Michigan Football: Will offense finally click against Notre Dame?

Michigan football faces a must-win game Saturday against Notre Dame if it wants to salvage the 2019 season and the big question is the offense will show up?

All season long, Michigan football fans have been looking for promising signs from the offense, which was supposed to be transformed this season under the direction of Josh Gattis.

Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened. Michigan football ranks well outside the top 50 both in total offense and points per game. In yards per game, the speed-in-space offense ranks 80th, while at the same time averaging just over 29 points per game.

Both of those numbers are worse than last season and with eighth-ranked Notre Dame coming to the Big House, it’s worth asking, will the offense finally put it all together?

There have been glimpses ever since the Wisconsin game of being able to do so. The Wolverines put up big scoring days against Rutgers and Illinois, while at the same time, having some struggles against Penn State and Iowa.

In those two games, Michigan football scored just 31 points. If you include Wisconsin, the three-game total is 45. That’s an average of 15 points against the three ranked teams UM has faced this season, so it’s not a surprise that the Wolverines are 1-2.

Yet, there were promising signs against Penn State. The Wolverines scored three touchdowns and could have scored more points if things had gone differently.

Shea Patterson put together a gutsy performance and played like the quarterback Michigan has expected him to be all along. But it was too little too late. This week, Patterson and the offense need to play with that urgency from the beginning, because a fast start is essential.

Against Iowa, Michigan scored 10 first-quarter points and allowed the defense to win the game from there. Obviously, it will take more than 10 points to beat Notre Dame, but with the way the defense has been playing, 24-28 points should be enough.

The defense hasn’t been perfect and Ian Book gave Michigan all sorts of problems a year ago. But at home, the defense has been suffocating and it should be again Saturday night.

If the Wolverines can win the battle of the ground and get Zach Charbonnet established, who rushed for more than 80 yards and two touchdowns against Penn State, it will be huge.

The run defense has been outstanding and even with Jonathan Taylor‘s huge day, Michigan is barely allowing more than three yards per carry. That means Book and his wideouts will need to win the game. They did it in 2018 and if the Wolverines offense doesn’t show up, they will do it again.

It’s not realistic to expect Notre Dame not to score around 20 points at the very least. So Michigan football will need to score 4-5 times to win. A fast start and a strong running game will help with that.

At the end of the day though, Patterson needs to play four quarters like he did in the second half at Penn State. If he does, the Wolverines will be just fine. At the very least, they will have a chance.