The deep shot: Cade McNamara recalls the 87-yard touchdown pass to Cornelius Johnson

Isaiah Hole
·2 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — It was the third-longest touchdown pass in Michigan football history, when Wolverines quarterback Cade McNamara connected with wide receiver Cornelius Johnson on an 87-yard catch-and-run. It was McNamara’s third attempt to go deep against Northern Illinois, but the other two were misses — albeit near-misses.

So to connect on this one — the first 80-plus yard touchdown pass since 2014 when Devin Gardner hit Jeremy Gallon against Ohio State — was a moment of relief for McNamara.

“Felt great — third time was a charm with C.J.!” McNamara said. “I didn’t see the ball because I got hit, but to hear the crowd roar – that was a sweet moment.”

So what happened on that play? What was McNamara seeing downfield that allowed him to take the deep shot — aside from a wide-open Johnson streaking down the sidelines?

“Obviously, we had a double-move called,” McNamara said. “I noticed the corners actually switched sides from where they were originally aligned during the game. So I noticed that No. 12 on the right was press corner, and obviously, we want to go for a tighter corner in that scenario. And C.J. ran a great route and I had enough time to wait on him a little bit and let him get downfield. And I was able to complete it.”

Related

'Smash!' Michigan football's O-line determined to break defenses' wills

What they said: Greg Schiano is excited to see how Rutgers stacks up against Michigan

ESPN boldly predicts two Big Ten teams to make CFP, but not Ohio State

While it doesn’t definitely answer the question of whether or not Michigan can rely solely on the passing game, as Wolverines fans have pondered after the Week 2 game against Washington, certainly it does alleviate some fears.

McNamara says that the maize and blue definitely have more in their arsenal when it comes to passing the ball, and this was just a taste of what can happen when everyone does their jobs.

“Whether it’s double moves, whether it’s our play-action game, whatever it is, it makes the defense respect what we’re trying to really manipulate them.”

List

Ranking Big Ten QBs through 3 weeks according to PFF grades