Michigan Football: Grading the Wolverines victory over Indiana

The offense

To answer your question: No, I don’t believe Shea Patterson is possessed, but I’m not ruling out the possibility. Either way, there will be no exorcism until the postseason.

Quarterback

Grade: A

Something has happened to Shea Patterson, and no one is starting to worry, because they shouldn’t. In the last two games, Shea has passed for over 700 yards and a combined nine touchdowns earning a few records along the way: Most amount of passing yards by a Michigan quarterback against Michigan State, only UM quarterback to throw at least four touchdowns in back-to-back games, second for most touchdowns thrown in a single game, and fifth all-time for most passing yards in a game.

I might have missed some, but you get the idea.

Running backs

Grade: B

Excluding Patterson’s negative yards, the running back collective passed the century mark on the ground, but they struggled mightily. Largely, the group restricted to under four yards-per-carry, and no one found the end zone.

Wide receivers

Grade: A

Complexity acted as quicksand to the play calls early on; the more complex the play, the more the offense sunk into an abyss of turnovers and negative yards.

And then, Josh Gattis figured out he needed only one play to rule them all: Throw it up to Nico Collins and trust he will come down with it. Guess what? It’s working. Six receptions, 165 yards, and three touchdowns for the extraordinarily talented Alabamian.

Donovan Peoples-Jones got in on the action with five receptions of his own for 73 yards and a touchdown. As a group, the receivers caught 18 balls for 365 yards averaging 20.3 yards-per-catch.

Tight ends

Grade: N/A

Sean McKeon caught a ball for -2 yards; other than that, I forgot Michigan football had tight ends. I’m not entirely sure what happened to this group.

Offensive line

Grade: A

Sure, Patterson was sacked twice, but he also had all day to throw most of the time, and the Wolverine running backs hit the 100-yard mark. Colossal turnaround from early on in the season for these big men.