100% worst thing ever
game recaps
2016 iowa

Iowa 14, Michigan 13 Comment Count

Ace

A Murphy's Law game.

Any number of individual plays could've changed the outcome. Most of the ones that come to mind involve Wilton Speight, who had his worst game of the year, then had injury added to insult at the end.

Speight wasn't alone in his struggles, however. Jehu Chesson missed a chance to bail his quarterback out, instead getting a third-down pass ripped from his hands by Manny Rugamba, costing the Wolverines a chance to put the game away. Khalid Hill missed an assignment that led to an early safety and lost a fumble returning the opening kickoff of the second half. Chris Evans was the only running back who could consistently get anything going. The playcalling, personnel usage, and late-game clock management will be nitpicked to death this week, and not without justification.

While the defense played well on the whole, they couldn't contain Akrum Wadley, who accounted for 167 yards on 28 touches. And, yes, there were multiple questionable calls by the notorious officiating crew led by John O'Neill.

"Not every little thing is going to go our team's way," said Jim Harbaugh. "To win, you've got to make it go your way. We didn't."

Michigan still has everything to play for, but they've lost all margin for error if they want to keep their Big Ten title and playoff dreams alive. Before they even get that far, though, they have to figure out what went wrong tonight. This game should not have been close, let alone a loss, but a number of underwhelming performances occurred in conjunction at the wrong time. There's no sugarcoating tonight.

Comments

Mattb_22

November 13th, 2016 at 2:32 AM ^

I will be in the minority on this, but I felt the playcalling was fine. Play calls always look bad when you don't score many points. But when your QB can't connect deep it limits your options. Maybe the playcalls weren't perfect but ultimately your dudes have to be dudes and our dudes weren't dudes tonight. Dude.

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Maize and Luke

November 13th, 2016 at 8:47 AM ^

My problems with their playing calling are the peppers and mcdoom packages, they're way too predictable. Then Evans averages 6.5 yds a carry and gets out touched by Smith at 2.5 yds a carry, but I know Smith needs to be out there for pass blocking. And Isaac scores a 7 yd TD and never touched the ball again?! Don't get it.



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snarling wolverine

November 13th, 2016 at 9:56 AM ^

Yeah, it felt like too much grab-bagging and trying to be cute (flea flicker, Pepcat, McDoom package).  Isaac and Evans looked good but didn't get many carries.  The midrange passing game seemed to be ignored (maybe that's on Speight, I don't know).  

I do agree though that there just seemed to be a lot of minor execution errors - Speight's deep balls were just a hair too long or too short, the WRs just couldn't reel in passes that were in their hands, one guy whiffed on a key pass block, etc.

 

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olm_go_blue

November 13th, 2016 at 10:28 AM ^

Speight's throws were more than a hair long or short - they were well underthrown often, and also he has  tendency to throw behind the receiver instead of leading him. Been a problem all year. I just don't get why he doesn't have the arm strength to make those throws when he is such a big guy.

yes he does also overthrow too, but usually a result of not being able to put enough air under the throw, which again seems like an arm strength issue.

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Maizenblueball

November 13th, 2016 at 2:41 AM ^

I hate to say it, but Iowa wanted to win that game worse than we did. Obviously there are plenty of problems: turnovers, play calling, penalties, missed assignments, etc, but it seemed like we were playing flat. Not much emotion. Iowa was playing out of their minds; playing for pride, and possibly for their OC's job. We were too busy reading our own press hype about how great we were. Hopefully this serves as a wake up call, and we rally for Indiana and OSU.

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klenderman24

November 13th, 2016 at 2:52 AM ^

Its the most unacceptable loss I can think of in my lifetime. If you can't out-coach Kirk Ferentz and his trash roster you don't deserve to be on the Michigan sideline. Then again, we've been trash for the better part of 15 years so maybe this is the new normal.

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bluinohio

November 13th, 2016 at 4:08 AM ^

While i don't agree with your first comment, obviously, i will say this isn't the NEW normal. This is just normal. It's been this way for forever. Most fans seem to think that at some point in time in the last 60 years we've been this dominating force. That has never happened, no not even with Bo.



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snarling wolverine

November 13th, 2016 at 10:01 AM ^

Why do people think Ferentz is so terrible?  We're always making fun of him but I don't really get it.

Ferentz's record at Iowa is 133-91, not bad for a guy at a school without that much of a recruiting base.  To put that in perspective, his record is only a little worse than Hayden Fry's (143-89-6), and everyone agrees that Fry was really good.

Ferentz's teams aren't real exciting to watch and he does seem to have a couple of WTF bad games a year, but in general they seem pretty sound fundamentally and solid on the lines, and that's a big part of winning.  

 

 

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Sten Carlson

November 13th, 2016 at 2:55 AM ^

The football cliche it all starting up front on the OL is 100% applicable to this loss. Michigan's OL was totally exposed and outclassed by Iowa's DL, LB's and coaching staff. Historically, Iowa has good DL's, I have no idea how they are this year, but they made our OL look horrible run blocking, and ok (at times) pass blocking. This shouldn't be overly surprising considering the OL issues we've had for a while, the injury to Newsome, and the fact that going into the season many were concerned about whether this OL could gel and be a force. At times this season they'yve looked good, especially against weaker opponents. At other times not so good against more talented teams like Wisconsin, MSU, and tonight. Something rattled Wilton and he was off the mark compared to what we've seen from him. Was it the Iowa pas rush, the away night game, the crowd, the pink lockers? I dunno. Some of this has to be experience, or lack there off on his part. But, I'll say this. I think Michigan can win with Wilton Speight when he's on, and when the running game is working. But, Michigan cannot win a championship with an OL being dominated like it was tonight. Maybe it's an outlier, and maybe they needed an ass kicking to finally get it together fully. I don't know, but Iowa controlled that LOS. Similarly, on defense, no surprise they couldn't pass on this defensive backfield, nor were they able to contain our DL. Unfortunately, what's also not surprising, is that our LB's were a complete non factor, at best, and often times a liability. Sadly, McCray is almost worthless in space and time after time the DL kept him and Giddeo clean and they simply could not make the play. Go back to the beginning of the year, what were the concerns? OL, LB, and QB. Well, QB is trending upward despite a poor showing tonight. But, to my eye, Michigan's liability is right smack where it's been known to be: OL and LB, and it seems like it's been that way for years now. Guess it's going to take a cycle to change that. Despite all that, the win was there, plays were there to be made they just didn't make them. The sky isn't falling, and this still a great team. They just got exposed in places they've always tried to keep from getting exposed.

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Maize Craze

November 13th, 2016 at 3:13 AM ^

Not being able to pick up 2 first downs on our final drive did us in. Playcalling was shitty all night. Drevno hasn't developed a line yet and he calls bad plays. Our running back rotation is stupid. Harbaugh is going to need to change his coaching strategy or he will be Lloyd 2.0



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allintime23

November 13th, 2016 at 6:27 AM ^

O'Neil and his small but noticeable smile are all I can see right now. What's this guys problem? He's cost us 2 of harbaughs 4 losses. I hate to put the blame on officiating but what the hell?



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JTrain

November 13th, 2016 at 7:35 AM ^

Bit sure we could've played much worse. Seems like we got beat up front on both side of the ball. What sucks here is everything the naysayers have said pretty much came true....
We haven't been tested by a good team or away. One of the two happened last night (away.. average team) and we had no answer.
Th

We got a bit of a lucky call to keep a drive alive but had a couple of calls go against us too so I'm not sure I'm ready to blame any referees.

People are figuring Don Brown out. I'm not sure what the answer is on D. Better athletes at LB?

On offense it was a battle. Seemed like we never had the ball. We never did anything with it. Couldn't sustain drives. And what really sucks is our two most reliable receivers dropped two very catchable passes last night that more than likely could've changed the outcome of the game.

Wilt was bound to have a bad game. Hope he continues to progress. I'd rather he play poorly against Iowa than against someone in our division. We are going to need him to play at 100% if we have any chance at all to be OSU in the show for THEIR seniors last game.



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The Barwis Effect

November 13th, 2016 at 11:04 AM ^

Chesson set the tone early on his "catch" that was overruled. Sure it would have been a tough catch but great players make plays. Chesson had three chances to make tough catches in that game last night and unfortunately for him and his team, he came up empty on all three. Combine that with Darboh's drop on the final drive and it made for a very un-clutch night for our senior WRs. On a night when their QB was clearly struggling, they did nothing to help bail him out. Only Butt stepped up and made a play on that third down conversion with the defender draped on his back.



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The Dubliner

November 13th, 2016 at 7:46 AM ^

It was just a clunker. Man, what a clunker. We don't know for fact that Michigan isn't still what we thought they were; that remains to be seen in the games to follow. Their response to this will define the season. It really sucks though. It's gut-check time. Two weeks ago we thought OSU was garbage based on their lackluster performances against Indiana, PSU and Northwestern. Maybe it's better to go into that as the underdog.



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UMChick77

November 13th, 2016 at 7:56 AM ^

This team always had the markings of a 10-2 finish which is very respectful and with Wiscy and Iowa being the dreaded trap games. Summer we were all worried about it boiling down to QB/OL issues and well, here we are. 12-0, while nice to think about, was a bit of an unrealistic pipe dream with such an unknown variable of QB. 11-1 was a good possibility while 9-3 definitely the floor. If somehow we can fix the issues and motivate this team to play lights out and in a "hangry" type of way, we can get 11-1....but not looking good. Everything on both sides of the ball has been exposed. The atmosphere is going to be more pressure in columbus than Iowa City and if we manage to get by and play Wiscy in the B1G title, that game will be truly ugly. They will be more than prepared.

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rkjjeep

November 13th, 2016 at 9:19 AM ^

The Man has Michigan back in form.  A great team to root for, fun to watch, win almost all home games, blow people out fairly often..........and lose an unexplainable game on the road about once a year.  This IS Michigan for God's sake.  GO BLUE!!!!

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Eric Heath

November 13th, 2016 at 9:34 AM ^

This is the first time I've spoken since and.... FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!

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MikeMulligan

November 13th, 2016 at 10:15 AM ^

If peppers actually catches those punts then we win. Harbaugh praised his previous efforts regarding this and even stated that securing the few extra yards, even with no return, is huge. Catch the one on the 10 yard line and no safety. He let 4 just go bouncing wherever, it almost cost us more when he called poison, almost touched our guy, get upfield and catch that! Not sure why this suddenly stopped.



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