Indiana Football: 3 keys to beat Wolverines on Saturday

1. Pressure Shea Patterson

Patterson is playing his best football since putting on a Michigan uniform last year. He had his first 300-yard passing game as a Wolverine last Saturday against Michigan State. He threw for 384 yards and four touchdowns in easily his best performance of his career at Michigan.

But while he is playing much better, he has had some games where he has struggled and those are usually when the other teams are pressuring him. He has been sacked 18 times this year but has thrown just four interceptions. Patterson, though, is prone to fumble the ball and if Indiana can get pressure on him they may have the opportunity to force turnovers.

When Patterson has time to throw the ball he is very good and Michigan has great receivers that can get open. Patterson is also very good throwing the ball on the move so if Indiana is able to get pressure they need to bottle him up and not let him get outside the pocket.

Last week against Penn State Indiana was able to get some pressure on Sean Clifford, but he was able to hurt them with his feet. That ended up being one of the things that came back to haunt Indiana and that fateful last drive that sealed the game for the Nittany Lions.

Patterson is a similar type of quarterback so they need to make sure they get pressure on him while keeping him in the pocket. If they can do that, he has shown tendencies to miss his targets and make bad decisions.

If Indiana lets him just sit back without much pressure he will pick them apart. Pressure him and get the Wolverines off the field and they have a good shot at pulling off the upset.