Michigan Wolverines football senior quarterback Shea Patterson enjoyed a career game last weekend when he shredded MSU for 384 yards and four touchdowns, and he posted similar statistics in the 39-14 blowout of Indiana on Saturday.
Patterson torched the Hoosiers for 366 yards and five touchdowns, while completing 20 of his 32 passes (62.5 percent).
Prior to the contest with the Spartans, the senior had never thrown for more than 282 yards in a game during his Michigan career. He has proceeded to average 375 yards over his last two contests.
Patterson had never eclipsed three scores in a U-M tilt before last weekend either, but has accumulated nine over his last two outings and became the first in school history to ever throw four or more touchdown passes in back-to-back games. He is just the fifth U-M signal-caller to ever do so multiple times in his college career; only John Navarre, Chad Henne and Elvis Grbac have done so three times.
Patterson's five touchdown strikes are the second most in a single game ever at Michigan (Jake Rudock's six against Indiana in 2015 top the list), while his 366 yards were the 10th most in a single game in school history. He became the first U-M quarterback to compile consecutive 300-yard outings since Rudock in 2015 (337 yards against Rutgers and 440 versus Indiana that year).
The veteran quarterback connected with nine different pass catchers on Saturday, with junior wideout Nico Collins hauling in three of his scores, while sophomore receiver Ronnie Bell and junior wideout Donovan Peoples-Jones each reeled in one.
Several long pass plays helped Patterson reach 366 yards, with a 76-yard scoring strike to Collins in the third quarter standing as the longest of the day.
“It’s good to get Nico on some crossing routes and slant routes, and deep ins," head coach Jim Harbaugh noted afterward. "He’s very good at it and is a big target with a big catch radius.
"His assortment of routes has gone up quite a bit, and he’s coming through. They were grabbing him pretty early, but he’s high pointing the ball as well as you can. Nico is doing a tremendous job on the post high pointing those balls and getting separation."
Freshman wideout Giles Jackson also caught a 50-yarder in the first quarter, while Peoples-Jones reeled in a 41-yarder in the game's third frame.
“Shea is playing on time with everything he does," Harbaugh said. "His rhythm and getting the ball out are all on time.
"Everything has become very precise with Shea and his receivers, tight ends and backs. The passing game has been operating on time extremely well.”
Nico Collins Enjoys A Career Afternoon
Collins enjoyed the best game of his collegiate tenure on Saturday, with his 165 yards and three scores each setting new career highs.
His six receptions, meanwhile, tied the most he had ever recorded in a clash (he also had six at Northwestern last year and at Penn State this season).
Collins' 19.3 yards per catch stood as the fourth-best mark in the Big Ten coming into the weekend, and the junior added to that total by averaging 27.5 yards per reception against the Hoosiers.
The 6-4, 222-pounder's 165 yards were also the most any U-M wideout had compiled in three seasons, going back to when Amara Darboh reeled in an identical number on Oct. 29, 2016, in a 32-23 win at Michigan State.
The Pinson, Ala., native's previous career high in yardage had been 91, set last season at Ohio State.
"Credit to the offensive linemen," Collins noted in the postgame. "They’re giving Shea time for him to go through his reads, and we know when Shea can do with the ball when he has time like that.
"We were just out there having fun today, and I feel like we’ve been having fun as an offensive unit since the second half of that Penn State game. I think we’re finally clicking, but we have one more game left and it’s time to finish strong."
Miscellaneous Michigan Football Notes
• Michigan's 453 yards of offense marked the sixth time in the last eight games it eclipsed the 400-yard mark, and the seventh time in 11 tilts this year.
• Following his five-TD, one-pick afternoon, Patterson's touchdown-to-interception ratio now sits at 21-5 on the year.
• The senior quarterback became the third signal-caller under Harbaugh to toss three first half touchdowns in a game (Rudock threw three against IU in 2015, and Wilton Speight tossed three against UCF in 2016).
• Patterson's fourth-quarter interception was his first since the Oct. 19 loss at Penn State. He also hit three pass plays of 40 yards or more, after having only six such plays all season.
• Patterson started the afternoon by connecting on his first seven throws.
• Peoples-Jones' 73 receiving yards were a season-high.
• U-M converted a two-point conversion in the third quarter following its fourth touchdown, with redshirt sophomore quarterback Dylan McCaffrey taking the snap and easily running the ball into the end zone.
• Jackson's 50-yard reception in the first quarter was the longest of his career and stood as the fifth-longest pass play by the Maize and Blue in 2019.
• Bell's six-yard TD reception in the first quarter was his first of the season, making him the 10th different Wolverine to haul in a touchdown grab this season. The Maize and Blue had 10 different players reel at least one in, in all of 2018.
• Michigan rushed for 87 yards on Saturday, with freshman running back Zach Charbonnet's 46 standing as a team best. Redshirt freshman Hassan Haskins was close behind with 44.
• Collins' 76-yard TD reception in the third quarter was the longest catch of his career and Michigan's longest offensive play of the season. It was also the second-longest touchdown pass for Patterson at U-M, with the 79-yarder to Peoples-Jones last year at MSU marking the only one that was longer.
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