It's a win.

Let's start there. Savor it. Michigan beat a ranked team. They even covered the spread.

You'd like more details? Well, that's unfortunate.

This was ¡El Assico! 2: This Time in Blue. Neither team cracked 270 yards of total offense. Of the game's 26 real drives, there were:

• 15 punts
• four interceptions
• a lost fumble
• two made field goals
• two missed field goals
• a single, solitary touchdown
• Iowa's eight-play, 12-yard drive to end the game.

The defense, obviously, emerged as the game's heroes. The Hawkeyes, a team that still utilizes a fullback, mustered only three yards per non-sack carry. That's an important distinction to make, as Don Brown's group hounded Nate Stanley for eight sacks that, by the NCAA's tally, took Iowa's rushing output from 66 yards down to one. Kwity Paye (2.5 sacks), Jordan Glasgow (2), and Cam McGrone (1.5) were frequent uninvited guests in Iowa's backfield, and Khaleke Hudson sealed the win with a blitz that forced a desperation left-handed throw from Stanley on fourth down—Daxton Hill chased down the receiver near the line of scrimmage.

The touchdown. [Fuller]

After a rocky start for both teams, Michigan briefly looked poised for a blowout. Aidan Hutchinson handed the offense a quick field goal drive with a forced fumble, and after another defensive stop, Josh Gattis opened things up a bit. Shea Patterson hit Nico Collins down the middle for 51 yards to open the drive and picked up another first down with a crisp throw to Mike Sainristil to set up a short Zach Charbonnet touchdown. At the end of the first quarter, the Wolverines held a 10-0 lead and 101-57 edge in total yardage.

Then the game got trapped in the proverbial muck. Both quarterbacks were erratic; Stanley tossed three interceptions after going 140 attempts without one, while Patterson averaged 3.8 yards per attempt outside of the Collins bomb. Neither team could establish a reliable running game. The wind was the game's most impactful player for large swaths of the second half.

You can choose your favorite moment of absurdity, from Iowa calling a timeout to set up a fade to Oliver Martin, to Gattis dialing up a direct snap to Charbonnet from a covered receiver formation, to Kirk Ferentz taking an intentional delay of game before a 28-yard punt fair caught at the 14, to Stanley throwing a perfect fly route to Lavert Hill, to Donovan Peoples-Jones eating a nine-yard loss on a botched trick play, to Michigan unintentionally taking a delay of game before a punt that netted 25 yards, to Iowa punting from their own 49 on a drive that had reached the Michigan 25, to Stanley's final yakety-sax throw that looked for a moment like it might inconceivably work out. That probably doesn't cover all of it but I can't take responsibility for the damage that game did to my brain.

Ultimately, Michigan's defensive aptitude prevailed, or Iowa's offensive ineptitude lost out, or however you'd like to interpret that game, which we're all glad is over.

[Hit THE JUMP for the box score, if you dare.]