The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1194003
JANUARY 2020 THE WOLVERINE 33 MICHIGAN FOOTBALL Three Best Players 1. Senior quarterback Shea Patterson — He averaged 351.7 passing yards per game in the three outings against Michigan State, Indiana and Ohio State, while also compiling a 10-2 touchdown-to-interception ratio during that span. The senior's five scoring tosses in the win at In- diana Nov. 23 were the second most in a game in school history, and he also became the first Wolverine to ever throw at least four touch- downs in back-to-back contests (four in the 44-10 blowout of Michigan State and five the following week in Bloomington). 2. Sophomore wide receiver Ronnie Bell — He led the club in receiving yards against both Michi- gan State and Ohio State, reeling in 150 and 78 receiving yards, re- spectively. The sophomore's nine re- ceptions and 150 yards against the Spartans were both career highs, before finally tallying his first (and only) touchdown catch of the sea- son a week later at Indiana on a six- yard pass from Patterson in the first quarter. 3. Junior wide receiver Dono- van Peoples-Jones — He narrowly edged out junior wideout Nico Col- lins for this final spot, thanks to his consistent production — he aver- aged 63.3 yards per outing and hauled in a score in all three of the aforementioned games. Peoples-Jones' scoring catches against MSU and Indiana were especially important, with the former occurring in the third quarter and stretching Michigan's lead to 24-7, and the latter knotting the contest in Bloomington at 14-all early in the second frame. Key Play With 6:37 remaining in the second quarter and Ohio State leading 21-13 in the showdown in Ann Arbor Nov. 30, Patter- son took a shotgun snap from the OSU 12-yard line, looking to tie the game. Junior center Cesar Ruiz's snap was perfect, but the senior simply fumbled the ball after it hit him in both hands. Patterson dove for it on the turf, but Buckeye fifth- year senior defensive tackle Robert Landers got to it first and recovered it. The turnover destroyed the offensive momentum Michigan had built up to that point, with Ohio State stringing together a nine-play, 84-yard scoring drive following the turnover to increase its lead to 28-13. OSU outscored U-M 35-14 the rest of the way after Patterson's fumble, with the Maize and Blue never getting closer than 12 points down. Best Highlight With Michigan leading MSU 17-7 and 12:51 to go in the third quarter of the Nov. 16 contest at The Big House, Patterson took a first-and-10 shotgun snap from the Spartan 18-yard line. He immediately looked to his right and hit Peoples-Jones five yards behind the line of scrimmage, with redshirt sopho- more linebacker Noah Harvey bearing down on the Detroit native as soon as he caught the ball. Harvey dove to try and make the tackle but whiffed, and the junior wideout turned on the jets and ran along the sideline as the end zone neared. MSU junior linebacker Antjuan Simmons reached out and pushed Peoples-Jones at the 3-yard line, but the receiver had already gone air- borne, contorting his body perfectly to reach the ball out over the goal line as his lower half went flying out of bounds. It worked beautifully as the referee signaled touchdown, ex- tending Michigan's lead to 24-7 and ending any brief hopes MSU had of a comeback. Peoples-Jones then ran toward the back of the end zone as "Hail To The Victors" blared, and struck the Paul Bunyan pose to the crowd for a second year in a row (he did the same thing to the Spartan crowd last season after catching a 79-yard touchdown pass from Patterson that gave U-M a 14-7 lead late in the third quarter). Surprise Performer Freshman defensive tackle Chris Hinton gets the call here, thanks to his performance in the loss to Ohio State Nov. 30. Hinton had never played more than 21 snaps in a game prior to the meeting with the Buckeyes, and yet saw a career- high 39 snaps against OSU. The youngster also racked up a personal-best six tackles, after never having compiled more than two in an outing. Hinton's 39 snaps that day were the second most at the posi- tion, behind only senior Carlo Kemp's 59, and were 12 more than redshirt junior Michael Dwumfour's 26. Bold Prediction Patterson will throw for at least 300 yards on Alabama in the Citrus Bowl Jan. 1, marking his fourth straight game of eclipsing the 300-yard plateau. The Crimson Tide's secondary has been torched in a big way on two separate occasions this year, with South Carolina first racking up 324 yards Sept. 14 and then LSU compiling 393 yards Nov. 9. Though to a lesser extent, Texas A&M even accumulated 264 passing yards Oct. 12. Patterson, meanwhile, has thrown for at least 305 yards in each of his last three games, becoming the first U-M quarter- back to ever eclipse 300 yards in three consecutive contests. The senior signal-caller will stretch that mark to four against Alabama. — Austin Fox Superlatives For The Three Games From Nov. 16-30 After not throwing for 300 or more yards in a Michigan game, senior quarterback Shea Patterson eclipsed the mark in each of the final three regular- season tilts while totaling 1,055 yards with 10 scores through the air and just two picks during that time. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL