4 - The Michigan Daily -- SPORTSMonday - Monday, October 25, 1993 GAME STATISTICS I L L 1 N 0 I Blue lets lead slip away Wolverines squander 11-point edge in final quarter PASSING Player C-A Yds TDI J.Johnson 22-38 265 2 Tot. 22-38 265 2 RUSHING Player Att Yds Douthard 27 123 J.Johnson 8 26 Lynch 5 11 Totals 40160 Int 0 0 Lg 21 15 6 21 Avg 4.6 3.3 2.2 4.0 RECEIVING Player Dilger Douthard Olson Koester Strong Klein Dulick Fisher Woods Mosley Totals No. 4 6 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 22 Yds Avg Lg 66 16.5 53 8.8 48 16.0 20 10.0 16 8.0 15 15.0 14 14.0 13 13.0 11 11.0 9 9.0 26512.0 38 11 20 13 9 15 14 13 11 9 38 By KEN SUGIURA DAILY FOOTBALL WRITER While Michigan's 11-point lead in the fourth quarter had the appearance of money in the bank, Saturday proved once again that appearances can be deceiving. Behind two dramatic scoring plays by wide receiver Derrick Alexander and another by fellow wideout Amani Toomer, the Wolverines steadily built up a 21-10 cushion midway through the third quarter. But just as the Michigan defensive linemen never seemed to get their hands on elusive Illinois quarterback Johnny Johnson, the Wolverines let the game slip away from them as well. "We had the opportunity and we didn't seize it," Michigan linebacker Matt Dyson said. In the quarter when Michigan wanted to grab hold of the game by its throat and not let go, its grip loosened enough to let the Illini escape out of Ann Arbor with its first road win against Michigan since 1966. "We didn't play as well aswe should have," Alexander said. Michigan began to lose control of the game when Illinois got the ball back 13 seconds into the fourth. Ten plays later, Illinois runningbackTy Douthard punched theballinon a third-and-goal play from the Michigan 1. The drive had been kept alive when Illinois coach Lou Tepper decided on fourth and3 fromthe Michigan 11 togo for the first down. Johnson completed a five-yard pass to tight end Ken Dilger to give Illinois first and goal from the 6. "Johnny was really in control of the game," said Tepper after the game. After tailbackTyrone Wheatley was knocked out of the game with a bruised shoulder, Moeller looked to his back- ups, Ed Davis and Ricky Powers, to finish the game. This afternoon, they were not able to fuel any sustained drives in the final quarter. The coach felt that the offensive line had to shoul- der part of the blame. "We did not block at all," Michigan coach Gary Moeller said. "I was very disappointed with that. If you don't block, you can't be a good offensive team." Counterpart Tepper felt that his team's defensive scheme also had a hand in Michigan's offensive short- comings as well. "The plays that we had seen them have great success with were plays that broke outside, particularly against Penn State," he said. "We really tried to keep (linebacker) Kevin Hardy and (safety) Tyrone Washington with outside le- verage to force everything inside. I'm not saying this in cocky terms, but we just feel that we're pretty strong in- side." In the fourth quarter, fullback Che FosterandtailbacksDavisandRickyPow- erscombinedfor40 yardson13carriesas Wheatley sat out the whole quarter. "We ran the ball a lot in the fourth quarter," Michigan quarterback Todd Collins said. "We tried to control the ball, and we did except for the fumble." Powers' fumble with 1:13 left in the game gave Illinois new life. "I just felt I had to step up ifwe wanted to win. It was a now-or-never, do-or-die situation, sudden death," said Illini defen- sive lineman Simeon Rice, who both stripped Powers of the ball and recovered it, too. "We all knew that if something big was gonna happen, it had to happen right then. It so happened that the running back had the ball, and as soon as I saw him cross my face, I just grabbed at the ball and yanked it out." The Michigan defense, too, could not extinguish the Illini hopes in the game's last period. It allowed Johnson to engineer two quick touchdown drives that covered a lot of the field but did not use much of the clock. The first fourth-quarter touchdown drive was 41 yards and took 3:10. The second, which traveled 44 yards, lasted 'It so happened that the running back had the ball, and as soon as I saw him cross my face, I just grabbed at the ball and yanked It out., - Simeon Rice Illinois linebacker only 44 seconds. For the entire quarter, the Illini of- fense was able to move the football on the Wolverine defense. Of their four possessions, three of them traveled over 30 yards, and the fourth went 22. "I was thinking, 'Man, I just want one more shot because we know we can move the ball on them,"' Illinois right tackle Randy Bierman said. "We were just standing on the sideline screaming, "C'mon defense, get the ball back for us." And they did, and it just happened that we threw a touchdown just like we thought we would." The final touchdown from Johnson to wide receiver Jim Klein capped off the reeling Michigan effort. "It was like a nightmare," Dyson recounted. "I can't even describe it." On fourth and six from Michigan's 15, Johnson escaped a Michigan blitz and threw the winning score to Klein while falling to the ground. Illinois players Johnny Johnson and Kraig Koester celebrate the first Illini' MSU keeps Rose Bow alive; Badgers upset bI Douthard PUNTING Player Larsen Wells Totals No. Yds Avg Lg 4124 31.0 42 2 82 41.044 6 20634.3 44 PUNT RETURNS Player Voelker Totals, No. 5 5 Yds Avg Lg 65 13.0 29 65 13.0 29 ASSOCIATED PRESS Michigan State 24, Iowa 10 Michigan State knows it needs a lot of help to make it to Pasadena on New Year's Day. That doesn't mean the Spartans aren't still hoping. Even after beating Iowa 24-10 Sat- urday, and seeing Michigan and Wis- consin lose, Michigan State needs Ohio State to lose two of its last four league games. "Right now, I don't know what's goingto happen," Michigan State coach George Perles said. "I just know that if we keep winning, something good is going to happen to us, and it could involve all kinds of dimensions of good- ness." Iowa entered Saturday's game at 0-4 in the Big Ten. Against Michi- gan State, though, the Hawkeyes used a tough defense to stay in the game until Duane Goulbourne scored a clinching touchdown in the final two minutes. "I'm really proud of our defense, because they made Michigan State work hard for everything they got," Iowa coach Hayden Fry said. "I wish it could have ended 17-10, but our guys finally wore out at the end." Goulbourne, a sophomore tailback, was the only Spartan to have any suc- cess against the Iowa defense. He rushed for 213 yards, while the rest of thetea only accumulated 117 yards of tot offense. . "I'm glad I had the big day, b only because it helped us win, Goulbourne said. "If I gain two yard and we win, I'm happy." Ohio State 45, Purdue 24 Marlon Kerner returned an inte KICKOFF RETURNS Player No. Yds Avg Lynch 2 80 40.0 Mosley 1 10 10.0 Voelker 1 14 14.0 Totals 410426.0 Lg 64 10 14 64 DEFENSE Player Washington Hardy M.Johnson Holecek Howard Patton Copher Marshall Crumpton McCloud Rice Russell Boykin Gabrione Leach Richards Roberts Woods Dulick Tac 8 7 7 4 5 4 3 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 Ast 2 1 1 4 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1I Tot 10 8 8 8 6 6 4 4 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 MICHELLE GUY/Daily Illinois quarterback Johnny Johnson lets one fly during 4th quarter action, while being pursued by Matt Dyson (91). FOOTBALL Continued from page l. wasted little time. Three passes later - one to Jason Dulick and two to Ty Douthard- Illinois was at the six-yard line. After the ensuing kickoff, the des- perate Wolverine offense could go no further than the Illinois 36-yard line. The rest is history. However, Michigan's past history was no indication of the Wolverines' running game Saturday. The highly- vaunted Illinois linebackers keyed a rushing defense, already ranked fourth in the nation with 77 yards per game allowed, to hold the Wolverines to only 76. Sophomore tailback Tyrone Wheatley, who entered the game with a pulled groin muscle, bruised his right shoulder during the game and could manage only 56 yards against the Blue and Orange. Powers and Davis also found trouble penetrating the Illinois line, gaining 31 and 14 yards respectively. "We did not block at all, I was very disappointed with that," Moeller said. "If you don'tblock, you can'tbe agood offensive team. We didn't move the ball like we should have, but we did throwwith some success." Since the Wolverines could not establish a running game, they had to take what Illinois gave them. Michigan quarterback Todd Collins took to the air. His 286 yards were fourth highest among single game outputs for Michigan quarterbacks. Derrick Alexander caught Michigan's first and third scores, including a 90-yard touchdown that was the longest in Michigan history. Amani Toomer scored the other touchdown with a 57-yard reception. Catching the ball around the Illinois 45- yard line, Toomer broke the tackle of Robert Crumpton and made both Tyrone Washington and Hardy miss while scampering into the endzone midway through the second quarter. Early in the game, Illinois tried to the give the game away. During Michigan's second drive, three Illinois cepted pass 100 yards as Ohio State, , to its best start since 1979, defeat Purdue 45-24 on Saturday. Ohio State (4-0 Big Ten, 7-0 ove all), which stuck mainly to the groui with the outcome decided early, rush for 364 yards. The defense added second TD when Matt Finkes recover a Purdue fumble in the end zone Raymont Harris, who matchedt HERRINGTON Continued from page 1 "Life isn't always fair," it's Powen No one could have imagined that the 6-foot back who rushed for 112 yard on 14 carries in the Gator Bowl his freshman year would be anything4 a star by his senior season. The next great Michigan back, so people said. But along carne another back - little bit bigger, a little bit faster. Am instead of being the starting co- captain for the 1993 Wolverines, Powers has struggled to play. In a chance to lessen some of his agony, Powers gained 32 yards in th fourth quarter against Illinois. It looked as if he would run the clod out with little trouble, giving Michigan yet another "must win"to continue the pursuit of a sixth-straigl Big Ten title. PASS DEFENSE Player No. Yds I