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The Michigan Daily | michigandaily.com | November 14, 2016
Keeping perspective
Given the difficult events of
the past week, sports shouldn’t
be such an easy escape from
the problems we face
» SportsMonday Column,
Page 2B
You win some
The Michigan hockey
team managed one big
upset against No. 4 Boston
University before losing
Saturday’s finale
» Page 3B
I
OWA CITY — The eleva-
tor doors slid open, and an
alcohol-scented roar of elation
slipped in.
What had
been a car
full of quiet
reporters
was suddenly
permeated by
a smattering
of fans in
black and gold,
including a
wide-eyed,
grinning child who was so caught
up in the jubilee that he tried to
jump on the elevator without his
family. (They quickly pulled him
back out.)
That same sea of black and
gold had also taken over the
stairwell, the concourse and
the field itself, with chants of
“LET’S GO HAWKS” shaking
the core of Kinnick Stadium.
The mob eventually scattered,
and the chants faded into loud,
celebratory choruses of Toby
Keith’s “Red Solo Cup” in the
stadium’s surrounding parking
lots some 30 minutes later.
They say crazy things can
happen at Kinnick, and the No. 3
Michigan football team learned it
the hard way Saturday night.
Of course, the Wolverines’
coach, Jim Harbaugh, already
knew it. Thirty-one years ago,
he was the quarterback of a No.
2 Michigan team that rolled into
Iowa City to face No. 1 Iowa, with
the winner taking the driver’s seat
for a Rose Bowl bid.
The Wolverines lost that game,
12-10, on a last-second 29-yard
field goal. The fans stormed the
field in seconds and ended up
dismantling one of the goal posts.
Harbaugh said then, “It felt like
someone reached in and pulled
everything out.”
Harbaugh was on the sideline
Saturday when history repeated
itself. This time, it was a 33-yard
field goal from Keith Duncan
as the clock stuck zero — a kick
that snapped No. 3 Michigan’s
undefeated season and brought
the Hawkeye faithful over the
barricades and onto the field, this
time to celebrate a 14-13 victory.
But this wasn’t an undefeated
Iowa team with Rose Bowl
aspirations — the Hawkeyes
were 5-4 entering the game, and
punter Ron Coluzzi might have
been their most impactful player
on the field Saturday.
This wasn’t a hard-fought battle
of two dominant teams where the
Wolverines came up just short at
the end.
It was a lesson of what can
happen for Michigan when
everything goes wrong.
Earlier this season, the
Wolverines knocked off Wisconsin
in Ann Arbor because of redshirt
sophomore quarterback Wilton
Speight’s ability to throw a timely
deep ball. His fourth-quarter
46-yard touchdown pass to fifth-
year senior receiver Amara Darboh
ended up being the difference in a
14-7 win.
But Saturday, Speight
couldn’t hit any long passes
— he underthrew a few to
Darboh that could have been
intercepted, and he airmailed
Darboh near the end zone in the
fourth quarter on a drive where
Michigan had to settle for a field
goal. Even a pass that he put on
fifth-year senior receiver Jehu
Chesson’s hands was stripped
away for an Iowa interception. It
just wasn’t Speight’s night, and
he finished with a season-low
4.0 yards per attempt.
“Just an off night, I guess,” he
said. “(The passing game) just
wasn’t really clicking, and that
starts with me.”
The Wolverines have been a
well-disciplined team all year
long, averaging 4.7 penalties a
game but saving most of them for
inconsequential moments.
Saturday, they still only had five
penalties, but all had a tangible
effect on the game. In the first
quarter, freshman linebacker and
special teams standout Devin
Bush get ejected for targeting
the punter (despite the fact that
said punter had already stumbled
and somersaulted without even
being touched). Later in the first,
Michigan ran into the same punter
on two consecutive fourth-down
plays to give Iowa a first down. In
the second, redshirt sophomore
defensive tackle Bryan Mone’s
unnecessary roughness penalty set
up the Hawkeyes’ lone touchdown
of the game. And finally — worst
of all — redshirt junior linebacker
Mike McCray committed a face-
mask penalty at midfield to put
Iowa on the brink of field goal
range on the game’s final drive.
All season, the Wolverines have
managed to keep their offense on
the field by picking up key third
downs and giving the defense time
to rest.
Against the Hawkeyes, they
scored only one touchdown, had
five three-and-outs, took a safety
and lost the time-of-possession
battle by five minutes. Still,
Michigan’s defense largely held
its own — the Wolverines held
Iowa to 4-for-16 on third down,
and senior cornerback Channing
Stribling nearly saved the game
with an interception.
And then Michigan’s offense
thanked him by promptly going
three-and-out again.
The Wolverines can’t even
blame the kicking game anymore
— fifth-year senior Kenny Allen
proved he’s well past his early-
season struggles by making both of
his field goals, including a career-
long 51-yarder that would have
stood as the game-winner until
Iowa answered it at the end.
In the end, most of
Michigan’s strengths were
neutralized, and the hostile
environment just got wilder.
“Guys weren’t really hearing
play calls and stuff, because (the
fans) were going nuts,” Speight
said. “Any time you come to Iowa
— I mean, Coach told us before the
game and after the game about
when he came into Iowa and they
lost on a last-second field goal. It
happens. It’s football.”
Harbaugh’s second crazy
night at Kinnick truly was the
perfect storm of ineptitude
from Michigan — the kind of
ineptitude that the Wolverines
can’t afford to show against
Indiana next week, nor in
Columbus in two weeks, and
certainly not in the postseason.
Michigan had already seen
what can happen when everything
is firing on all cylinders, and now
it’s seen what can happen when
nothing is. The Wolverines are
lucky to have most of their goals
still alive, but this loss makes some
of those goals seem like a long shot.
The dream of perfection died
Saturday — it was swallowed up
by the black-and-gold mass that
flooded every inch of Kinnick
Stadium.
Now, Michigan has to make sure
its season doesn’t die there, too.
RYAN MCLOUGHLIN/Daily
RYAN MCLOUGHLIN/Daily
ZOEY HOLMSTROM/Daily
JACOB
GASE