The Michigan Daily - Monday, October 22,1990 - Page 13 -~-U. ~ - FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK suffers first home losing streak since '67 by Mike Gill, David Hyman and Ryan Schreiber Daily Football Writers Michigan's 24-23 loss to Iowa marked the second consecutive home loss for first-year coach Gary Moeller. The last time the Wolverines lost two in a row at Michigan Stadium in the same season was before the Bo Schembechler era. In 1967, Michigan dropped decisions to Michigan State (34-0) and Indiana (27-20) under the reign of Bump Elliot. Incidentally, the loss to the Hoosiers also marked the last time Michigan had lost a Homecoming game. The last time Iowa beat Michigan in a Homecoming contest was back in 1924 when the Hawkeyes won, 9-2. "I'm stunned we lost," Michigan guard Dean Dingman said. "Two weeks in a row? There's been nothing like it since I've been here." Wolverine safety Tripp Welborne agreed. "I'm not used to coming in here (to the press conference) two weeks in a row after losses," he said. BOWL WATCH: Seven different post-season bowls were represented in the Michigan press box yesterday. The Sugar, Cotton, Sun, Peach, Citrus, Gator, and Blockbuster bowls were all watching Michigan's clash with Iowa. Earl Morrall, former Baltimore Colts and Miami Dolphins quarterback and a team selector for the Blockbuster Bowl was impressed with the play of the Hawkeyes, specifically quarterback Matt Rodgers. "Today's game was a good one," Morrall said. "Iowa deserves a lot of credit. They marched that 85 yards on the last drive and got what they needed. I saw them play at Michigan State and they did the same thing. They moved that ball when they had to. Matt Rodgers stood in there, even though he took a beating. He hung in there and made a lot of completions." Morrall didn't count Michigan out from the bowl bid competition either. "They're a good, solid team. They've lost three games by a total of six points: They're a definite bowl possibility. They've got to win the rest of their games, basically, but they're in there." The inaugural Blockbuster Bowl will be played December 29 at Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami. The game is sponsored by (guess) Blockbuster Video. The game has already undergone a name change before the first game. It was orginally called the Sunshine Bowl. Tom Gay, the representative for the Gator Bowl, said "We'd love to have a Big Ten team. They always draw well. The league is so strong, you could see six teams going to post-season bowls." The Gator Bowl has had four Big Ten teams play in its history, the last being Michigan State in 1988. EVENLY MATCHED: Six of the last 10 Michigan-Iowa contests have been decided by three points or less. Iowa won in 1981 (9-7), 1985 (12-10), and 1990. The Wolverines came out on top in 1983 (16-13) and 1986 (20-17). The two teams tied in 1988 (17-17). BLOCKED FOR A TOUCHDOWN: Dave Ritter's block of Jim Hujsak's punt and subsequent seven yard run by Dwayne Ware marked the first time a Michigan player has scored a touchdown on a block punt since 1985. In that game, Jeff Montgomery's kick was blocked by Dieter Heren and Ed Hood ran the ball in for the score. IOWA Continued from page 9 we won the Big Ten Championship or the Rose Bowl... I'm gonna give my kids Monday off. I've never done that in my life." For the second straight week, the Michigan defense was unable to stop the opponent on its final drive. In a scene all too familiar to the Wol-verines, Iowa, like Michigan State, marched down the field in only 3:13 to take a one point lead with only 1:09 to play. The Hawkeyes' winning drive came after Michi- gan's J.D. Carlson booted a 47-yard field goal to give the Wolverines a 23-17 lead with 4:27 to play. Hawkeye fullback Nick Kuljawa capped off the nine-play, 85 yard winning drive with a one yard plunge. Iowa quarterback Matt Rodgers completed five of six passes, all underneath the Michigan prevent zone, for 67 yards to move the Hawkeyes into Michigan terri- tory. "We watched a lot of film and we basically knew they dropped some guys off a lot so if things weren't open downfield, we'd just be patient and take the dumps," Rodgers said. Rodgers finished the day com- pleting 27 of 37 for 276 yards, 40 more yards than Michigan's offense gained all day. The Hawkeyes shut down Michigan in the second half, limiting the Wolverines to three first downs and 66 yards. A major factor in Michigan's poor offensive pro- duction was its ability to convert only four of 12 third down attempts. "We got stopped on third down conversions and I think that hurt us more than anything," Michigan tail- back Allen Jefferson said. Wolverine coach Gary Moeller agreed. "We wanted to run the ball and keep our defense off the field, but I probably did get a little too conservative," he said. "Our offense was not the offense it had been in the past. We had a couple of critical plays... third down and short that we did not make." But the Wolverines never got the offense rolling, gaining only 155 yards on the ground, as opposed to its average of 278 yards per game. The passing game never got on track either. Quarter- back Elvis Grbac completed 10 of 17 passes for 81 yards as receivers Desmond Howard and Derrick Alexander managed to only pull in two receptions each. Michigan scored on two touchdown runs in the first half, a four yarder by Vaughn and a seven yarder by Jef- ferson. Iowa had a golden opportunity to tie the score after Vaughn fumbled on the Michigan 13 yard line. The Hawkeyes had 1:31 to tie the score, however, Iowa failed to call timeout and the half ended when Michigan stopped tailback Marvin Lamkin at the one yard line. Michigan's lone score in the second half came when Dave Ritter blocked a Jim Hujsak punt and Dwayne Ware ran the ball seven yards for a 20-10 lead. But an unsuccessful two-point conversion turned out to be the difference in the outcome. The Wolverines tried to surprise the Hawkeyes, but Iowa stopped the attempt. Moeller took blame for the call and said the team tried to increase the margin to 12 points so Iowa would need two touchdowns, rather than a touchdown (with conversion) and a field goal to tie to score if Michigan kicked the extra point. ;:. ;. Wolverine fullback Jarrod Bunch (32) gets dragged down from behind after gaining a first down in the second half. Michigan only earned three first downs in the second half. Vaughn left the game in the second half after aggrevating an ankle injury sustained in practice earlier last week. Vaughn's per game rushing average fell to 154.5 yards, but he still leads the nation in rushing yards per game. OPPONENT ATT YRDS AVG. TfD LONG V i l U1\ . 1\ i A 1 L 1 \"U Af 1 L i,/V1\V Notre Dame UCLA Maryland Wisconsin Michigan St. Iowa 22 32 22 15 26 18 201 288 89 94 162 93 9.1 9.0 4.0 6.3 6.2 4.8 0 3 2 1 0 1 24 63 26 35 42 13 Totals 135 927 6.9 7 63 Plate brothers reunite over weekend by Mike Gill Daily Football Writer It was Homecoming weekend at Michigan in more ways than one. Michigan's Todd Plate faced off against his brother Scott Plate in a battle for family bragging rights. Both wore number six on the back of their But it was Scott who wound up wearing the smile when the game concluded. "My brother never is one to brag and he'$ beaten us a couple of times," Scott said. "But this does make the off-season a lot easier. Scott was on the field when Michigan attempted a two-point conversion which had a major effect on the outcome. "It was a messed up play," he said. jerseys. And both wore ended up recording two yellow pants. Both tackles on the day. SPatriotism on Russia Day Call me McCarthyesque, but I start getting a little worried when the Michigan Marching Band announced that Saturday's performance would be a salute to Russia.. Instead, the performance came across as unabashedly American. It's hard to work up a nice choreography for Homecoming when the band's expected to let anyone who can still put an instrument to their mouths take center stage. It also causes the band's average weight to jump at least 30 pounds. After spelling out U-S-A during a Russian Composers Melody, which included the "1812 Overture," the alumni hit the field. The alumni and current band then played "St. Louis Blues," "Temptation," and "The Hawaiian War Chant." These are traditional Michigan Marching Band tunes and were good to hear. The big ham himself, Michigan Band Director Emeritus, Dr. William D. Revelli, began to lead the crowd and band in the singing and playing "God Bless America." It is a song written by a Russian immigrant - the great, but sadly, late, Irving Berlin. Anytime you hear "God Bless America," you can't fault a band's performance. And the fact that it was played on Salute to Russia Day didn't make me feel bad either. Call it what you want, but Saturday's performance was All- Michigan and All-American. A post-script: Why does the pep band that parades around the stadium after the half wear florescent green caps? It makes no sense. Are they trying to be cool? The color is abominable. I'm no fashion expert, but when you mix this neon green with maize and blue, it looks horrible. whoever coined this great "cap" idea should have what's underneath it checked. -MIKE GILL Did you miss 10"'d1011, a V w ll SCHREIBER Continued from page 9 tempt, only to find out that he was wrong. "If they kick, it's 20-10 and we only need 10 points," Fry said. "If they convert, now they're up by 11 and we've got to score twice. I'd have done the same thing." Nice try, Hayden, but a solo kick puts Michigan up by 11, not 10. And that logic says the kick was the right thing to do. With his version, Iowa quarter- back Matt Rodgers tried to explain the move. "They were just going for the sure tie," Rodgers said, "or, I mean, they didn't want to mess around with, I don't know. I'm not Michigan, I don't care. We won." Oh. None of the Michigan players explained why the teamdidn't just kick. Offensive lineman Dean Ding- man could only shrug and say that "they just stopped us." Still, the fact of the matter re- mains that Michigan should never have tried that two-point conversion. One point puts the game far enough out of reach for Moel1er to know that Iowa can do no more than tie with a two-pointer of their own cou- pled with a field goal. 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