ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Final thoughts on Michigan’s 27-24 victory against Minnesota, a fourth quarter to forget and a call that should have phones ringing inside Big Ten headquarters:
1. Tyler Morris saw the ball bouncing toward him, watched it scoot across the turf and looked on as Minnesota’s Matt Kingsbury pounced on it near the sideline. For a few moments, Morris thought Michigan was going to be asking its defense to make another stop. Then he heard the official’s announcement that Minnesota was offside, nullifying an onside kick recovery that would have given the Golden Gophers a shot to tie the game or win it with a touchdown.
“It definitely was just a lot of relief,” Morris said.
That sums up the feelings of everyone on Michigan’s sideline after the Wolverines, who led 24-3 at the start of the fourth quarter, almost blew a three-touchdown lead. The game never should have come down to an onside kick. But it did, and Michigan was fortunate the officials threw a flag on Kingsbury for being a hair past the line when Minnesota kicked the ball.
Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck was diplomatic after the game and said he hadn’t seen a replay. Maybe he wasn’t so calm after he saw it. The comments from Fox rules analyst Mike Pereira and Chris Petersen’s reaction in the studio summed up what a lot of Minnesota fans had to be feeling.
“I’m sick to my stomach right now,” Petersen said. “I really am. I just hate to see this, when the officials are making something up. I don’t know why they would throw that flag.”
MINNESOTA RECOVERS THE ONSIDE KICK BUT A FLAG IS CALLED 😱😱 pic.twitter.com/d8PUckrczb
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 28, 2024
Looking at the replay, the ball appeared to kick off the heel of a Minnesota player near the 45-yard line, which was why it made a sudden change of direction and skidded past Morris. It’s tough to tell if the contact happened inside 10 yards or not. The officials made the call they made, and since it wasn’t reviewable, Michigan got another chance at the recovery.
Fittingly, it was Kalel Mullings who sealed the game for the second week in a row, this time by recovering the onside kick.
“After the first one, I knew he was probably going to do the same thing,” Mullings said. “I was just a little bit more aggressive with it, got it before it even got to 10 (yards).”
2. A lot of things had to go wrong for Michigan to be in position to lose this game. It took an interception thrown by Alex Orji, two long drives from Minnesota, a 60-yard punt return to set up a Minnesota touchdown, a hands-to-the-face penalty on Mason Graham on fourth down and a holding penalty that called back a long run from Mullings.
With a three-touchdown lead, Michigan seemed willing to take its chances with Minnesota methodically driving the length of the field. The killer was the punt return after a three-and-out that gave Minnesota the ball at the 17-yard line, right after Michigan defended a 12-play touchdown drive.
“When they had to drive the field, it took them some time to get down there,” coach Sherrone Moore said. “For our defense, I thought there was a lot of really good things to build on. From a special teams standpoint and an offensive standpoint, we’ve got to make sure that we don’t put them in those bad positions.”
3. The turning point in the game was Orji’s interception on a play that easily could have been a touchdown to put Michigan on top 31-3. The consensus afterward was that Orji’s reads should have led him to throw the ball to Donovan Edwards, who was wide-open on a rail route. Instead, Orji threw the ball to Colston Loveland, who was open in the seam. It still could have been a big play, but Orji’s throw took Loveland back toward the middle of the field where Ethan Robinson was able to make the interception.
“At the end of the day, Donovan was open,” Orji said. “I’ve just got to be better at the quarterback position there. I definitely owe him one there. A better ball would have been a completion to Colston. I’ve just got to stay true to my training and find Dono on that one.”
Love the awareness by #Gophers Ethan Robinson. pic.twitter.com/iwPXaOvMGH
— GopherHole.com (@GopherHole) September 28, 2024
4. We now have two full games to evaluate Michigan’s offense with Orji as the starter. The big problem, or one of the big problems, is that Michigan has had too many drives that went nowhere.
Aside from Michigan’s scoring drives, the Wolverines had six possessions against Minnesota that produced a total of 20 plays and 39 yards. It was a similar story against USC, as Michigan had six drives that produced a total of 9 yards before Mullings broke his long run. The three-and-outs are putting a lot of stress on Michigan’s defense, hurting field position and killing any offensive rhythm.
Michigan’s opening drive was the best sequence we’ve seen so far from Orji: a few easy throws, a nice scramble for a first down and a big hole for Mullings on a 27-yard touchdown run. If Michigan could replicate that every drive, the offense might be OK. But as we’re finding out, this offense has very few options if a drive gets off-schedule.
“We’re just trying to get easy completions and things he’s really good at,” Moore said. “There’s progressions you’ve got to continue to roll through. As he does those, he’s going to continue to be even better.”
5. When Michigan switched from Davis Warren to Orji, Moore made it clear that he didn’t want to be flip-flopping quarterbacks for the rest of the season. The hope was that Orji would take the job and run with it. Michigan is 2-0 since then, but the offense has been stagnant outside of Mullings, who had another productive game with 111 yards on 24 carries.
It’s time for Michigan to think about getting another quarterback involved. Jack Tuttle wasn’t listed on the injury report this week, which presumably means he was available to play. If Tuttle’s healthy, rotating him with Orji could give Michigan other ways of prolonging drives when the running game isn’t working.
6. Michigan got one key player back in Loveland but was without two others in cornerback Will Johnson and edge rusher Josaiah Stewart. Both were game-time decisions, Moore said, which bodes well for their availability next week at Washington. Safety Makari Paige took a big hit near the end of the game and was down on the field before walking off under his own power. Left tackle Myles Hinton also appeared to be in pain before leaving the game in the second half.
Center Dominick Giudice was limping, too, and Michigan was already without backup Greg Crippen, who showed up on the pregame injury report. Adding injuries to an offensive line that’s struggled to find consistency is one more challenge Michigan will have to deal with.
7. Jyaire Hill’s post-Texas bounce-back continues. Hill made a great play on his interception, blanketing the wide receiver on a fade route, adjusting to the ball in the air and getting a toe down in bounds. The decision to stick with him through his growing pains is continuing to pay dividends.
“I didn’t think he was going to throw it, for real,” Hill said. “I saw the wide receiver’s eyes got big. I turned around and ended up catching the ball and sticking the landing on the sideline.”
Hill said his goal is for offenses to see two cornerbacks they don’t want to throw at instead of one. He’s well on his way, and Michigan needed it on a day when Johnson wasn’t available.
8. Another week, another win that raised red flags. It’s hard to imagine Michigan will be able to live on the edge like this without falling off at some point. Especially now that the Wolverines have to go on the road, first to Washington next week and then to Illinois on Oct. 19.
Michigan players are probably tired of hearing that what they’re doing is unsustainable after winning games. But after that fourth quarter, it was hard for anybody to be too defiant. The Wolverines are fortunate to be 4-1 and need to play better if they want their Big Ten winning streak — now at 27 games and counting — to continue.
“We all know the end of the game, especially the second half, wasn’t up to the standard that Michigan football has set,” Orji said. “We’ve just got to find a way to put together a four-quarter game.”
(Top photo of Alex Orji: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
