For the first four weeks of the season, one might tell you that it has been unseasonably warm and sunny for a city like Ann Arbor. But, in their last of five straight home games to start the year, ‘football weather’ returned to the Big House when Michigan welcomed Minnesota for the 99th meeting of the Little Brown Jug game.
And much like the conditions – overcast and rainy from three hours before kickoff, the Wolverines, led by their defense and special teams, put the Gophers in a torrential downpour that propelled them to another oversized lead at halftime. But just like last week, the end result suggests that Michigan is a team that’s struggling to remain consistent over four quarters.
To be clear, I didn’t walk away from this game thinking Michigan has a vastly better roster on either side of the ball than the Gophers; especially when you factor in that the Wolverines were without Will Johnson. But demonstrating an ability to impose their will (mainly through defense + special teams) in the first half? That gulf seems rather wide. Wider than I appreciated coming into the afternoon. To make this point, I’m going to tell you how four consecutive Minnesota drives in the second quarter ended.
- Forced fumble inside their own 20 (Michigan scores a TD in a three-play drive)
- Three & Out (Michigan does the same)
- Blocked punt returned to their own 11 (Michigan scores a TD in a one-play drive)
- Interception via deep ball throw from Brosmer on the first play of the drive (Michigan 3 & Out)
To summarize, Minnesota’s defense only gave the Wolverines offense a total of 10 plays across four consecutive drives – none of which went for more than 10 yards, and they still surrendered 14 points during that time, putting them down 21-0 with less than 2 minutes remaining in the half.
It looks even worse when you’re armed with the knowledge that those second quarter points accounted for more than half of Michigan’s score on the day.
The Gophers did manage to find some points before halftime, though. On a Hail Mary attempt on 3rd & 23 with 10 seconds remaining, Brosmer aired one out for tight end Nick Kallerup, who cleared Zeke Berry just enough to haul in a 44 yard catch at the 1 yard line. Well, at least something that was called a catch…
You might think that down 21-0 and a yard away from the endzone with two seconds remaining and no timeouts, it would be as good a time as any to take a shot at putting 6 on the board. But PJ Fleck and the Gophers elected to hit the chip shot field goal to get the easy points, and I suppose a small amount of momentum, moving in their favor at half (Minnesota’s only other scoring attempt in the first half was a missed 55 yard FG by Kesich).
21-3 at home against an unranked opponent is a lead that should feel safe coming out of halftime. But in the second half, Minnesota’s defense made adjustments that largely took the short passing game and QB run away from Alex Orji in his second career start. And while the Wolverines had been able to put Brosmer & Co. in a blender up to this point, it’s no exaggeration to say that the Michigan defense and special teams unit looked gassed in the fourth quarter.
It’s actually very hard to capture just how jarring the flip in this game was without directly citing the numbers. These are Minnesota’s yardage numbers in the first and second halves.
First Half: 52 (excluding 77 yards from the two-minute drill when Michigan was up 21-0)
Second Half: 170 (168 of which came starting from 4 minutes left in the third quarter)
The reason this matters is that it demonstrates how important it is for Michigan to dominate in the field position battle. In the first half, 5 of the Wolverines’ 7 drives started north of their own 35, including two touchdown drives that started in the red zone. Not counting the last drive of the day when the offense was basically just burning clock, the number of drives they started north of their 35 went down to zero in the second half.
To their credit, the Michigan offense was able to mount two drives in the second half that went 13+ plays – but they both ended in field goals. And a tip of the hat to the Gophers; the second drive saw their defensive front surrender only 26 rushing yards on eight attempts (that number plummets to 16 yards on 6 attempts when you remove two QB runs by Orji).
And that’s where reality sets in. Minnesota’s offense executed three consecutive touchdown drives before failing to recover an onside kick that effectively ended the game. Although, Michigan found a way to make even this seemingly mundane task stressful. Electing to run the ball rather than assuming victory formation, which led to a bad snap sailing over Orji’s head (but ultimately saved by Mullings) on 2nd down.
During those aforementioned drives, Max Brosmer threw the ball for 142 yards, and the Gophers got a short field of their own when a punt return in the fourth quarter by Koi Perich went 60 yards, setting Minnesota up at the Wolverines’ 17 yard line.
After the game, Sherrone Moore acknowledged that the turnaround in field position advantage played a big part in what caused Michigan to squander their lead.
“On the touchdowns, we gave them a short field on one (the Orji interception), and then we had the punt return (inside their 20). So the field position we were putting our defense in – it wasn’t helping.”
Then you factor in the genesis of when the Minnesota comeback started. Late in the third quarter from midfield, Orji had a look at a very open Colston Loveland, but couldn’t hone in to throw until the window was closing. It’s a ball that needed to travel a yard or two further when he threw it, but would have been perfect less than a second earlier – and the Gopher’s Ethan Robinson capitalized on the error, coming up with the visiting side’s only turnover of the day.
From that moment on, Minnesota outscored Michigan 21-3. It was a day that the Wolverines can and should feel very fortunate that Dominic Zvada plays for the team from Ann Arbor. The Junior is a perfect 7-7 on FG attempts in his first year at Michigan – including four that came from 50+ yards out. No kicker has started their career as a Wolverine better.
“He’s a monster,” Moore said of his team’s placekicker. “As soon as we cross the 50, it feels like we’re in range. He’s awesome. He’s done this throughout camp – 50, 60 yarders.
We’re now two weeks into the Alex Orji experiment, and one thing remains clear – Michigan still needs to get better at throwing downfield. But, unlike the way this offense performed under Davis Warren, they’ve become much better at protecting the football and leaning into their strength as a team that wins in the trenches.
Perhaps the best kernel of optimism the Wolverines’ offense can take from this game is that there were flashes where we saw Donovan Edwards show he can still be very lethal as a lateral runner in the backfield. If they find the right balance alongside Mullings thriving between the tackles and Orji’s elusiveness when he gets to the sideline – it could create the three-headed monster Michigan sorely needs.
