No. 14 Michigan hits road for clash at Northwestern
Following one of the most dominant performances of the Jim Harbaugh era, 14th-ranked Michigan will leave home for the first time in nearly a month. That hasn’t produced the best results for the Wolverines the last few seasons.
Since Harbaugh took over the program in 2015, Michigan is 11-8 in road and neutral-site games with only four wins in the last 11 tries. The Wolverines have lost their last three non-home games, falling at Notre Dame in Week 1 after losing the Outback Bowl to South Carolina and at Wisconsin last season.
Saturday’s 4:30 p.m. ET kickoff at Northwestern comes at a good time to see if those road woes can be squelched. Michigan (3-1, 1-0) pounded Nebraska 56-10 in Week 4 for its third straight win, scoring its most points in a Big Ten Conference opener since 2011.
That was the Wolverines’ second 46-point win in the past three games, yet Harbaugh acknowledges his team can still get better.
“We want to improve everywhere,” he said Monday at his weekly press conference. “We’re still striving for improvement in all phases.”
Northwestern, which was off last week, is riding a two-game skid with home losses to Duke and Akron. The Wildcats (1-2, 1-0) opened the season with a 31-27 win at Purdue and they have held their last two opponents to under 100 rushing yards.
Michigan averages 212 rushing yards per game, and against Nebraska gained 200-plus on the ground and in the air for the first time since the 2017 opener against Florida. The 2016 Wolverines squad that began 6-0 in league play accomplished that feat three times.
A constantly improving offensive line has been key to the balanced offense as has a strong connection between quarterback Shea Patterson and his receivers. Patterson is completing 70.1 percent of his throws and he and backup Dylan McCaffrey have thrown nine touchdown passes to six different receivers.
The nine TD passes are the same number Michigan had in 13 games last season.