When the Michigan Wolverines' football team took the field on Aug. 31 in the season-opener against Middle Tennessee State, the offensive display they put on looked exactly like most U-M fans expected — and hoped — it would look like.
First-year coordinator Josh Gattis aired the ball out 26 times that half, a year after the Michigan offense averaged just 26.7 passing attempts per game (which ranked 104th in the country).
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More specifically, though, senior quarterback Shea Patterson looked exactly how Michigan fans expected him to look when he entered the season with sky-high expectations.
He completed 16 of his 25 passes (64 completion percentage) for 197 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions, with all three of his scoring tosses coming from at least 28 yards out.
To put the passing yardage total that half in better perspective, consider that Patterson averaged 200 passing yards per game all of last season
Ever since he completed 16 passes for 197 yards and three scores in the first two quarters against the Blue Raiders, Patterson has only surpassed that completion total by four and the yardage total by 16.
The senior's oblique injury obviously needs to be mentioned here (which Gattis admitted has been bothering him since the MTSU contest), but for his numbers to drop off the way they did following the first half of the season-opener is still staggering nonetheless.
