November 6, 2011 - 10:14am
Late goal-line stand propels Hawkeyes past No. 13 Michigan
BY TIM ROHAN
- Erin Kirkland/Daily
First Quarter: For all the talk about the No. 13 Michigan football team’s defense being back, it certainly didn’t look like the same defense, nor play like it early Saturday against Iowa. Fifth-year senior safety Troy Woolfolk started in place of Thomas Gordon, playing next to redshirt junior safety Jordan Kovacs, who returned from a knee injury himself.
Freshman linebacker Brennen Beyer, a player Michigan coach Brady Hoke said to watch out for, also started in place of regular Jake Ryan.
Neither move paid off early. After stuffing Iowa running back Marcus Coker on two straight runs, quarterback James Vandenberg hit Keenan Davis on a crossing route over the middle on 3rd-and-8. Davis out-ran middle linebacker Kenny Demens and took the ball 44 yards for a first down. Vandenberg had all day to throw and hit Iowa’s most dangerous receiver, Marvin McNutt, for a 20-yard gain the very next play. Two plays later, Coker pounded the ball in from four yards out for a touchdown.
The Michigan offense didn’t do much to bail out its defense initially. Denard Robinson and the Wolverine offense went three-and-out twice to start the game, but their second drive could have been extended had Junior Hemingway not dropped an easy pass on a curl route.
The tide of the game turned when Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz decided to hurry up his offense, trying to catch Michigan off-guard, on 4th-and-short, near the Wolverines’ 40-yard line. Vandenberg snapped the ball as soon as the Umpire’s whistle blew, but he was stopped short.
Again — just like against Purdue — when the offense couldn’t get anything going, Hoke started to feed Fitzgerald Toussaint. Michigan proceeded to march the ball 61 yards on 12 plays for a touchdown. Toussaint carried the ball seven times for 39 yards, converting Michigan’s two third downs on the drive. Robinson found Toussaint on a strike from five yards out, but holder Drew Dileo dropped the snap on the point-after attempt and the kick was never made.
At the end of the first quarter, Michigan trailed Iowa 7-6.
Second quarter: Coker picked up a head of steam again when Iowa got the ball back in the second quarter, taking his first handoff up the gut for 27 yards. He wasn’t touched for the first 25 yards of the run, as the Iowa offensive line continued to keep the Michigan defense away from Vandenberg and create giant holes for Coker.
Iowa continued with its classic recipe: power running with the 230-pound Coker — who went over 1,000 yards on the season with that run — and use the play-action pass game to complement it. Vandenberg found McNutt for 14 yards on the next play on play action. After Coker was stuffed multiple times, and McNutt dropped a would-be first down, Vandenberg converted a key 4th-and-short.
Coker ripped another big run and Vandenberg completed the process with a play-action passing touchdown to a wide-open receiver.
Michigan appeared to be poised to counter, as the referees initially called a pass interference on Iowa (called on a defensive back covering Roy Roundtree). But the call was reversed after the referees conversed. On the very next play, Iowa linebacker Tyler Nielsen broke free and corralled Robinson, who escaped for a moment. But as Robinson scrambled, he lost the ball and Nielsen pounced on it, giving the Hawkeyes the ball in Michigan territory.
The Wolverines prevented Iowa from getting a first down, but the Hawkeyes added a field goal to jump ahead 17-6.
All throughout the first half, Michigan failed to get much pressure on Vandenberg and it was either feast or famine for Coker, who had 10 carries go for three or fewer yards. But he still averaged five yards per carry.
Michigan had another scoring chance gift-wrapped after Iowa’s ensuing kickoff bounced short and was returned to midfield. Robinson had a 19-yard run to push Michigan inside the redzone, but moments later, Robinson threw his 12th interception on the season. Robinson had all day to throw the ball, and eventually chose to force the ball into Roundtree, who was well-covered. The ball bounced off Roundtree’s arms as he was hit and the it neatly bounced into the air into Iowa linebacker Christian Kirksey’s lap.
At halftime, Iowa still held a 17-6 lead. Coker had 74 yards on 15 carries and Vandenberg had 114 yards on 9-of-12 passing.
Toussaint was Michigan’s leading rusher with 46 yards on nine carries and one receiving touchdown. Having all day to throw, Robinson completed just 6-of-13 passes for 64 yards, with one touchdown, one interception and one fumble.
Third Quarter: During halftime interviews, defensive coordinator Greg Mattison talked about simplifying the defense, and perhaps blitzing more. To his credit, the third quarter was much better than the first half for the Michigan defense for those two reasons.
After Coker gashed Michigan for a 9-yard gain and a first down, Will Heininger and Ryan Van Bergen sacked Vandenberg on two of the next three plays. For the first time all afternoon, Michigan pressured the Iowa quarterback and the Hawkeyes were forced to punt.
Michigan took advantage of its newfound momentum with a 7-yard Toussaint run and then a 22-yard Denard-Robinson special, where the quarterback ran right, paused, then sprinted for the first down. The Wolverines picked up one more first down before the Hawkeyes clamped down. Iowa blitzed Robinson on 3rd-and-long, and hit him as he threw. The ball, somehow, landed safely with Vincent Smith, but Robinson was knocked out of the game.
Brendan Gibbons hit the 32-yard field goal to close in on Iowa, 17-9. Mattison’s defense forced a quick three-and-out of Iowa, again pressuring Vandenberg, and Gardner took over at quarterback on offense.
During the drive, Toussaint left due to injury too — after Kevin Koger had suffered an injury earlier. Without Robinson, Toussaint and Koger, Gardner orchestrated an ugly first down, then the drive stalled and Will Hagerup came on to punt for the fourth time on the game.
At the end of the third quarter, Iowa had the ball at the 49-yard line with a 17-9 lead.
Fourth Quarter: When Michigan needed a score most, down 24-9, the Wolverines put the ball in the hands of Denard Robinson.
Having just allowed Coker to walk into the endzone, untouched, on a 13-yard touchdown run, Robinson led Michigan on a 8-play 57-yard touchdown drive that ended with Robinson floating a pass to Koger (who had returned from his injury) in the back of the endzone.
Iowa had a chance to ice the game on its own ensuing possession, but the Hawkeyes were called for an illegal snap on 4th-and-short at the Michigan 43-yard line. Instead of going for the win, Iowa had to punt the ball back to Michigan. And the ball was downed at Michigan’s own four-yard line by Iowa cornerback Shaun Prater.
Michigan and Iowa traded punts and the Wolverines had the ball again, with a chance to win the game, with 2:15 left. Robinson led Michigan down to the Iowa 3-yard line, where the Wolverines had a 1st-and-goal situation with 16 seconds left, down 24-16.
On their first play, Robinson threw a poor fade pass out of the back of the endzone intended for Hemingway.
The next play, Robinson went back to Hemingway, and it appeared the wide receiver's knee landed in bounds with the ball in his possession. The referees ruled on the field that it was an incomplete pass. The replay booth reviewed the would-be-catch and did not overturn the call on the field.
With seven seconds left, on third down, Iowa blitzed Robinson and Nielsen had a clean shot at the quarterback. But Robinson escaped and found enough room to get a pass off and somewhat in the direction of Vincent Smith. Fourth down. Two second remained.
Robinson took the snap, looked left and fired to Roy Roundtree, who was lined up one-on-one with the defensive back. It appeared the Hawkeye may have had his hand on Roundtree's back shoulder, but pass interference was not called, and the pass was batted away.
Iowa's Kinnick Stadium erupted. The Hawkeyes had knocked the Wolverines' starting quarterback out of the game for the third-straight season and, just like the other instances, Iowa won again.
This time, 24-16.
Blog: Michigan coach Brady Hoke said Iowa would be the toughest team the Michigan football team has on its schedule.
Whether truth or coach speak, Hoke and the 13th-ranked Wolverines have a stiff test ahead of them in Iowa City. Follow along live with the Daily football beat at Kinnick Stadium:
