Jim Harbaugh told his players during the prep week for Rutgers that winning cures more sickness than penicillin. He didn’t add that playing the Scarlet Knights heals more wounds than the Mayo Clinic — but he could have.
Rutgers head coach Chris Ash’s team proved just what the doctor ordered for a Michigan team that began Big Ten play with a thud. The Wolverines moved to 3-1, 1-1 in the conference by reducing Rutgers to ashes, 52-0.
The Wolverines manhandled the Scarlet Knights (1-3 overall, 0-2 in the Big Ten) from the opening kickoff to the closing limp off. Harbaugh’s crew — excoriated during the week on social media and challenged fiercely by its own head coach — treated the Big Ten’s leading contender for its worst team like a scarlet-headed stepping stone toward better days.
Michigan rolled up 476 total yards to Rutgers’ 152, senior quarterback Shea Patterson leading the way with his arm and his feet. Patterson finished 17-of-23 passing for 276 yards and a touchdown through the air, firing one interception — the turnover-weary Wolverines’ only such miscue on the day.
Patterson also scored three times running the football, becoming only the sixth Michigan quarterback in history to rush for a trio of TDs in a single game.
U-M moved the chains 28 times, compared to Rutgers’ 10, and posted the shutout when it stopped battered Scarlet Knights quarterback Artur Sitkowski (17 of 24 for 106 yards, two sacks, innumerable hits) on a fourth-down play near the Michigan’s goal line.
“We worked very hard all week in practice,” Patterson said. “I felt like I had all day back there. The offensive line did a heck of a job. Receivers were out there making plays, and just making it easy for me. The defense put us in good field position. I was very happy to see that.”
So was Harbaugh, who openly challenged his players to fashion a tougher, more physical effort coming out of the Big Ten-opening loss at Wisconsin.
“Great play, great shutout, great calls by [defensive coordinator] Don [Brown]; [offensive coordinator] Josh Gattis, all the offensive coaches and players, the precision they had," Harbaugh said. "They improved, and it showed.”
The Wolverines came out ready to prove a point on offense, putting it into the end zone just 2:08 into the game. Patterson flipped a pass in the left flat for junior wideout Nico Collins (two catches for 59 yards and one touchdown), who rumbled 48 yards down the eastern sideline for the opening score.
U-M took just five plays to cover 80 yards, taking its first opening lead in a game in three weeks. They weren’t about to give it up.
Forcing a Rutgers three-and-out, Michigan then covered 61 yards in nine plays, going up 14-0 on Patterson’s two-yard bootleg run with 5:07 left in the opening quarter. The senior QB began the march with a 17-yard toss to sophomore wideout Ronnie Bell (eight receptions, 83 yards), dropped a crucial third-and-12 sideline pass downfield 20 yards into the hands of junior wideout Donovan Peoples-Jones (four catches, 62 yards) and then took scoring matters into his own hands.
Rutgers tried to answer, driving from its own 25 to the Michigan 5. But on fourth-and-three, Sitkowski kept and rolled right, only to encounter a brick wall wearing 97. Sophomore defensive end Aidan Hutchinson lowered a shoulder and decked Sitkowski for a no-gain drive-ender.
“Aidan Hutchinson keeps ascending,” Harbaugh said. “He made a huge stop on the fourth down, a stop out of the pocket. There were a lot of good plays.”
Patterson scored midway through the second quarter on a four-yard run, capping an eight-play, 52-yard drive. His 22-yard bullet to Bell on the sideline started the foray, and again, Patterson finished it.
Michigan led 21-0 at the 7:33 mark of the second quarter, and the big sighs in The Big House registered the first genuine comfort since the season opener.
Sophomore placekicker Jake Moody added a 33-yard field goal with 15 seconds left in the half, making it 24-0 at intermission. The Wolverines hadn’t wiped out all the sting from their Big Ten opener, but this beat the alternative.
If Rutgers planned a big comeback, it took less than a minute to disabuse the Scarlet Knights of that notion. Redshirt junior defensive back Tyler Cochran peeled the ball away from RU return man Tre Avery on the opening kickoff of the second half.
“That was a great effort by Tyler Cochran,” Harbaugh said. “The kickoff coverage group has been one of our best units on the football team. It was again today. There was a lot of hustle, a lot of flying down there.
“Tyler Cochran made one of those types of plays — just keep battling, getting in there on the pile, getting the ball out. It was really impressive. That was a big-time play, at that part of the game, to put our team in a position to really leave no doubt.”
Cochran also secured the recovery at the Rutgers 15, and on his third straight run, redshirt freshman tailback Christian Turner made it 31-0 on a seven-yard burst.
A fourth-down stop on Rutgers — featuring a strong tackle by junior cornerback Ambry Thomas on a short pass — set the Wolverines up at the Scarlet Knights’ 40.
Five plays later, Patterson used the formula of the day — fire away through the air and finish the job himself on the ground. He gunned a 17-yard pass to Peoples-Jones and a 22-yarder to Bell, featuring a fierce fight to within a yard of paydirt.
Patterson cashed in with bully blocks up front and a strong push from behind, stretching the advantage to 38-0 at the 2:35 mark of the third quarter.
Two questions remained. Could the Scarlet Knights remove some scarlet from their faces by scoring? Who would Michigan trot out to finish the job?
Harbaugh answered with redshirt freshman quarterback Joe Milton and redshirt frosh tailback Hassan Haskins. Haskins' runs of 11 and 15 yards set Michigan up to score again, and Milton bootlegged his way for the final yard on fourth down to open the fourth-quarter scoring.
Milton rolled around left end untouched into the end zone, making it 45-0 with 12:40 left in the game.
Milton then directed a 72-yard TD drive on only four plays. He gunned a 29-yard toss to redshirt freshman tight end Luke Schoonmaker, a big gain expanded by a targeting personal foul. Milton then found true freshman receiver Giles Jackson on a strong 23-yard touchdown pass to the left corner of the north end zone — the second-year QB’s first career touchdown pass.
The defense proved closers in this one, and Patterson assured the Wolverines did what they can do.
“We’ve got a lot of guys, a lot of playmakers and good backs,” he said. “The more we go out there and play, trust in ourselves, trust in our coaches, the better off we’ll be. That’s what we did today.”
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