Other Team's Miracle Plays
Don't know about you but I have been bombarded all week on social media with reminders of the 2015 UM-MSU game and Staee's miracle win.
In addition to just being fucking irritated by how stupid the outcome of that game was, it got me thinking...Our history is littered with other team's miracle wins on crazy improbable plays (e.g., Colorado Hail Mary, Staee in 2015) but when was the last time UofM won a game due to just shear dumb luck? (As an aside, seems Alabama also has a history of weird improbable losses - thinking of the FG return for a TD vs. Auburn).
To me, last second scoring plays or epic comebacks don't count. So, Grbac to Howard vs. ND, Denard to Roundtree vs. ND, Henne to Edwards vs. MSU, the comeback vs. Minnesota in 2003 don't count (to me) because those are players making plays, not some random bullshit. Same thing goes for the Horror, I don't include that in other team's miracle wins because though blocking a last second FG is not likely, that's a player making a play, and a missed FG is not that unlikely in that instance.
In any case, I have been wracking my brain and I am having trouble coming up with a single instance where we were the recipients of a gift from the Gods.
Maybe Gardner to Roundtree vs. NW? But even that wasn't the final play of the game.
October 26th, 2022 at 10:49 AM ^
Trey Burke and Jordan Poole ring a bell
October 26th, 2022 at 10:52 AM ^
Yes, of course! I was thinking Football specifically.
October 26th, 2022 at 11:07 AM ^
Well if Lawrence Reid doesnt have the presence of mind to intentionally fumble the ball out of bounds (yes, it was legal back then) the play before then this never happens.
That seemed pretty fucking miraculous back in 1979.
October 26th, 2022 at 11:11 AM ^
I still have an unused ticket to that game.
October 26th, 2022 at 1:09 PM ^
You should consider going. It was a hell of a game.
October 26th, 2022 at 11:32 AM ^
GOAT call
Oh my God! CARTER SCORES! I've never seen anything like this ... Oh my goodness gracious sakes! You're listening to it and I hope you can hear me because I've never been so happy in all my 59 cotton-picking years. ``I've broadcast 347 ballgames. I've never had one like this. ... Carter went streaking down there like a penguin with a hot herring in his cummerbund, only he didn't have the herring until he took the post pattern, went in and caught it at the 15. ``He caught the ball, dove in the end zone. Michigan wins 27-21! They aren't even going to try the extra point. Who cares? Who gives a damn? I've never been so happy in all my cotton-picking days!'
October 26th, 2022 at 12:30 PM ^
You left out the part with all the honking horns! Bob Ufer was the GOAT. Absolutely loved this University and every one of the 'cotton pickin' players that wore a Michigan jersey.
October 26th, 2022 at 11:01 AM ^
Kam Chatman
October 26th, 2022 at 11:02 AM ^
Eh, maybe Poole's shot, but not Burke's. Kansas had enough time to get off a desperation heave after Trey made his shot; heck, if he'd missed it, there was enough time to get a rebound, pass it back out, and try again. Poole's was much more of a who did what? I'm still not sure it falls into the same category as 2015 MSU (which, I must point out, should have been called back due to contact with the long snapper -- but, hey, when you break the rules on nearly every play, they won't call them all!)
The only thing I can think of that really fits the narrative is Michigan @ Minnesota in football, two weeks later in that same season: Halloween 2015. That was the game where Minnesota had a game-winning touchdown overturned on replay, then seemed to forget that the clock was running, tried a quarterback sneak, got stuffed, and ran out of time, giving Michigan a 3-point win.
Although, let's be honest, Wangler to Carter is probably on the list as well.
October 26th, 2022 at 2:49 PM ^
OTOH, Burke's was from about 30 feet out, and we needed Elijah Johnson to miss the front end of a 1-and-1 to give us the opportunity to tie. Karmic justice for smacking McGary below the belt.
October 26th, 2022 at 5:21 PM ^
Jordan Poodle’s shot was a prayer. Burke’s was just a J off a great screen. I long ass J, yes, but not luck. He just had crazy range.
October 26th, 2022 at 10:50 AM ^
Desmond was tripped.
October 26th, 2022 at 11:29 AM ^
Allegedly the DB even said in his postgame interview he intended to commit PI and fully expected to have to play another down.
October 26th, 2022 at 12:00 PM ^
I mean, the Big Ten actually apologized to Moeller for it. There was an article in the LA Times about it.
October 26th, 2022 at 12:12 PM ^
Cool (un-cool?) story bro: Eddie Brown, the DB who tripped Desmond, was my substitute gym teacher a year or two afterwards. I was kind of clueless about football in third grade, but my friend recognized him, and then we ended up playing basketball with Eddie during lunch recess.
We just asked him questions about what it is like being a football player the whole time, and he incessantly gloated about the intentional trip. My dad was mortified when I told him I hung out with Eddie Brown that day haha.
October 26th, 2022 at 12:45 PM ^
A grown ass adult obnoxiously boasting to 3rd graders that you beat their favorite team by cheating has to be the Spartiest thing ever.
October 26th, 2022 at 3:41 PM ^
I was literally staring down from that corner of the endzone and saw that travesty.
Still makes me ornery...
October 26th, 2022 at 7:08 PM ^
I was in a Meijer watching that BS on 100 televisions.
October 26th, 2022 at 10:52 AM ^
I don’t like your arbitrary rules for defining miracle.
October 26th, 2022 at 10:58 AM ^
Alabama kicker missing an XP - is that a miracle, or a player not making a play? Which could also be the domain of the DB that Desmond torched...
October 26th, 2022 at 11:18 AM ^
2000 Orange Bowl immediately came to mind for me too. I was at that end of the field, assumed it went in. Felt like a miracle.
October 26th, 2022 at 12:43 PM ^
I’ve always considered that missed extra point karma coming back to bite Alabama on the ass.
When the game was tied 28-28 in the 4th quarter, Brady put another masterful drive together. We had a 1st and goal at the 1 yard line but A-train fumbled the ball into the end zone. Then to end regulation, Michigan drove again and attempted a very makable game winning field goal which was blocked.
Bama missing that extra point was karma. That game never should have gone to overtime.
October 26th, 2022 at 3:41 PM ^
I loved me some A-train but man he had 2 of the most soul crushing fumbles I can remember.
October 26th, 2022 at 10:58 AM ^
Call me crazy, but I don't consider that a miracle win; I see MSU taking that win with a heroic punt rush. I give them all the respect in the world for that one. And not to rant too much, we need to accept that they won that game fair and square...
Now, spartan bob, that was some bullshit!
The hold on Desmond's two point conversion, that was some bullshit!
Colorado was just bad luck... but we did beat alabama on a missed extra point all those years back... and we got very lucky during the Kansas comeback with their guys missing free throws.
You know what one hurts me that we don't talk about much? OSU back in like 2011 or so beating us in the big ten tournament with a half court shot at the buzzer... of course Jordan Poole paid that one back years later!
October 26th, 2022 at 11:05 AM ^
All the respect in the world for an illegal play?
Also, not just that play but the whole game was littered with horrible calls (as per usual) -- I wish I had your level of M Football amnesia.
October 26th, 2022 at 2:27 PM ^
That was the one game I've ever seen on this blog where the authors actually went to the trouble of calculating how much the penalties cost us, and they figured it was a 23 point swing IIRC.
October 26th, 2022 at 11:06 AM ^
The "heroic punt rush" of which you speak had but one little problem...
... it was illegal, because the person lined up over the long snapper made contact with him immediately after the snap. That's supposed to be a 15-yard penalty for a personal foul, as it's a player safety issue; the long snapper is not in position to defend himself.
Oh, and if the officiating hadn't been, well, Big Ten officiating, the game isn't close enough for that play to matter -- IIRC, either Ace or Brian posted a compendium of the missed calls in that game and it ran to something like 17 points' worth in favor of Staee.
So, no, I will not "accept that they won that game fair and square." They did not.
October 26th, 2022 at 11:10 AM ^
Not to mention the fact that Blake O'neill also fumbled the snap and tried to kick it away anyway. Sparty had additional time to get back there.
October 26th, 2022 at 11:39 AM ^
Wasn’t that also the game where we had points taken off the board at the end of the half for “intent to deceive”?
October 26th, 2022 at 11:10 AM ^
Mostly false.
Their punt rush had nothing to with it - Blake had *plenty* of time to get off a normal punt (even with an errant snap) but just completely muffed it. A forgivable unforced error - not holding it against him at all since this is a sport played by real kids/young men, not to mention that he made more than enough positive contributions to that season to offset one mistake - but for the state partisans to portray it as something they *made* happen that otherwise (i.e. in a normal situation) would not have is inaccurate.
They get credit for the win - it was fair & square and their defense was present to exploit the gift that luck gave them, but they didn't manufacture that win.
October 26th, 2022 at 11:30 AM ^
He was also really great in that game up until the last play. I think one of his punts went something like 80 yards. We kicked their ass on special teams for 59:50 of that game between good punts and Peppers having good returns.
October 26th, 2022 at 12:33 PM ^
I still have PTSD from that game. I was in the stands, and I cannot emphasize enough how it seemed that victory was certain-it probably has been the most deflating sports experience I’ve ever had. The real culprit, IMO, was the special teams coach. I can’t remember his name, but Harbaugh poached him from USC. MSU had no one back to receive the punt, but we still had 2 gunners flanked out. This created 11 potential punt blockers rushing and only 8 to block. Even if O’Neill had handled the snap, the punt would have been blocked. He was swarmed immediately, and 11 beats 8 every time…
October 26th, 2022 at 1:26 PM ^
John Baxter. He's known as a special teams guru, but I'm not sure what he was thinking there.
October 26th, 2022 at 1:28 PM ^
"MSU had no one back to receive the punt, but we still had 2 gunners flanked out."
This was the fundamental screw-up on the part of our coaching staff, specifically ST coach Baxter. Why in the flying fuck did he have gunners when MSU didn't have anybody back to receive the kick?
The galling thing was that Baxter was supposed to be some sort of ST guru/genius, but it was not surprising he was gone from the staff after the 2015 season.
October 26th, 2022 at 3:33 PM ^
Agree it didn't make sense to have gunners here, but the point of this spread punt formation isn't to block everyone, it's to use your three shield guys to get enough time for your punter to get the kick off. I don't like the formation, but it's not a situation where if blockers are outnumbered there will normally be a kick block.
October 26th, 2022 at 11:14 AM ^
Meh, Sparty rushed the punter because that was all they could do. If the punt is handled cleanly, even a bad punt wins the game. Mishandled punt, missed roughing the snapper (which was a point of emphasis at the time), holding on the return, etc. It took tons of low-percentage things happening all at once on that play to get that outcome. Even if the punter just falls on the ball, I think it would have required a very long FG to win. Seems more miracle than well-drawn-up to me.
I was at the Colorado game. It sucked. Dumb luck, and who knew he was going to be able to get the ball 60+ yards in the air? I actually really like how OK St. (I think) killed the clock against Texas last week. They took the snap, ran way backwards, and then heaved the ball on a high arc out of the endzone. I wonder if we could have done something similar against CU.
October 26th, 2022 at 11:30 AM ^
The problem with the MSU 2015 game was that there was 10 seconds and only a 2 pt lead. So that’s a long time to just try and kill time. If there was 5 seconds we could snapped it and ran around a little and then heaved it in the air. But we couldn’t take a safety. So the right call unfortunately was to kick it away. Only problem is, you can’t drop the snap and then throw it right into the arms of the defense going the other way for a TD. Just crazy bad luck.
October 26th, 2022 at 10:38 PM ^
Somebody who knows the NFL better than me: didn't John Harbaugh once run out the clock by having the Ravens blatantly hold on a play with ~15 seconds left, then the QB slid to the ground or took a knee when the clock hit :00?
This can't be something I dreamed up, and I really think it was Harbaugh...
Legal in college, right?
October 26th, 2022 at 11:31 AM ^
It was Oregon & Bo Nix who killed the clock against UCLA with the play you’re thinking of. OK St took a knee after picking the ball off with like 10 secs left. Oregon was also up by 15 points so there was no way they were losing no matter what happened on that play. Takes a lot more guts to do that when it’s a one possession game.
Our issue on that punt was MSU was in an 10 man punt rush yet we still lined up with 2 gunners instead of bringing them in help block. So we were blocking 10 guys with just 8.
October 26th, 2022 at 11:43 AM ^
Thanks for the clarification. I watched a lot of football for teams I generally don't care about, lol. I don't think it would have helped for MSU, but maybe for CU, since they only had like 6 seconds.
On the punt, we could have made it easier for Blake, but it was still fluky.
October 26th, 2022 at 12:54 PM ^
Michigan had a 4th down at the Colorado 39 with :21 left. Too much time to kill the clock. They likely would have had a first down if not for a false start just before that.
The big thing that swung the momentum was Che Foster fumbling with a couple minutes left and a 12 point lead, as Michigan had been successfully running down the clock ...
October 26th, 2022 at 12:15 PM ^
I don't know why we didn't just keep Rudock out there and have him quick-kick it out of the shotgun. We had Rudock do that at other times that year. There was no need for a regular punt there. With 10 seconds left, you don't need to get great field position.
October 26th, 2022 at 11:31 AM ^
I don't think you're crazy. Just a Russian bot.
October 26th, 2022 at 11:37 AM ^
Technically MSU roughed the snapper on that punt play. It will rarely be called but that is why the snap was so bad.
October 26th, 2022 at 11:48 AM ^
What is infuriating is that roughing the snapper was being called that year, and I think even against us previously that season. As well as "intent to deceive," "disconcereting signals," and whatever else the zebras could come up with to punish JH for hurting their feelings when he called them out for making mistakes. You don't have to go as far as saying games were being fixed, but you can admit that there was a clear anti-JH agenda on the minds of the refs.
October 26th, 2022 at 10:59 AM ^
In both the 1995 UVA and 2005 PSU games that Michigan won on the last play --- they were definitely helped by dropped passes by their own receivers on plays immediately before the winning touchdown (else the clock may have run out and game over).
I don't know - is that a "reverse miracle" of sorts?
October 26th, 2022 at 11:08 AM ^
We got that extra second in that 2005 game too. I've always remembered that because there are so few times where M was helped by a bad call lol.
October 26th, 2022 at 11:32 AM ^
People always bring up Lloyd asking for the two seconds to be put back on the clock on Michigan's last drive but always forget that Paterno argued for, and received, additional time put on the clock on the drive PSU took the lead.
October 26th, 2022 at 11:36 AM ^
I thought I heard that Lloyd argued for 4 seconds and only got 2.