Last week, the Michigan Wolverines landed a neck-to-neck win of 27-24 against the USC Trojans. Despite the win, the team still had many gameplay issues to address before facing Minnesota on Saturday. Moreover, Michigan’s most recent game showcased critical concerns surrounding quarterback Alex Orji and emphasized the team’s need to concentrate on them. As we say, a stitch in time saves nine.

Today on The Wolverine: Michigan Football and Basketball YouTube channel host Clayton Sayfie, Chris Balas and Anthony Broome were discussing the major issues Michigan’s offense had in their last game against the Trojans. During the conversation, host Anthony Broome talked about quarterback Alex Orji and team gameplay, saying, “I think the biggest task right now is leveling out some of the peaks and valleys, right? Like, you won’t trade those explosive plays for anything. It’s not that you can’t treat them as hypotheticals. You can’t say, Oh well, you take this run away from Kalel Mullings; you take this run away from Donovan Edwards.” 

Anthony Broome also added to it, saying, “What they did last week against USC got the job done, but you just aren’t going to win many football games unless you’re a service academy, where you’re, you know, throwing the ball for 32 yards.” Well, looking at the team’s performance last week, this was expected as the offense only recorded 32 passing yards and Alex Orji could only complete 7 out of 12 passes.

Host Anthony also talked about Alex Orji and that Michigan should bring consistency to the team’s offense, saying, “Yeah, this line is a notch or two below, maybe a couple notches below what we’ve gotten used to seeing. But for me, it’s about just finding, not even finding a way to be balanced, finding a way to make the defense honest, finding a way to cash in on some of the opportunities that these loaded boxes are going to give you.”

Well, according to recent remarks made on the team’s offense and Alex Orji’s passing game, there is still room for improvement. However, Alex had a different opinion about his performance. “The important thing was to eliminate turnover-worthy plays,” said Orji after the game. Even head coach Sherrone Moore had a similar opinion about him. Let’s see what he has to say about the whole thing.

Sherrone Moore on Alex Orji’s poor performance

Even after quarterback Alex Orji’s mediocre performance against the USC Trojans, head coach Sherrone Moore thinks he did a great job on the field. Talking about his gameplay after the game, Moore said, “But I thought he did a good job; he took care of the football for us, which was the number one thing we wanted. And was a great team player; he did all the things we asked him. Ran extremely hard when he asked him to, so proud of him and proud of his performance.”

Well, Sherrone also cleared everyone’s concern regarding Alex’s position in the upcoming game, saying, “Alex will be the starter again, and there’s definitely more to the game and more things that we have complemented for him and for the offense.” Well, we can’t overlook the fact that Orji took complete charge of the team’s offense after Davis Warren’s exit. Alex completed 2 out of 4 passes, running for 12 yards with one touchdown. Which gave Michigan an edge over AR State. Also, Michigan had other players showing remarkable gameplay against the Trojans.

However, the Michigan Wolverines offense recorded fewer yards on the field, but the team successfully secured a considerable win against the Trojans. The team got an early lead of 14-0, all credit goes to running back Kalel Millings, who scored 17 rushes for 159 yards with two touchdowns. Running back Donovan Edwards also added to Michigan’s victory by scoring a touchdown by running for 41 yards and catching a pass for nine yards.

Will Alex Orji display any progress in his next game, or will it once again revolve around reducing turnovers and assisting the team? Let’s wait and see what unfolds, but in the meantime, continue to support your favorite team.