Lewis caught this, somehow. [Patrick Barron/MGoBlog]

A normal recap would probably fixate on Wilton Speight and Amara Darboh totally redeeming themselves. Jourdan Lewis did not make a normal play.

On Wisconsin's last-gasp fourth-and-ten, Lewis made an interception that ranks up there with Charles Woodson's against Michigan State. Yes, that one. Running full speed in man coverage against George Rushing, Lewis appeared to leap far too early on a deep shot down the middle. He hung in the air, kept his eyes on the ball, and plucked it backhanded out of the air, somehow pinning it against his body to keep it off the turf.

"I've seen Odell Beckham Jr. do that. It looked like that kind of play. The most impressive thing about it is he jumped a little early," said Jim Harbaugh. "He was able to hang in the air and make a spectacular play."

Was Harbaugh upset given Lewis could've improved M's field position by simply batting the ball down?

"I'm really glad [he caught it] because it was a spectacular, spectacular football play."

Field position be damned, Lewis's incredible play allowed Michigan to run out the clock in a stressful, mistake-filled one-score win.

Despite dominating the yardage battle, 349-159, the Wovlerines were locked in a 7-7 game midway through the fourth quarter. Three missed field goals, two by Kenny Allen and one by replacement Ryan Tice, were partially to blame for the tight score.

"We'll have a little kicking competition this week," said Harbaugh. "It'll be an opportunity for Ryan Tice. Hopefully we make them next time." He added that freshman kicker Quinn Nordin is injured, which explains his absence the last couple weeks.

Some of the blame also fell on Speight, who'd been scattershot for most of the afternoon and forced a ball to Jake Butt that got tipped and picked off to set up UW's only score, a perfectly thrown wheel route to Dare Ogunbowale. Darboh was also partially culpable after dropping a potential third-down conversion on M's opening drive of the fourth quarter.

[Bryan Fuller/MGoBlog]

On the very next Wolverine drive, all was forgiven. On first down from the Badger 46-yard line, Darboh got a step on corner Derrick Tindal down the sideline. Speight uncorked his best throw of the day, hitting Darboh in stride for the eventual winning score.

"It was perfect," said Darboh. "Wilton put a perfect ball in and I just had to run underneath it."

"I saw single-high one-on-one with Darboh." said Speight. "That's probably the best thing as a quarterback you can hear: one-on-one with Darboh."

Speight capitalized. That was all the defense needed. Two punts and Channing Stribling's second interception followed to give Michigan the ball with 3:24 left at the Wisconsin 45. Harbaugh clearly felt comfortable putting the game in the hands of Don Brown; the Wolverines ran three straight times, then Allen pinned the Badgers at the own eight-yard line.

"It was a game ball for Don Brown kind of a game," said Harbaugh.

Brown's defense finished the game emphatically. Jabrill Peppers stoned a swing pass to Ogunbowale for no gain on first down. Pressure from the D-line forced a low pass from Alex Hornibrook that Robert Wheelwright couldn't haul in on second down. Ben Gedeon raked the ball out of Troy Fumagalli's hands to force an incompletion on third down. Then Lewis did his combination Woodson/Beckham impression.

While self-inflicted errors made the score too close for comfort, Michigan survived their first truly tough test in their first game that was close wire-to-wire. It was tough to sit through. It also provided the opportunity for an all-time highlight.

I'll take it.