Michigan football quarterback Bryce Underwood sat at the podium in Crisler Center and buried his face in his hands.
Safety – and his fellow captain – Rod Moore looked down and shook his head. As coach Kyle Whittingham exited, he knocked on the table three times, sighed deeply and said "Jeez" before pausing once more, standing up and striding off. The No. 18 Wolverines were shell-shocked on Saturday, Sept. 26, after No. 17 Iowa scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns, including one as time expired, in a 20-19 win over Michigan.
Nothing like this has happened to Michigan in quite some time. The Wolverines had won 47 consecutive games when leading at halftime, were 13-1 in one-score games dating back to the 2023 season and hadn't lost on the final play
of a game since Iowa (ironically) hit a late field goal in November 2016.
“I’ve never lost a game like this, so we just have to get better,” said Moore, who is in his sixth season in Ann Arbor. “I’m just kind of like, I mean, Iowa’s a good team, we’re a great team, and we should have executed better. So that’s kind of why I’m shaking my head, because it kind of doesn’t make sense."
Saturday was the second time in four games Michigan's contest was decided on the final play. U-M famously won on a 47-yard Hail Mary in the season opener to avoid a catastrophic upset against Western Michigan. This time, it was on the other end of the gut punch, after the Hawkeyes put together a 91-yard scoring drive in the final 1:48.
Ironically, Michigan played the Hawkeyes much better than it did the Broncos. The Wolverines had an edge in total yards (429-285), first downs (21-16), yards per play (6.3-4.8) and time of possession (34:29 to 25:31). It just didn't translate to the scoreboard.
"That's football," Whittingham said after the game. "You can play not so well and win, you can play well and lose."
Underwood completed 17 of 28 passes for a career-high 276 yards featuring a pair of touchdown passes to JJ Buchanan, who, like Andrew Marsh, finished with more than 100 receiving yards.
Michigan had 263 yards of offense against Oklahoma. It had 276 against Western Michigan. U-M bested those numbers by more than 150 and had nearly as many first downs Saturday (21) as it did in those two games combined (26).
But this game, much like those wins, was marred with mistakes.
Two third-down penalties (a false start and a holding call) negated potential first downs, ending drives early. An interception in the red zone on third-and-11, when Underwood and Marsh appeared to have a miscommunication, took at least three points off the board. A red-zone turnover on downs when Underwood was stopped short on a QB sneak on fourth-and-1 was another missed opportunity.
Then there was the 99-yard kickoff return allowed for a touchdown. Those were the only points Iowa scored in the first 45:58 of the game, but they were enough to keep Kirk Ferentz's team in striking distance until the fourth quarter.
"Well, you have to bounce back − that's life," Whittingham said. You get knocked on your butt. Continue to fight and scrap. ... My guess, this team is going to come back next week and play very well."
There was also some bad luck. On the play prior to both of Iowa's touchdowns, the Hawkeyes had a ball that was tipped and somehow completed − once for 21 yards, the other for 29, two of the team's three longest offensive plays on the afternoon.
“You’re just like, ‘Wow, you don’t really see that,'” defensive tackle Enow Etta said. “I guess you could call it unlucky, but we have a saying as a defense: tips and overthrows, we gotta get those. So when the ball’s in the air, we either have to catch it or swat it down or do something.”
Even the way Iowa got the final play off was a tough break. The Hawkeyes completed a 29-yard pass to get to the U-M 16 with 2 seconds left and were running to the line of scrimmage to spike the ball. By rule, all spikes take 2 seconds; the game almost certainly would've ended (barring more Big Ten clock review hijinks). However, U-M edge rusher John Henry Daley was injured behind the play and the officials had to stop the clock, allowing Iowa to draw up one final play.
Still, in the end, Michigan did itself in. After forcing an incompletion on third-and-12 in the final minute, defensive back Zeke Berry shoved Iowa wide receiver Tony Diaz out of bounds and was flagged for unnecessary roughness. It gave the Hawkeyes a free set of downs, which led to the disastrous ending.
Moore said Berry knows he can't commit a "stupid" penalty like that, one of eight infractions on Whittingham's team, for 75 yards. It's the third time U-M has been flagged at least eight times in four games. That's after just two such games over the prior two years.
This new regime was supposed to have U-M more buttoned up and disciplined. It has been the opposite of that in many ways early on. Whittingham called the infractions "excessive."
"We’ve got to keep coaching it and impressing on our players’ minds that penalties have consequences," he said.
The Wolverines have trailed or been tied in the final nine minutes of a game three times this season.
In short, after playing with fire all month by not putting teams away, U-M finally got burned.
The season isn't over. Whittingham talked about the progress of the passing game, the offensive line and even the running backs (who didn't overwhelm despite looking better, at least).
None of it's going to matter if U-M can't get off the mat for its first road game of the season, at Minnesota on Oct. 3 (noon, Fox).
"It's definitely a punch in the gut, but in the locker room, [the message] was that we just have to work," Etta said. "It's over – we can't change it – but we can change the future."
Make "Hail Yes!" your go-to Wolverines podcast, available anywhere you listen to podcasts (Apple, Spotify) or watch live/on demand on YouTube.
Tony Garcia is the Michigan beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
Next up: Golden Gophers
Matchup: No. 18 Michigan (3-1, 0-1 Big Ten) at Minnesota (3-1, 1-0).
Kickoff: Noon Saturday, Oct. 3; Huntington Bank Stadium, Minneapolis.
TV/radio: Fox; WCSX-FM (94.7).
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football finally burned after September playing with fire
