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ANN ARBOR, MI – The Little Brown Jug is staying in Ann Arbor after the Michigan football team defeated Minnesota on Saturday. As Wolverines head coach Sherrone Moore said after the game, it was a tale of two halves.
The Michigan football team dominated in the first half against Minnesota as they turned the Golden Gophers over three times, and they took a 21-3 lead into the locker room. Going into the fourth quarter, the Wolverines were up by even more as a field goal extended the lead to 24-3. Things changed quickly.
A bad interception by Alex Orji that probably should've resulted in a touchdown to make it 31-3 is when things started going south for Michigan. Minnesota grabbed a couple quick touchdowns shortly after, and all of a sudden we had a game in Ann Arbor.
Dominic Zvada kicked a big field goal late in the fourth to make it 27-17, and the Wolverines were eventually able to earn a 27-24 victory. Minnesota, or rather Michigan's miscues, made things too close for comfort.
That's the second straight week that Michigan has let their opponent back in the game in the second half, and Sherrone Moore knows that he and his team have to be better in the late stages.
“It was really a tale of two halves for us,” Moore told the media after the game. “We played really well in the first half and not as good in the second half. The energy that we had, I felt like we had, but the execution wasn't there. Me as a coach, I need to do a good job of turning it up for the second half to make sure they're ready to go. They were, we just didn't execute at the level we needed to.”
Kalel Mullings and Alex Orji weigh in
Minnesota isn't a great football team, and Michigan let this one get way too close. Quarterback Alex Orji knows that the Wolverines need to do a better job closing out games.
“I think we all know that the end of the game, especially the second half, wasn't up to the standard that Michigan football has set in the past and previous games, so we just gotta focus on putting together a four quarter game and building on the things that we've put on tape,” Orji said after the game.
Kalel Mullings is well aware of the second half issues as well. He had another good game, but the team as a whole definitely has a lot of work to do.
“We just have to find a way to strain in that second half,” Mullings said. “Strain to play a four quarter game, complete the game. Felt like we were rolling pretty good in that first half and we really let them back into it. We even got lucky with some things at the end of the game, too. We just have to strain to be better and execute for all four quarters.”
The luck that Mullings referenced was probably the onside kick that Minnesota recovered getting called back because of a penalty, and also the fact that Michigan recovered their own fumble on the drive after that when they just needed to bleed the clock out. There were a lot of self-inflicted mistakes.
Michigan will be back in action next week with their first road trip of the season. It will be a rematch of last year's national championship game as the Wolverines will be taking on Washington. Both are very different teams this year.
