at this point 
after the failed 
pass across. He 
just bumps it to 
Mike 
Pastujov. 
Mike’s here and 
we actually have 
it sorted... it’s like a two-on-one 
down low, so his defenseman is 

here and they don’t have a guy 
back. 
Pearson: Jack just sneaks in 
here and they have two guys that 
come back too hard. Beecher’s 

drifted into this position. Sort of 
this lane or gap here. Mikey sees 
it and (Summers) just finds the 
open ice, and comes in here and 
does it. 
Pearson: 
But 
he’s 
aware 
because he is the fourth guy up on 
the rush, but he’s not. He doesn’t 
get too involved and then when 
he sees Mike actually have some 
time and space, he jumps into a 
lane and a hole there. I mean it’s a 
really good shot so like I said, the 
important thing is you know they 
stayed after the puck, these two 
guys. Jack is patient. He doesn’t 
jump in too soon to close down 
the lane or jump into coverage. 
Pearson: A lot of times, we 
shrink the zone too much for 
a defenseman, so they’ll move 

down into coverage. You know, 
if he does get a pass like this, 
they got a guy right here and he 
blocks so that you don’t have any 
room. He was more patient. The 

coverage shrunk down on Becker 
here and when it comes to him, 
he’s got time and space to shoot 
it. So it’s a good play.
TMD: How hard of a read is 
that 
for 
Mike 
Pastujov 
to 
make?
Pearson: 
It was a lot of 
things 
going 
on. And I think 
first, he had to 
get the puck and 
then get his head 
up in order to 
realize he had 
time and space. 
Then once you 
get that, Mike’s really good. He’s 
got really good hockey vision and 

sense, which you can’t teach. You 
try to work on it, but it’s hard to 
teach. I think it just wasn’t easy 
for him, but wasn’t the hardest, 
hardest play. It’s sort of mid-

level, you know. Toughness and 
understanding 
about 
what’s 
going on on the ice, who’s open 
and and then you have to make 
the play too. You have to execute. 
I mean, we had 
a 
three-on-one. 
You 
can 
tell 
when they don’t 
make 
the 
play, 
it’s a bad pass or 
something. Mike 
makes a good pass 
there. And that’s 
the other thing 
I mean, there’s a 
good shot, but it 
was a good pass. 
A nice pass where 
he put it in an area where Jack 
could just one-time it.

The Daily brought a white board and let Michigan coach Mel Pearson explain Jack Summers’ game-winning goal

TIEN LE
Daily Sports Editor

He’s not set and 
it beats him 
because he got 
it away ...

... he put it in 
an area where 
Jack could just 
one-time it.

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Senior quarterback Shea Patterson threw for 276 yards in Saturday’s loss.

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily
The Michigan offense outscored Penn State, 21-7, in the second half.