Free Press sports writer Tony Garcia breaks down the winners and losers for Michigan football in the Wolverines' 27-24 win over USC in their Big Ten opener on Saturday afternoon in Ann Arbor.

Three up

Kalel Mullings

Kalel Mullings has done the unthinkable: he's somehow made people forget, rather quickly, about Blake Corum. Or at least not be in tears thinking about how much they miss him. For the second consecutive game, Mullings crossed the 150-yard mark and this time, U-M needed every inch of it. Mullings ran 17 times for 159 yards (9.4 yards per carry) and two touchdowns to bookend the game. After converting a fourth-and-1 near midfield, Mullings took his next touch 53 yards for the game's opening score. From there, he slowly chipped away at the Trojans' defense until the final possession when he tore straight through it. On third-and-1 with less than three minutes to play, Mullings ripped off a ground-shaking 63-yard run, breaking through arm tackles and twisting and turning until he had nothing but daylight in front of him. Six rushes later, he plowed into the end zone on fourth-and-goal from the 1 for the game-winning touchdown with 37 seconds to play. Mullings finished the game as U-M's highest graded offensive weapon per Pro Football Focus (79.3) while he picked up seven first downs, forced five missed tackles and perhaps most ridiculously had an elusiveness rating of 196.1 For perspective, average for a game is 60.

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Josaiah Stewart

Of all the game-changing players and plays the Wolverines' defense made on Saturday, nobody was as consistently descriptive as edge Josaiah Stewart. That much was clear based on the eye test and, sure enough, once again the numbers backed it up. Stewart had the highest PFF grade (95.3) not only for his career, but for any Michigan player all season. Stewart played a U-M career-high 53 snaps − 37 pass rushes, 10 against the run and six times he dropped into coverage − and made plays in all facets. Of the ridiculous 27 pressures Michigan was credited with on USC QB Miller Moss, Stewart had a team-high eight of them as he finished with three hurries, three hits and three tackles for loss which included a pair of sacks. His five stops were second on the team, not to mention he forced a fumble. It's not a reach to say Stewart's NFL draft grade took a jump with this performance.

Derrick Moore

While there were a number of players deserving for the final honor, it's the man who is a bookend with Stewart in Derrick Moore who also proved to be too much for the USC front to handle. The junior edge was second in overall grade (87.3) and also put together the best pass rushing day (90.0) of his career. Moore, who played a career-high 50 snaps, was second behind Stewart with six pressures and led all players with five quarterback hurries. Moore, who also had a batted pass at the line of scrimmage, finished with a pair of tackles, a quarterback hit and one stop. If it weren't for players like Moore getting home, Moss would've had more time to pick the defense apart, but Moore changed the complexion of the contest.

Three down

Alex Orji

Yes, Michigan won the game and did not turn the ball over, however, there's still one glaring problem: it doesn't appear Michigan can pass the ball. In his first career start, Alex Orji completed 7 of 12 attempts for just 32 yards (2.5 yards per attempt and 4.6 yards per completion), the fewest in a Michigan win since 1987. Not only was Orji's passing grade (38.8) worse by a wide margin than all three of Davis Warren's efforts in his starts (74.2, 77.3 and 60.1, respectively) but his overall offensive grade, which factors in his 13 rushes for 43 yards, had him graded out at 54.5, worse than anything Warren finished at. If it weren't for an incredible run late in the game by Mullings, most would be screaming from the rooftops about how Michigan barley lost a game because it couldn't pass for 50 yards. Again, never apologize for a win, but to have 5 of 7 completions be behind the line of scrimmage and then go 0 for 5 on all throws that were more than nine yards down field was not inspiring football at the quarterback position.

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Evan Link

It may be time for Michigan to think about a new right tackle after sophomore Evan Link struggled again on Saturday. Though the Wolverines didn't pass much (12 attempts all day on 17 drop backs) Link wasn't able to frequently stay in front of defenders as he was responsible for two of the team's six hurries and two of the five time times pressure got into Orji's face as he graded out at 0.0 for pass blocking on the PFF scale. Unfortunately, his run blocking wasn't all that much better. On 41 run blocking snaps, it didn't matter if it was zone rushes (53.8) or gap schemes (50.9), but Link's overall run blocking grade (50.2) was 18th out of 20 U-M players, better only than wide receivers Payton O'Leary and C.J. Charleston.

Zeke Berry

Though his raw numbers were impressive in that he had five tackles including 1½ for loss and a pass breakup, the starting nickel for the Wolverines actually surrendered quite a bit in the passing game. Berry was targeted 13 times in the passing game (other than Ernest Hausmann, a linebacker who was thrown at nine times, nobody else was attacked more than four times) and allowed eight completions. Nearly 40% of the Trojans' passing yards (112 of 283) came against Berry which included a 42-yard completion and a tough-to-swallow 78 yards after the catch (all other passes resulted in 79 yards after the catch) and two of the three passing scores. Miller Moss' NFL passer rating was 128.8 when targeting Berry, even though he finished at 99.6 overall.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football winners and losers: Alex Orji has room to grow