Michigan Football: 5 predictions for Wolverines against Illinois

Patterson will be good, not great

No matter how you evaluate the performance of Shea Patterson, his play has gotten worse, at least compared to last season. He’s completing only 58 percent of his passes and he has just six touchdown passes.

His three rushing touchdowns help his total, but overall, he hasn’t been a big factor running the ball, which is something I’d love to see happen more like it did against Rutgers.

After that game, the expectation was that Patterson would start to find his groove a little bit, but last week was ugly. He missed some throws and it felt like the offense was incapable of converting third downs, although that’s been better since Wisconsin.

In this game, against a poor Illinois defense, I think Patterson will play well, but I still see him being in a bit of a funk. I expect a lot of Zach Charbonnet, Tru Wilson and Turner, as well as some shots down the field with Nico Collins, Donovan Peoples-Jones and Tarik Black.

There will be some explosive plays and I’d expect Shea to toss a couple of touchdowns, but the offense, at times, will still feel out of rhythm.