Football Offensive Grades Heading Into November Finals

Has Shea Patterson upped his grade since the halfway point of the season? What does the report card say about Hassan Haskins, Zach Charbonnet and Ronnie Bell? And which position group has had the biggest bump (or the biggest fall)? We update our grades as we reach cross the 3/4 point of the season.

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You can check out our entire first-half grades here but we'll update them throughout this article too. 

Quarterbacks: B- (was B-)

Shea Patterson: B- (was C+)

Joe Milton: B+ (was B+)

Dylan McCaffrey: B- (was B)

Michigan still ranks middle-of-the-pack (or worse) in every major passing category - 77th in pass efficiency rating (132.43), 98th in completion percentage (56.2) and 66th in yards per attempt (7.4) after putting up below-average numbers in games at Penn State, Notre Dame and at Maryland. 

One half of rain against the Irish cannot account for all of the pedestrian stats, though it is fair to note that if the officials don't call a ridiculous offensive pass interference on Nico Collins at Penn State and Ronnie Bell catches a touchdown pass the same night, Patterson's stats in that game would look a lot better. More importantly, he might have been 3-0 in the last three contests. 

Patterson gets a small bump here because he put on the "gamer" jersey when Michigan had to have it in the second half at Penn State, and the second half against Notre Dame, but overall he completed just 55.8 percent of his passes for 527 yards and 6.8 yards per attempt in U-M's past three games. Take out the ND first half, and it's 56.1 percent, 505 yards and 6.9 yards per attempt. 

Those numbers would rank him 98th nationally, 92nd nationally (168.3 yards per game), and 81st nationally, respectively. That's mind-blowing. 

Patterson's season is a great contradiction. He seems to make just enough plays (and his touchdown-to-interception ratio of 12:4, including 5:1 in the last three games, is outstanding), but he also leaves so many plays on the field that it's fair to argue with greater consistency he would never have to turn it up a few notches for one quarter or one half of play. 

In other words, he's his own worst enemy and poor play for larger stretches forces him into hero mode. 

Milton hasn't attempted a pass in the last three so his grade stays the same while McCaffrey has returned from injury and is 5 of 9 (55.6 percent) with 6.6 yards per attempt and a touchdown. He's also rushed twice for four yards. His time has been limited but he hasn't shown to be better than Patterson (and thus deserving of all the calls from fans to take over the starting job). 

Running Backs: B+ (was B)

Zach Charbonnet: A- (was A-)

Hassan Haskins: A (was B+)

Tru Wilson: A- (was B-)

Christian Turner: C- (was C)

In the last three games, Michigan's running backs averaged:

• 3.9 yards per carry at Penn State (against a team allowing 1.74 YPC in its other seven games)

• 6.5 yards per attempt against Notre Dame (a team that has allowed 3.76 YPC in its other seven contests)

• 4.6 yards per rush at Maryland (a team allowing 3.80 YPC in its other eight games).

Overall, the Wolverines' tailbacks rushed for 542 yards on 103 attempts (5.3 YPC) with eight touchdowns. 

The ball carriers also had six explosive runs - 25, 25 and 49 yards for Haskins, 39 and 27 yards for Wilson, and 35 yards for Charbonnet - after having just four such runs in U-M's first six games. 

Haskins gets a big boost on the report card after emerging as Michigan's No. 1 ball carrier, his 46 carries and 237 yards rushing (5.2 YPC) have led the Wolverines the past three contests, and he looks like a future 1,200-yard rusher. 

Charbonnet has remained steady - his 183 yards rushing the past three games almost falls exactly in line, 61.0 yards per game, as his first six (62.7 per game) - and he continues to be the bell cow in the red zone, scoring six TDs.  

Wilson has been ascending, averaging 8.6 yards per rush as Michigan's third running back the past three games, at the expense of Turner, who has seven carries for 25 yards and is the clear No. 4 back on the team. 

Wide Receivers: B (was B+) 

Donovan Peoples-Jones: B (was A-)

Nico Collins: A- (was B+)

Ronnie Bell: B (was B+)

Tarik Black: C- (was C)

Mike Sainristil: B- (was D)

No position group is more negatively impacted by offensive philosophy and the struggles of Patterson than the receivers, who have had a total of 36 catches the past three games. Of course, they haven't helped themselves either with eight drops (unofficially), including a season-changing drop when Bell let a game-tying touchdown at Penn State fall to the ground after hitting him in the chest. 

Bell had enjoyed a great second half in State College up until that point. Collins has been been really good on deep balls with catches of 30 and 51 yards. He also drew a defensive pass interference from Notre Dame and was called for offensive PI on a long reception at Penn State. Peoples-Jones had a great finger-tip touchdown catch against Notre Dame and Sainristil enjoyed a nice fourth quarter vs. the Irish. 

But overall, this group has underwhelmed. Say it's not their fault, but the drops are, and other than Bell on three plays against Wisconsin, Illinois and Penn State and Sainristil on two plays late in the blowout of Notre Dame, the receivers have done little after the catch. 

Tight Ends: B (was B-)

Nick Eubanks: B (was B-)

Sean McKeon: C (was B)

Erick All: B (was B)

Luke Schoonmaker: B- (was B+)

The tight ends have caught six balls for 58 yards in the last three games and have a score - Eubanks' five-yarder at Maryland. Eubanks has been responsible for five of those six grabs with the freshman, All, catching one ball for a first down on a key drive at Penn State. 

It's difficult to grade the tight ends because they haven't been on the receiving end of a lot of catchable targets. They have done a nice job as blockers. I still think Eubanks gets a bad rap there and is consistently better than given credit for. It would be big for Michigan to have McKeon back for the final three - he returned in full at Maryland but did not record a catch. 

Offensive Line: A- (was C)

Jon Runyan Jr.: A (was B)

Ben Bredeson: B+ (was C+)

Cesar Ruiz: B+ (was C-)

Michael Onwenu: B (was C)

Jalen Mayfield: A- (was B+)

Perhaps the position group I mis-graded the most at the halfway point, though in all fairness the running game was abysmal the first six games. In the past three, and really four, the ground attack has been the best thing going for the Michigan offense, and that is due in large part to the men up front that have adapted to a philosophical switch (and slight blocking alteration that has focused on some man-power concepts within the scope of inside and outside zone reads).

Not only have they done a marvelous job with the running game, but this offensive line has neutralized some impressive pass rushers in Iowa's AJ Epenesa, Penn State's Yetur Gross-Matos and Shaka Toney, and Notre Dame's Khalid Kareem and Julian Okwara. Those five have combined for 24 sacks this season, but just one against U-M, and that was Epenesa on a play that was 100 percent Patterson's fault and not that of the offensive line. 

Runyan and Mayfield get the highest marks because they've been primarily responsible for the success against those five defensive ends, but the interior play of Bredeson, Ruiz and Onwenu has been strong in pass pro and has been critical to the growth of the running game.