Midway through Saturday's game in Iowa, Michigan's dream of a 10-win season was alive and well. Two quarters later, the Wolverines have to be wondering if they can win another game this year.
Michigan (7-4, 3-4 Big Ten) blew a 21-7 halftime lead, thanks to yet another offensive collapse, and lost 24-21 to the Hawkeyes. They've now lost four of their last six games and will be massive underdogs next week when they host Ohio State.
For a few minutes in the second quarter, it seemed like Devin Gardner had regained his offensive form. He wasn't getting much help from his running backs or offensive line, but he was looking to make plays when pass protection broke down, not freezing as he had in the last three weeks.
Gardner kept drives alive with scrambles, and threw two second-quarter TD passes to give Michigan their sizable halftime lead.
The good feelings didn't even last 90 seconds into the second half. Iowa quarterback Jake Rudock hit Tevaun Smith in stride and the wolverines missed two tackles as Smith went 55 yards to make it 21-14.
"We missed a tackle on a skinny post, and they took it for a touchdown," Brady Hoke said on the radio postgame show. "That's a play we have to make."
Michigan still led, but the offense failed time after time. On their next four possessions, the Wolverines managed a total of just 10 yards, forcing Matt Wile to keep punting into a stiff wind. The fourth punt gave Iowa the ball on their own 40, and they drove 60 yards in nine plays, with Mark Weisman tying the score on a 9-yard run early in the fourth quarter.
Now the Wolverines had the wind at their backs, but their next drive lost four yards before yet another Wile punt. The Hawkeyes didn't have nearly the same problems with the wind that Michigan had, as they drove back down the field for another long scoring drive. This time, Mike Meyer kicked a 34-yard field goal to give Iowa a 27-24 lead.
"We've got to get off the field in those situations," Hoke said. "We won some battles, and they won some battles, but we needed to win more of them if we wanted to win the game.
"That's disappointing, especially since we had a great week of preparation on both sides of the ball, but we weren't able to execute in the game."
That finally lit a fire under the Michigan offense, and Gardner picked up two passing first downs to move the Wolverines into Iowa territory. With the wind, they were getting close to field-goal range, but Gardner took off on a quarterback draw and was stripped of the ball at the Hawkeyes 31.
"I've got to hold on to the ball," Gardner said quietly. "We were going down the field to win the game, and I didn't hang on to the ball."
Iowa ran the final 2:12 off the clock, leaving the Wolverines wondering what had gone wrong.
"Something definitely changed in the second half," said linebacker Brennan Beyer, who scored Michigan's first touchdown on an interception return. "I don't know what it was -- we'll have to look at the films -- but we didn't play the kind of defense that we did in the first half."
Cornerback Blake Countess, who also had an interception, agreed with Beyer that Michigan defense didn't step up in the second half.
"We got a little too comfortable, and we stopped executing," he said. "That let them back into the game, and if you do that with a team like Iowa, they will beat you."
Still, while Beyer and Countess were willing to take the blame, it is hard to pin the loss on Michigan's defense. The Wolverines did give up 400 yards, but intercepted three passes and scored a touchdown.
Gardner was the only offensive player to talk on the postgame show, and only spoke briefly, but he sounded like a player with the weight of the loss on his shoulders. The junior only threw for 98 yards on 28 attempts, and Michigan's running game struggled again, with Derrick Green and Fitzgerald Toussaint combining for 35 yards on 17 carries.
The Wolverines have one more chance to salvage some pride, but an upset of the Buckeyes seems nearly impossible at the end of what has turned into a lost season in Ann Arbor.
