Offense Notes: Patterson's Arm, Feet Lead U-M In 52-0 Rout Of Rutgers
Michigan Wolverines football senior quarterback Shea Patterson enjoyed one of his best outings in a Wolverine uniform on Saturday, connecting on 17 of his 23 passes (73.9 percent) for 276 yards with one touchdown and a pick, while also rushing for three scores.
He did all of this without even playing in the fourth quarter.
The senior signal-caller played a part in four of Michigan's five touchdowns through the first three frames, with redshirt freshman running back Christian Turner's seven-yard scoring scamper in the third quarter marking the lone TD that the senior wasn't responsible for in some fashion.
Patterson started the game off with a bang, finding junior wideout Nico Collins for a 48-yard touchdown on just the fifth play of the afternoon to give his club a 7-0 lead.
Michigan's next two touchdowns occurred when Patterson ran the ball — a two-yard scoring run at the 5:07 mark of the first quarter and then a four-yarder with 7:33 remaining in the second, making the score 21-0 at that point.
The senior's third and final rushing TD of the day came with just 2:35 remaining in the third stanza, when he found pay dirt from a yard out on a quarterback sneak to give his crew a 38-0 edge.
The 276 yards Patterson threw for were his second most in a Michigan uniform, narrowly trailing the 282 he accumulated in a 42-21 win over Maryland last year.
Offensive coordinator Josh Gattis was actually on the sidelines on Saturday after spending the first three games up in the press box, and Patterson noted he liked the change.
“Coach Gattis is on the sidelines every day in practice, so it’s just something we were used to," the senior said. "I really liked it, and I think the other guys liked it too. He is, without a doubt, the leader of our offense. We all trust in him, and we see it every day in practice. It’s just a little more personal.”
“It was seeing a lot of good offensive play in practice, and you want to see it in games," head coach Jim Harbaugh added. "We have seen it in games at times; at times not.
"I would agree with Shea — it felt more like that, because that’s more of the way it runs in practice."
U-M Struggles Once Again To Get Its Ground Game Going
Though Michigan rushed for 141 yards against the Scarlet Knights, it came on just 3.4 yards per carry. The RU defense, meanwhile, had been allowing opponents to average 4.8 yards per rush coming into the game, which ranked 108th in the country.
Turner led the way with 48 yards and a touchdown on 11 totes, while fellow redshirt freshman Hassan Haskins was the next-leading rusher with a career-high 45 yards on nine attempts.
Freshman Zach Charbonnet only received five rushes for 22 yards, a week after he carried twice for six yards against Wisconsin.
The U-M offensive line paved the way for five rushing touchdowns, which were the club's most since they also had five in a 59-3 win over Maryland in 2016.
"All week, he emphasized believing in his players, and we just have to believe in him,” Turner said of Gattis. “I think him being on the sideline just helped that even more."
U-M's offensive line also kept the Scarlet Knight defensive front seven out of the backfield on a consistent basis on Saturday, surrendering just one sack and three tackles for loss.
Miscellaneous Michigan Football Offense Notes
• Eight of Michigan's 11 possessions ended in points, with seven TD drives and one field goal. The Maize and Blue also scored all six times they reached the red zone.
• U-M's 476 yards of offense were its most in a game since it compiled 507 in a 31-20 win over Indiana last November. The Wolverines accumulated more than 476 yards in a game in just one other contest last year (the 56-10 triumph over Nebraska on Sept. 22, when it racked up 491 yards).
• Redshirt freshman quarterback Joe Milton's three completions and 59 passing yards were both career highs, while the 23-yard TD pass he threw in the fourth quarter to freshman wideout Giles Jackson was the first scoring toss of his career.
His one-yard touchdown run in the game's final frame was the second of his U-M tenure (his other came in the 62-39 loss at Ohio State last season).
• U-M's 335 passing yards were its most in a contest since it accumulated 387 in the 59-3 blowout of Maryland on Nov. 5, 2016 and the fourth most in a single game under Harbaugh (the other two both occurred in 2015 — 440 in a 48-41 win against Indiana and 335 in a 49-16 triumph versus Rutgers).
• Patterson became the sixth quarterback in school history to rush for three touchdowns in a single game on Saturday. The last U-M signal-caller to accomplish the feat was Devin Gardner in 2013, when he found the end zone three times on the ground in a 63-47 victory over Indiana.
• Redshirt freshman tight end Luke Schoonmaker's 29-yard reception in the fourth quarter was the first catch of his career.
• Collins' 48-yard reception in the opening frame was the longest scoring grab of his career and his eighth touchdown overall in a Michigan uniform. It nearly reset his career-long catch of any kind (52 at Notre Dame in 2018).
• Sophomore wideout Ronnie Bell's 83 yards were a career best, breaking his previous high of 81 (which he had recorded each of the last two games, against Wisconsin and Army).
Bell now leads the team in receptions (17) and receiving yards (263).
• Michigan exceeded the 50-point mark for the sixth time under Harbaugh, with four of the previous five occurring in 2016 — the 63-3 win over Hawaii, the 51-14 blowout of UCF, the 78-0 shellacking of Rutgers and the 59-3 trouncing of Maryland. The lone other 50-point contest was the 56-10 destruction of Nebraska last season.
• Turner's seven-yard touchdown run in the third quarter was the first score of his Michigan tenure.
• Jackson's 23-yard TD grab in the fourth quarter was his first touchdown catch at U-M. The freshman had compiled just one reception for no yards through the club's first three games.
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