The State Line: Offensive Match Up with Sparty with Projections

Okay, let's not beat around the bush here. Michigan has one mission this week, and that is to completely destroy Sparty on the field. And by destroy, I mean that they have to obliterate the 25 point spread by another 20 points. Send a message to East Lansing and take full control of this rivalry once again. Harbaugh already has the 3-2 advantage. Going 4-2 with a true beat down would solidify the fact that things are indeed still heading in the right direction in Ann Arbor (but not so much in East Lansing). 

So, without further adieu, let's set some goals for each positional group for this game...

Quarterback: Joe Milton - I saw some early signs on Saturday that this is becoming Milton's team. Not only did he take command of the offense, but the senior players rallied around him and the entire team competed extremely hard. There is actually some real veteran leadership on a team that lost a ton of production from a year ago. The offense definitely now resembles more of what we were expecting from OC Josh Gattis when he was hired a year and a half ago, and a lot of that has to do with Milton. Not only does he have a strong arm, but he displayed patience, a quick release, and an ability to gain yards with his feet. And he made basically one mistake all night long that was of any consequence, resulting in a sack. The only sack of the night. Though he didn't blow up the stat sheet, he was supremely efficient. That is something most people were not expecting. He truly has come a long way. But how far has he come? Well, we should know more after this week. I want to see Milton connect on some long balls. Not one or two but like three or four. I want to see him take advantage of a the team speed he has around him going up against a suspect MSU defense. And I want to see him throw for over 300 yards and be out of the game early in the fourth quarter. 

Projected Stat Line: 70% completion rate, 300+ passing yards, 3 pass TD's, 50+ rushing yards, 1 rush TD

Running Backs: Zach Charbonnet, Hassan Haskins, Blake Corum, Chris Evans - Who wasn't happy about the performance from the running backs? They averaged 8.3 yards per carry as a team and scored five touchdowns on the ground. Let's not get too complicated here. Sparty will present some challenges but they didn't dominate Rutgers up front, so what would make me think they would stop the Wolverines? I want and expect to see Michigan attack the Spartan defense in a variety of ways, and I expect the running backs to collectively eclipse 200 yards rushing and three touchdowns for a second consecutive week. It's hard to imagine anybody will average 17 yards per carry in this one, but if the team average can stay above 6.5 that would be incredible. 

Projected Stat Line (as a group): 225 yards rushing, 4 rush TD's, 50+ yards receiving, 1 rec TD

Wide Receivers/Tight Ends: Ronnie Bell, Giles Jackson, Mike Saintristil, Erick All, Roman Wilson, Cornelius Johnson, A.J. Henning, Nick Eubanks, Luke Schoonmaker - This group surprisingly lit it up as blockers last week and I hope to see more of the same type of hustle this week too. It would go a long way towards crushing Sparty if they can spring some long runs. However, I would like to see more downfield opportunities for connections downfield. Milton has too big of an arm and these guys have too much speed to not take a few more shots in this one. I would also like to see tight end Erick All get more targets. I think he is on the verge of becoming a big weapon for this team. I would also like to see Cornelius Johnson get some reps. I was surprised we didn't see much or any of him last week.

Projected State Line: 200+ receiving yards, 16 yards per catch average, 3 TD's