No. 12 Michigan football secured a narrow 27-24 victory over the Minnesota Gophers at the Big House on Saturday afternoon to improve its record to 4-1 (2-0 Big Ten) on the season.

Here are three takeaways from the game.

Michigan star cornerback Will Johnson left last week's game with an injury and was unable to give it a go against Minnesota.

The Wolverines' secondary handled that fairly well last week when they closed out a 27-24 victory over the Trojans. Against the Gophers, the unit was more than up to the task, with several players stepping up in the back end in a dominant defensive effort from the Wolverines.

The impact and big play ability Johnson provides to the Wolverines' back end cannot be denied, but Wink Martindale's defense has some young, emerging players coming onto the scene.

Early in the second quarter, junior safety Zeke Berry made a game changing play, ripping the ball away from Minnesota receiver Daniel Jackson to set up the offense deep into Gophers' territory, leading to a touchdown.

Then, with 3:48 left in the first half, it was sophomore Jyaire Hill forcing the second turnover of the half for the Michigan defense when he made an outstanding over the shoulder interception while dragging his toe in bounds.

Couple those two outstanding plays with solid performances from several others, including sophomore Brandyn Hillman, and it added up to be a good day for the back end absent of Johnson.

Even when Minnesota quarterback Max Brosmer had time to throw, the secondary covered for long periods of time when they had to. The communication errors that were present in the first few weeks also seemed to be cleaned up in this one.

The negative side to the secondary is the yardage it allowed Brosmer to have late in the game. He ended up with 258 yards for the game and had nearly 100 in the fourth. So, for a secondary that made many plays in this one, the back end, and the defense as a whole, did not close the game well.

In his second start, Michigan quarterback Alex Orji showed flashes in the passing game in terms of being able to throw a good, timely ball to his receivers.

In the third quarter, Orji hit Kendrick Bell over the middle for a 16-yard gain, and had him on a rollout play in the first half on a ball that would have been a nice game but was dropped.

Orji also connected with Colston Loveland on multiple occasions, with Loveland winning off the line of scrimmage and Orji delivering him a timely ball.

However, there were still times where Orji made the wrong choice in throwing to guys who were covered and missing open receivers. The most egregious case of this was when Donovan Edwards ran a wheel route late in the third quarter and ended up breaking wide open behind the Gophers' secondary. Despite the coverage bust, Orji threw it late over the middle and the pass was intercepted by the Minnesota defense.

Orji will have to continue to improve in that area, but the pass protection held up much better and he was able to extend some plays with his legs

The Orji interception really seemed to spark momentum for the Gophers in helping them get back in it, but that still shouldn't have been the start of allowing Minnesota to climb fully back into the game after the Wolverines led 24-3 going into the fourth.

Even though Mason Graham was outstanding in the game, a hands to the face penalty on him allowed a Minnesota drive to be extended to find the endzone to make cut Michigan's lead to 24-10.

Then, on the Wolverines' next drive, the offensive line missed a blocking assignment on a third-and-one play, and on the ensuing punt allowed a 60-yard return to set the Gophers up deep in Michigan territory, leading to another score.

The Wolverines even seemed to catch a break on the onside kick they failed to recover that was ruled offsides, then fumbled a snap on their last drive to nearly allow the Gophers to retain the ball late with a chance to win.

In the end, the Michigan offense responded with a field goal and took seven minutes off the clock to take a much needed 10-point lead with under five minutes to go.

But getting outscored 21-3 in the game's final 15 minutes is never a positive sign and something Michigan needs to clean up moving forward.

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