The No. 7 Michigan Wolverines took on the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders to start their 2019 season off, a season full of new hopes and a new offensive scheme. Things weren’t always smooth sailing for Michigan in this one, but they did enough to score a good chunk of points and get their first win of the season.

Game Recap

- Michigan received the ball to start the game, but the drive didn’t last long. On the first play from scrimmage, Shea Patterson scrambled for a 15 yard gain. The bad news about the scramble is it ended with Patterson fumbling the football. Once Middle Tennessee’s offense took the field, they hit a 17-yrd pass play to standout WR Ty Lee, and a few plays later QB Asher O’Hara scrambled for an easy 18-yard TD on a scramble. After just 1 minute and 53 seconds of action, Michigan was down 7-0.

- The following drive led to Michigan points, with the drive stalling in the red zone on 3rd and 6. It wasn’t known who would be starting at kicker for Michigan to start the year, but we found out when Jake Moody nailed a 34-yrd attempt to narrow the deficit to 7-3.

- The crowd started to get anxious for Michigan to get into the end-zone, and with 21 seconds left in the 1st quarter Shea Patterson let it fly to a wide open Tarik Black for a 36-yard TD to put Michigan ahead 10-7.

- With 12:54 remaining in the 2nd quarter, the whole #SpeedInSpace philosophy offensive coordinator Josh Gattis preaches is starting to become a bit clearer. First, there was the Black TD, and on the following drive Patterson hit Nico Collins for a 28-yard contested catch in the end-zone. The score put Michigan up 17-7.

- It was a slow start to the game for Michigan offensively, but there were glimpses of what’s to come offensively for the Wolverines. Patterson attempted a steady amount of intermediate-to-deep passes that were quick hitting chunk plays. Success and execution varied, but they hit enough of these to take notice of the schematics. One of which was a 28-yard TD pass from Patterson to TE Sean McKeon where Patterson got rid of the ball quickly. The score put Michigan up 24-7.

- Michigan added a field goal before the half after a MTSU score to make it 27-14, but the momentum didn’t translate into firing on all cylinders to start the third quarter. Shea Patterson threw a string of inaccurate passes and the game started to look like it could end up being a close one, but then QB Dylan McCaffrey came in.

- McCaffrey was able to lead Michigan down the field and get the offense back on track, thanks to his wheels. During McCaffrey’s first drive at QB, he rushed for 26 yards, including a 6-yard TD run where he got to the corner with ease.

- On the following drive on offense, McCaffrey was the signal-caller yet again, and Michigan got the ball all the way down to the 1-yard line before Zach Charbonnet was stopped on the goal-line just short of a score.

- Patterson’s day wasn’t done, though. With a short field set up by a Ronnie Bell 27-yard punt return, Ben VanSumeren rushed for a 1-yard score to increase the lead to 40-14.

- The final minutes featured two drives from 3rd string QB Joe Milton and a MTSU 59-yard receiving TD by Jimmy Marshall, which was the last score of the game.

Final Score: Michigan 40 - Middle Tennessee State 21