Michigan football players set a goal of starting their road game at Maryland quickly. It doesn’t get any quicker than this.
Freshman Giles Jackson set an electrifying tone on the very first play, exploding 97 yards for a touchdown on the opening kickoff in Michigan’s 38-7 rout over Maryland. It took all of 11 seconds for the Wolverines to get on top for good, on a couple of hard cuts and a sprint away from the Terrapins.
“We didn’t want to come out slow,” Jackson assured. “We didn’t want to get punched in the mouth. We wanted to start the game off going fast.”
They started fast and kept pouring it on, leading 21-0 and not allowing an offensive touchdown for Maryland. The Wolverines limited the Terps to 233 yards of total offense, didn’t turn the ball over for a second straight game and raced into a second bye weekend with a full head of steam.
They spread the wealth, nine players sharing the 13 throws on which senior quarterback Shea Patterson (13-of-22 passing for 151 yards, one touchdown) connected. Junior wideout Nico Collins paced that crew with a pair of catches for 65 yards, while redshirt junior tight end Nick Eubanks snagged Michigan’s only TD reception among his two grabs.
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Redshirt freshman tailback Hassan Haskins ran for 60 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries, while senior back Tru Wilson posted 50 in five tries. Freshman back Zach Charbonnet drew eight carries and scored on two of them, totaling 28 yards on the ground.
Meanwhile, Maryland quarterback Josh Jackson remained under heavy fire all game long, going 9-of-20 passing for 97 yards and a big early interception. The Terrapins threatened early, but never could cash in on offense.
They’d later match Jackson’s 97-yard kickoff return TD, but by then, the Wolverines might as well have been on their bye week.
“It’s really taking a night to enjoy that big victory last week, and not coming out flat this week,” Patterson said of Michigan’s approach. “That was the biggest thing, as far as attacking the week and approaching this game. That game is over with, and we’ve got to come out making a statement on the road. I think we did that.”
They did from the opening play.
"Talk about starting fast,” Jim Harbaugh said. “You can’t start any faster than returning the opening kick for a touchdown. It was really well blocked.”
Like Jackson, Michigan never looked back.
The Wolverines followed that game-opening bolt with a three-and-out by the defense, getting the ball back at Maryland’s 41. U-M covered that ground in 11 plays, highlighted by Patterson’s 14-yard throw to junior wide receiver Collins and Charbonnet’s one-yard touchdown on a direct snap.
Michigan led 14-0 with 6:18 off the clock. Any Washington Nationals fans in the sparse crowd immediately regretted their decision to skip the team parade for this.
Even when Maryland drove back deep into Michigan territory, graduate transfer defensive end Michael Danna crushed the Terps’ Jackson on a third-down play at the U-M 12. Jackson’s pass attempt fluttered out into the hands of senior safety Josh Metellus.
“The pressures were key all day,” Harbaugh said. “The sacks, the pressures that led to some throwaways. That hit led to the ball going up in the air, and Josh was all over it. Mike Danna has been a great guy. Everybody loves Mike Danna, and he keeps getting better and better.”
The Terps kept moving the ball, but came away emptier than the home teams in the 2019 World Series. They drove to the U-M 8, but senior defensive end/linebacker Josh Uche’s nine-yard sack on Jackson forced a 37-yard field goal attempt, which Maryland's Joseph Petrino shoved right.
Michigan hadn’t done much following its opening outburst, however. It looked as if its second quarter would consist of a pair of three-and-outs, covering 11 yards.
A direct snap to the up man — redshirt freshman linebacker Michael Barrett — on a punt formation changed all that. Barrett charged up the middle for 14 yards, and a play later, Patterson unleashed a 51-yard bomb to Collins.
Patterson insisted he didn’t know the fake punt was coming, but Collins admitted he harbored some anticipation.
“It was fourth-and-one, so hopefully they fake it — and they did,” he said, with a grin. “When we all came back on the field, Shea trusted us and took a shot. I came down with it.”
Charbonnet scored two plays later on an eight-yard cutback with 1:28 to play to complete the 88-yard TD drive. The Wolverines thus forced the Terps into full turtling mode, 21-0.
Michigan created one more chance to score in the first half, but sophomore placekicker Jake Moody missed on a 37-yard field goal attempt in the final seconds.
Not that it mattered. The Wolverines removed all doubt midway through the third quarter, covering 60 yards in a dozen plays to push the margin to an untouchable 28-0.
Patterson’s 14-yard swing pass to sophomore receiver Ronnie Bell got the Wolverines close. They scored when the U-M QB drew everyone in with a fake to Haskins up the middle, followed by a short flip to a wide-open redshirt junior tight end Nick Eubanks for the five-yard TD.
Up four touchdowns at the 5:10 mark of the third quarter, the Wolverines were ready for their own parade — back to the locker room and on to a bye week.
Not before a bit more bye-bye pummeling for the Terps.
Michigan went 62 yards in five plays to go up 35-0, with 1:31 left in the third. Senior tailback Tru Wilson’s 39-yard breakaway set up Haskins' 14-yard burst up the middle for the score.
“We’re just playing with great effort at all times,” Harbaugh said. “They are believing in themselves, confident in themselves that they are going to make the play, and they have confidence in each other. That confidence and trust in each other is probably our greatest strength right now.”
Maryland’s Jevon Leake then made sure Mike Locksley’s team didn’t get shut out, returning the favor on 97-yard kickoff returns. Leake broke away from a couple of early tackle attempts, then bolted away for the score.
The Wolverines tacked on a 38-yard field goal with 9:04 remaining, redshirt junior placekicker Quinn Nordin drilling it home. Redshirt sophomore quarterback Dylan McCaffrey drove U-M from its own 43 to the Maryland 20 to set up the score.
But this one never got uncomfortable for the Wolverines, from the moment Jackson went into action. Michigan’s defense put the cuffs on Maryland’s signal-caller, and the Wolverines rolled into an extra week to prepare for the next one — against Michigan State.
“It’s a great thing. We’ve got confidence they’re going to go out there and score,” Uche said of the offense. “They’ve got confidence we’re going to go out there and stop them. When you know that in the back of your head — we’ve got each other, and they can put their trust in us and we can put our trust in them — the sky’s the limit. It makes us play even harder.”
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