Examining a Michigan Debacle: The 1996 Choke-Job at Northwestern

Submitted by Jim Harbaugh S… on

This is a repost of an article I wrote last year for my blog, which means I'm sure no one read it.  If anyone likes this feature let me know and I'd be happy to right up some more recaps like this.

 

 

Setting the Stage: UM came into this game 4-0 ranked #6 in the country. NW was 3-1, ranked #22, after losing their first game of the year to a Wake team that finished 3-8. NW beat UM at the big house the year before and was looking for an unprecedented winning streak against the Wolverines.

What Happened?: UM was in control and was up 16-0 starting the 4th quarter. A 2TD lead that required 2 two point conversions to be successful in order to tie, sounds like it should have been an easy win for Michigan. However, it turned out to be a choke-job loss. How did this happen?

Bottom Line: 2 mins into the fourth quarter NW finally gets on the board with a TD run from some guy named Levelle Brown. So what do they do? Go for 2 of course. And of course it is good as D'wayne Bates catches a pass and the score becomes UM 16 NW 8. Now the Wildcats only need a TD and the 2 pointer to tie.

So UM is going to get the ball back and all they have to do is run the ball and kill some time, just eat up 13 minutes and protect the football. Sounds easy. However upon getting the ball back UM decides to fumble on the first offensive play and give the ball back to NW. The debacle is now in full swing.

The Mich defense defies the odds and some how holds NW to a field goal. The score is now UM 16 NW 11. 10 mins and 46 secs remain.

Michigan is going to get the ball back, again all they need to do is kill some time and avoid turnovers. NW needs to score to win and all Mich needs to do is hang onto the football. Somehow the Scott Dreisbach manages to not turn the ball over but without any momentum the Wolverines can't get anything going and forced to punt.

Surprise, surprise the punt is crap! NW gets the ball on their own 40 and a shortfield. Somehow the michigan defense prevents the wildcats from getting a TD instead holding them to a field goal. The score is now UM 16 NW 14. 5 mins and 25 secs remain.

Again Mich justs needs to run some clock and avoid doing anything stupid (which at times has proven to be very hard for the Wolverines during crunchtime). Michigan manages to kill some clock and is now forced to punt.

1:45 remains in the game all NW needs is a fg for the win. However they will need to go at least 50 yards for this to be an easily makeable kick. However for UM the 1996 defense did some foreshadowing of what the 2o05 Mich defense would be like (very porous during the opponant's last drive of the game). NW drives easily to midfield, but Michigan holds. It is now 4-13, now or never for the Wildcats. And Steve Schnurr finds Brian Musso for the first down and the ball is now on the Mich 35 with a minute to go.

It was all academic from here, Mich knew that they had choked, and NW knew they just had to get a few more yards and kick the FG. And that's what happened as NW won on a 39 yarder with 8 seconds to go.

Inside the Numbers: Fumbles - UM fumbled 5 times losing 3 (including that very costly 4th quarter fumble). NW fumbled three times but only lost one.
4th quarter yards - UM gained a whopping 28 yards in the 4th quarter, compared to NW's 172.

Debacle Classification: Choke-job, plain and simple. What else can you call blowing a 16 point lead in the 4th quarter and failing to score a single point (besides Sparty-esque)?

 

 

If you liked this and want some more articles like this - let me know, I'll also take suggestions on which games to right about!

debacle

Comments

Electron Erectshon

July 4th, 2008 at 7:45 PM ^

Thanks for rekindling that horrible memory. That was definitely one I remember. Somehow remembering helps me look forward to the post-Carr days ahead of us. The other two colossal choke jobs I remember were another NW game (high scoring) and one against Purdue where we gave that stupid lanky kicker (Travis Dorsch?) one too many extra chances to finish us, which he did. Those 3 losses finished my support of Carr. I began calling for his ouster somewhere during that time span. Can't believe he hung on as long as he did. Only at Michigan.

Joined: 07/02/2008

MGoPoints: 34

Jim Harbaugh S…

July 4th, 2008 at 8:36 PM ^

Were in 2000 - vs NW and Purdue. Yeah Travis Dorsch was their kicker as well as the punter - IIRC he missed a kick that would have been the game winner and then got another shot at it. If I hear some more positive feedback maybe I'll write about those 2 next.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 577

Nate-Dawg

July 4th, 2008 at 11:27 PM ^

Both games stand out in my mind because we should have easily won both games. A-Train fumbles to give the ball back to NW when all he had to do was fall on the ground and we win. I still think Dorsch's kick was wide. Remember being up like 3 touchdowns in that game, but in 2000 we had no defense.

Joined: 07/01/2008

MGoPoints: 73

Yostal

July 5th, 2008 at 12:13 AM ^

There's plenty to examine. In some years, you may even be able to objectively look back upon "The Horror." Would you consider looking at the 1988 Notre Dame game (the Reggie Ho game), the 1989 Notre Dame game (the Rocket game), the 1994 Colorado game (the Horror before The Horror), or the 1924 Illinois game (I know, ancient history, but it's the first legendary Michigan debacle, so much so, it's why Fielding Yost claimed he did not coach the 1924 team.)

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 7659

chitownblue (not verified)

July 5th, 2008 at 12:47 AM ^

That 2000 defense was miserable. We can talk about Thomas's fumble all we want, but if Michigan puts up 40 points, they should win. If I recall, we lost both the Purdue and Northwestern games by allowing 50+ points.

Joined: 12/12/2017

MGoPoints: 0

mjv

July 6th, 2008 at 1:01 AM ^

I was at both of those games (I nearly swore of going to road games). We were leading in both games by 18 points, and still managed to lose. We totally put away the fangs and claws once we go up in those games (much as we did in 2003 when we got up 14 quickly on Iowa). In some ways the purdue game was more frustrating. We just let a badd team back into the game. The NU game we had some help choking from the officials with a handful of late hit calls that seemed questionable at best. From where the view from the vistors section at the Dyche (NU stadium prior to the Ryan renaming) it looked like A-Train was going the distance. The hole he ran through was insane. I didn't even see the defenderr until the ball was on the ground. With regards to the 1996 game, I was terribly hungover for the first 3 quaters of the game (the quarters thatI should have been able to enjoy). My hang over breaks, and then a different sort of sickening feeling sets in. I have seen both ofthe debackles that took place there. And one of the games we actually won where God tried to wash both teams into the lake with some sorta biblical storm... Strange things happen in Evanston.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 3655

hat

July 6th, 2008 at 3:51 PM ^

Electron Erectshon, I got tired of Carr too, but no way in hell was his staying through '07 something that would have happened "only at Michigan." The vast majority of ADs would have also kept a guy who won a national title, had a winning percentage over .750, had no NCAA scandals, and whose program drew sellout crowds every week. Carr earned the right to step down on his own. I just personally wish he would've done so a couple of years earlier.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 15

hat

July 6th, 2008 at 3:53 PM ^

chitownblue - we lost 54-51 to Northwestern and 32-31 to Purdue in 2000. The Purdue score doesn't look all that embarassing, but we gave up about 550 yards of offense. NW, I believe, topped 600 yards.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 15

jamiemac

July 6th, 2008 at 10:04 PM ^

@JHS, Thanks for the Fourth of July buzz kill. I am now prepared for the reality of returning to work tomorrow. But, keep these coming anyway as they are a useful, albeit painful, part of the program's history. The 96 team had so much potential. They were 4-0 with an impressive resume of wins already: Illinois, at Colorado, BC and UCLA. The CU win being sweet since it was long awaited revenge from the hail mary game. The D was not giving up any points. The Northwestern game was a total collapse. That they kicked a string of field goals to push past us made it all the more surreal. I had so much pent up anger and disbeief when the game ended that I walked around the neighborhood for about an hour. I remember somebody actually pulling over to see if I needed a ride or something because the distraught look on my face they figured my car had broke down or something. I always cite the theme of 'if we could only get one more first down,' which works for the 2000 NW and PU games that have already been cited. It applies here as well as NW never should have got the ball back. We never seem to do it the easy way. But that was only a secondary theme to the failures of 1996, this game and the season. It was turnovers. We had the ones detailed in this Diary and then the later two against PU and PSU which kicked us out of the Rose Bowl race. Purdue was the infamous Will Carr goal line fumble game, among other gaffes and Penn State, the home finale, saw five turnovers and a blocked punt. It was the third staight loss to PSU and people were wondering why we cant beat Penn State. I was eager for 1997's potential because the defense looked great the whole season. If the O would not kill it with TOs anything would be possible. It was the tenth big ten win in a row for Northwestern (I think they ended up winning 12 in a row before they lost), an amazing run of success for the Wildcats that remains as impressive and improbable today as it did when it went down.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 8446

The Barking Sp…

July 7th, 2008 at 10:46 AM ^

I tells ya, I was willing to give Carr the benefit of the doubt many times. I kept getting mad as hell with the numerous choke jobs and the "putting away" of the "fangs and claws" as well. Even the Year of Infinite Pain could be rationalized away due to (IIRC) a slew of injuries (although I was at the OSU game and the last two TD's they scored made that game a Lloyd Carr Classic). But 2006 was the year that I said to myself "Self, this is the beginning of the end of you being a Michigan fan and watching colege football". Watching that team, after thrashing Notre Dame, hang on for dear life against Penn State, beat Northworstern only 17-3 AT HOME, and to an extent struggling against Iowa and then pretty much bending over for OSU every time they needed a big play was horrible to an extent that still makes me wretch in agony. The coup de grace, though, which was that pathetic performance against USC in the Rose Bowl, forced me to reassess my priorities and I hardly watched a minute of UM footbal in 2007 until the even more pathetic performance against Ohio State, and I only watched that because either Carr had announced his retirement, or the cat was let out of the bag that the announcement was coming. Either way (thank you Appalachian State, which abruptly ended not just Carr's regime, but the candidacy of any of the buffoons on Lloyd's staff as well), you knew he was finally gone, so the game was anticlimatic (and so was the foregone conclusion) and bittersweet. Now, released from the grip and the gloom that was the last seven years of Lloyd Carr's Unholy Reign of Apathy over UM football, I fell alive again! I feel as fresh as a daisy scented morning douche! We're free! We're free! Thank Harry the pickle almighty! We're free at last! And yes, I can watch Michigan football once more.

Joined: 07/03/2008

MGoPoints: -87

dex

July 7th, 2008 at 10:47 AM ^

Was a miserable experience for all involved. It remains the only time I have ever left a football game early, as the weather was going to end up killing me if I didn't. It may have been 17-3, but that game wasn't close. NW was never "in it" that I recall.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 1934

jamiemac

July 7th, 2008 at 11:15 AM ^

While I do understand the sentiment of "classic carr games" such as the NW 1996 debacle, I dont think its fair to paint it that way, at least in this sense. This is UM football. This is part of our legacy, coughing up games that we should win. As we were filing out of the stadium after the CU hail mary game, I heard one or two people say that the way we've gagged games over the years, its no surprise. As a kid growing up during the peak Bo years, we lost a NW 1996 game at least once a year. Its why we never won one of those whatchamacallit's, oh yeah, the MNC, during that time. Sometimes the losses were to teams that had no business being there, others they came in classic top-10 matchups. And, those losses still pain me--oh, if only Brad Cochrane had held on to that INT in the 1985 Iowa game....or if we could tackle Reggie Foggie.....no, I wont go on, not gonna do that to myself. My point is, Lloyd only furthered the classic Michigan collapse. He did not create it. With parity being in vogue and the league more balanced from top to bottom during his tenure, Lloyd was subject to more of these collapses because any team can come up and bite you. I have never thought the program has had a "go for the jugglar" mentatily. Its been going on for years. And, it cost us from the 1972 Rose Bowl to, well, not respecting or being able to pull away from Appy State.....remember, we had the ball and needed just a first down to ice the game. It did not happen. And, it came as no surprise to me. Will RR invigorate us and bring that attitude. I sure hope so, but I am prepared for future games that go the other way only after we fail to convert the game icing first down.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 8446

jamiemac

July 7th, 2008 at 11:20 AM ^

Yostal: Gotta give you a +1 for bringing up 1924. Like I just said in my most recent comment, this is a long standing UM tradition. So, until further notice and research, lets say the genesis of the prototype Michigan debacle game goes back to that fateful day against the Fighting Red Granges of Illinois in 1924. However, it does not take Bo or Lloyd off the hook for their ability to turtle the offense when all we needed was a few more yards to win the game.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 8446