[Upchurch]

Deep in the fourth quarter, Michigan lined up from seven yards out in an offset I-form on first-and-goal. Fullback Ben Mason took his place as the deep back and Jared Wangler, the one-time linebacker, was aligned two yards behind Shea Patterson and offset to his left. Patterson took the snap, turned to his right, and faked a handoff to Mason while Wangler ran across the front, dipped inside a shuffling defensive end, and found himself all alone on the right side. Seeing Patterson rolled to his right while Wangler flattened his route and started running for the front corner of the end zone. Patterson hit him in front of the maize “N” in Michigan’s end zone scrawl, and a game that was marked by domination in all other box score metrics finally reflected that on the scoreboard.

Scoring out of a two-fullback set was extremely BIG TENNNN enough to justifiably grab the attention of Michigan twitter, but the catch was more than a novelty: it was a sign of what Michigan’s offense can be. The athleticism of Michigan’s fullbacks allowed them to play two at once without tipping run or pass, the offensive line gave the backs and quarterback time and space, Karan Higdon made smart cuts that helped keep the offense on schedule, the receivers brought in almost everything thrown their way, and the tight ends were Patterson’s go-to chain-movers. The Wolverines scored on seven of their 10 drives, including their final six.

With the exception of a flubbed kickoff that Ty Johnson took 98 yards for a touchdown, Michigan shut Maryland down, full stop. Maryland’s run game was a test for Michigan, particularly with the perfectly timed handoffs off of jet action that Maryland deployed; excising the 78 rushing yards Maryland racked up on a garbage-time drive down 28 points with four minutes left, the Terps rushed for 69 yards on 31 carries. 133 of their 220 total yards came in the fourth quarter, as did 101 of their 147 rushing yards. Maryland converted 38.5% of their third downs, which is only surprising because their average distance to go on third down was 9.3 yards and Brandon Watson's pick-six came on third down. The defensive standout today was the defense as a whole, though Tyree Kinnel, Devin Bush, Josh Ross, and Khaleke Hudson also get special mention for knowing when to fill and for holding down big gains; unsurprisingly, these four were Michigan’s leading tacklers.

[More after THE JUMP]

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[Upchurch]

Michigan’s tenacious pass rush took a bit of a hit in this game by way of injury. Rashan Gary was in street clothes to start the game, though his injury is believed to be short-term. Michael Dwumfour, who again flashed speed off the line that put him in the backfield regularly, was carted off the field after a non-contact injury hobbled him in the second quarter. Aubrey Solomon has yet to return from knee surgery, and Carlo Kemp hobbled off the field with assistance late in the fourth quarter. Chase Winovich was his usual hair-flailing, play-erasing self, and Josh Uche and Kwity Paye built on good performances against Northwestern, but the looming question for the defense is which linemen come back and when.

The looming question for Michigan’s offense is how the heck did Shea Patterson do that? Imagine having large athletic people who weigh somewhere between 200 and 300 pounds running at you, and then imagine that they are specially trained to wrap you up and drive you into the ground with all the force their weight-room crafted bodies can muster. Then imagine seeing this, spinning away from it, and finding a way to chuck an oblong ball across your body while a bunch of smaller athletic freaks fly all over trying to take away the very place you wanted to put said ball. So yes, Shea Patterson finishing 19-of-27 for 282 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception while evading whatever pressure leaked through is quite a feat.

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[Upchurch]

Patterson was aided in this pursuit by World’s Largest Safety Blanket Zach Gentry, who had seven catches on eight targets for 112 yards. In the second quarter, Donovan Peoples-Jones ran a drag route that he extended as Patterson spun away from an unblocked linebacker, caught the ball six yards past the line of scrimmage, then took the lane provided thanks to excellent blocks from Tru Wilson and Zach Gentry 28 yards to the end zone.

Additional noteworthy blocks were thrown all day by Cesar Ruiz, who was particularly good when pulling; “follows Ruiz’s pull for a nice gain” showed up in my notes a handful of times. Karan Higdon, who carried the ball 25 times for 103 yards, was the primary recipient of the line’s ability to move Maryland off the ball, though he’s certainly a creator himself; he routinely found a way to eek out positive yards, making runs that looked like they were heading nowhere go for three or four yards.

One generally good performance against Maryland’s defense doesn’t mean that Michigan’s offense has arrived—it’s still going to take some time for receivers to figure out how to work with Patterson’s scrambles—but the ability Patterson showed to find open receivers while under duress coupled with the receivers creating yards after the catch or finding holes in the defense to sit in are a good omen with Wisconsin’s stout run defense and middling pass defense coming to town next week. The focus now shifts to the Badgers and particularly which defensive linemen will be available to combat one of the nation’s best rushing offenses.