Michigan Finds Its QB In 3OT Win Over Rutgers
For the past three weeks there’s been a plethora of problems and questions surrounding Michigan’s football program. The Wolverines’ coaching staff has yet to come up with acceptable solutions or answers for the majority of those questions.
But Michigan has a solution to one of them following a 48-42 triple-overtime win at Rutgers.
The Wolverines have their starting quarterback, and his name is Cade McNamara.
The Nevada high school state record-holder for career passing yards and touchdowns entered the game with 4:14 left in the second quarter with Michigan trailing 17-0. Starting quarterback Joe Milton had gone 5-of-12 passing for 89 yards and been sacked three times up to that point.
The Wolverines were dead in the water, embarrassingly so given that their opponent has been the punching bag of the Big Ten conference for several years now.
But for the second consecutive week, McNamara led Michigan on a touchdown drive in his first possession at the helm of the offense. With that drive, the redshirt freshman asserted himself as the right guy, and he cemented that fact by throwing for 260 yards and four touchdowns on 27-of-36 passing. He added a game-tying rushing touchdown in the second overtime period as well.
McNamara breathed life into this 2020 team. That’s not hyperbole or exaggeration. To call the Wolverines lifeless through the first quarter and a half of this game would be more than accurate.
His effectiveness in the pass game began opening up gaps for what had been a lifeless rushing attack in previous three games as well. Tailback Hassan Haskins ground his way to 109 yards and a touchdown on 25 carries, and may have established himself as the premier back in this offense.
That’s not to say all is well in Ann Arbor – make no mistake about that. But McNamara was an important discovery for the Wolverines. They know who their guy is at the most important position on the field.
Still, there are plenty of concerns.
The chief of which remains this defense, which continued to struggle mightily in pass coverage – both on down the field throws and on those slant patterns that Don Brown’s defense have struggled to defend for years.
Michigan defended the run better on Saturday, particularly between the tackles. The Wolverines held Rutgers to just 2.6 yards per carry. But there’s still plenty of work to do on that front.
Another large concern is what we saw out of Jim Harbaugh and Josh Gattis in overtime. Despite what McNamara showed in the final 34 minutes of the game, the head coach and offensive coordinator showed an unsettling lack of confidence in their quarterback in the deciding moments of the game.
Michigan went conservative throughout the three overtime periods, and it should have cost them the game. Only Rutgers’ own share of coaching gaffs kept the Scarlet Knights from victory.
This lack of confidence in McNamara is inexplicable given the poise he showed throughout the game. The redshirt freshman showed himself capable of running this offense efficiently, and the potency of this offense was on display as a result. But if Harbaugh and Gattis fall back into that conservative approach in key moments, it’s going to handcuff this offense and its new quarterback again.
There’s still a lot of work to be done – that’s more than an understatement – and any “revelations” that come against an opponent like Rutgers should be taken with a grain of salt.
But Michigan found its starting quarterback. Now the head coach and offensive coordinator need to trust him to run the show.
