Michigan football: 3 thoughts on Wolverines and their QB shortcomings

For the last five years, Michigan football has been good but not great and one elite quarterback could change that. Here are three thoughts on the position.

On New Year’s Day when Michigan football played Alabama in the Citrus Bowl, the opening drive was set up perfectly.

Freshman Giles Jackson returned the opening kick to about midfield, giving Michigan’s offense a chance to put points on the board on their opening drive.

Wide receiver Nico Collins, who announced on Sunday that he will return for his senior season, beat his man down the sideline during a play on that opening drive. He had two steps on the defender. All quarterback Shea Patterson had to do was drop the ball to him in stride on a 20-yard pass and Collins most likely walks into the endzone.

Instead, the ball comes flat out of Patterson’s right hand and he overthrows Collins by several yards. This was a constant theme for Patterson and Michigan’s offense throughout the game en route to Michigan’s 35-16 loss to the Crimson Tide, the fourth season in a row in which Michigan has lost their last two games of the year.

For an offense that showed so much promise as the season progressed, that same offense found a way to score just 11 total points in the second halves of the Ohio State and Alabama games.

That is a strange stat considering that Michigan moved the ball at will on both teams, especially in the first halves of those games. First-year offensive coordinator Josh Gattis had both defenses guessing and on their heels, something Michigan saw a lot of after some early-season struggles.

So what was missing? How could the Wolverines make moving the ball look so easy at times, yet have little to show for it? The answer is the quarterback.

Elite QB is the key

This may be a complicated answer, as it takes an entire unit to function offensively. The offensive line has to be on their assignments, running backs have to find holes, and receivers have to make plays, which are all things Michigan struggled with at times against good defenses throughout the season.

But the single-most-important thing missing, to me, was a lack of high-level quarterback play throughout the course of the season.

“Death by 1,000 paper cuts” doesn’t work in college football anymore. While it is nice to be able to chew up clock and move the ball while doing so, an offense also needs to have the ability to be able to “blow the top off”  the defense.

And Patterson was not consistent enough in the downfield passing game to be able to make enough big plays against elite teams.

While Michigan has flaws in other areas on the team, here are some reasons why I believe Michigan is an elite quarterback away from breaking through. Here’s a deeper look.