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College Football

3 takeaways from Michigan’s harrowing Little Brown Jug win vs. Minnesota

Paul Harvey

By Paul Harvey

Published:

Michigan was in control of Saturday’s Little Brown Jug game vs. Minnesota for much of the afternoon. However, the Golden Gophers came alive in the 2nd half to keep this one dramatic down to the final whistle.

Ultimately, the Wolverines were able to come up with a win, even though head coach Sherrone Moore admitted he was “not very happy” with the team in the 27-24 win over Minnesota. It looks like fans will have to become used to the cardiac Wolverines after it took a wild game-winning drive to hold on vs. USC last week and needed every ounce of effort after entering as a 9-point favorite vs. Minnesota.

For now, Michigan can breathe a little easier with a 4-1 start to the season while Minnesota looks for more answers after coming up just short. Here are the key takeaways from the game:

Alex Orji’s development contains good, bad and ugly

Alex Orji made his 2nd start as Michigan’s quarterback Saturday, and it doesn’t appear he’s in danger of losing his job. In fact, he finished the game with more than double his passing output from last week’s game vs. USC, but there are clearly a number of things to continue working on.

One of Orji’s worst plays of the game resulted in an interception. On a route that saw star tight end Colston Loveland burst into the open, Orji’s throw led the TE back into the middle of the field where a safety was waiting and able to disrupt the pass and pick it off.

Putting that throw on the outside portion of the field would have allowed Loveland to put more distance between himself and the defenders. Instead, the throw was in the one place Orji could not afford to put it.

That’s not to say it was all bad from Orji in Saturday’s game, and the context of it being his 2nd career start should be acknowledged. He finished the game 10-for-16 through the air for 86 yards and a touchdown with the interception while adding 12 rushing yards.

If Orji learns from his miscues and continues to develop with his intermediate throws, Michigan’s offense will be that much better toward the end of the season. However, the Wolverines will have to be careful in the meantime as the offense stalling out in the 2nd half allowed the Gophers to make things closer than comfortable.

Minnesota RB Darius Taylor shut down in 2nd straight game

Darius Taylor is clearly one of the best players on Minnesota’s roster, and he is among the best running backs in the entire B1G. However, he’s getting a big dose of B1G defenses lately, and it has resulted in some tough sledding.

At one point in Saturday’s game, Taylor scored 2 touchdowns in a span of about 3 minutes of game time. However, the touchdowns came in short-yardage situations as he was otherwise hampered by Michigan’s defensive front.

Prior to the last drive of the game, Taylor had 36 rushing yards on 13 carries for an average of 2.8 yards per carry. He did add 7 catches, but his efficiency was not there with just 34 receiving yards for 70 total yards of offense for the final drive in the 4th quarter. (He would finish with 88 yards of offense at the buzzer.)

Michigan holding Taylor under 100 yards of offense comes one week after he was limited to 47 yards (34 on the ground) in a loss to Iowa. He is still the key to the offense, so Minnesota will need to find a way to unlock his contributions on a more regular basis.

Points off miscues loom large

Both teams benefitted via points off turnovers with each scoring 7 points after costly turnovers. However, Michigan gets the focus here for the hot start in the first half.

With the Wolverines holding a slim lead early on, defensive back Zeke Berry came up with a fumble recovery after stripping the ball away from Daniel Jackson. It led to a short field for Michigan’s offense with the Wolverines cashing it in on a touchdown run by Kalel Mullings.

That touchdown gives Michigan 34 points off turnovers this season, tied for first in the Big Ten. With the way the offense has looked at times, the Wolverines will need all the extra help with field position that the defense can offer.

Shortly after that sequence, Michigan blocked a punt that led to the 3rd touchdown of the game. While the blocked punt does not factor into traditional points off turnovers, it cannot be overlooked as a costly miscue in the process that directly led to points.

Paul Harvey

Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.