ANN ARBOR, Mich. — One tick, one toss, one moment of instant insanity. Michigan was about to suffer perhaps the ugliest home loss in program history, until replay officials found one more second, and the Wolverines got one more shot.
Bryce Underwood heaved a perfect pass and JJ Buchanan leapt as if climbing on air to grab the ball, and Michigan secured its most conflicted victory ever. The 47-yard touchdown with :00 on the clock lifted the Wolverines past Western Michigan 13-12 Saturday night, and the scene inside Michigan Stadium was unlike anything ever witnessed.
Michigan players celebrated, but later admitted they were disgusted by their overall play. WMU players who had celebrated moments earlier knelt on the ground and sobbed. Fans swarmed the turf, which was historic in itself — a field-storming after beating a four-touchdown underdog.
The ending was unfathomable, almost as unfathomable as Michigan’s sloppy performance in Kyle Whittingham’s coaching debut. It’s fair to say Michigan won a game it should have lost, and briefly did. It’s fair to say the Broncos, reigning MAC champions, lost a game they should have won, and briefly did. It’s safe to say the Wolverines got a break they might not have deserved, but did something magical with it.
“The Hail Mary, yeah, I had a great view,” Whittingham said, speaking softly. “A perfect throw. JJ backed in and boxed out perfectly and went up and got it. And my reaction was just, thank goodness. But I didn't move. I was mad. I'm still pissed.”
So was much of the college football world, fanning fresh flames of controversy. Commentators and rival fans bombarded social media with cries of injustice, with Michigan again the handy target. In this case, the Wolverines did nothing wrong — other than blocking poorly, committing egregious penalties and getting run over by a smaller opponent. The Big Ten insisted the officials did nothing wrong either, and late Saturday the conference issued a release, accompanied by video evidence, that the final replay review was correct.
The previous play began with nine seconds left, when Underwood dropped back, bought a little space, then fired a pass that sailed through the back of the end zone. The clock hit zero. The broadcasters declared shockwaves across the country and WMU coach Lance Taylor rejoiced with his team.
Even NBC rules expert Terry McAulay said the game was over: “The ball is clearly still in the air when the clock goes to zero, on our screens. The Big Ten is going to have to tell a lot of us how did they get to one second on this play?"
Well past midnight, the Big Ten did just that. Upon further review, the conference released a frame-by-frame video showing WMU’s Micah Davis leaping from out of bounds and tipping the ball, which rendered the play over. Synced up with the official clock, there was one second left. Taylor handled the crushing disappointment admirably, and the MAC later issued a statement thanking the Big Ten for its prompt response.
It might not satisfy everyone, but it would’ve just been a crazy footnote if the Wolverines hadn’t cashed in their second chance. If they play the way they did against the spirited Broncos, they’re gonna run out of chances in a hurry, starting with a visit from Oklahoma next Saturday.
“If we don't play a lot better, it's not going to be pretty,” Whittingham said. “And the positive thing is, (the players) all agreed. There was not one guy in the locker room that wasn't thinking anything different, and they're as upset and as disappointed as I am. … We were flirting with disaster. That would have been an epic loss, and they'd talk about this game for years.”
They still might talk about it for years, perhaps as a sign of more trouble ahead for the Wolverines, or maybe as a gutsy escape that averts a complete disaster. It certainly was a strange, tedious exercise, with Whittingham’s offensive coordinator Jason Beck calling a conservative game, then calling for a risky pass late in the first half that linebacker Dillon Moore intercepted, and would’ve returned for a touchdown if not for a step out of bounds.
The Broncos won most of the important inches, gaining key first downs barely upheld on video review. They were earning those yards all night, after the Wolverines came out like they planned to roll.
They started sharply on their first possession, taking a 7-0 lead on a 1-yard Underwood run. But that was it, almost quite literally. They moved 75 yards on that drive, and 75 yards on the final drive in the closing 35 seconds. In between, they had five three-and-outs and couldn’t run the ball behind an offensive line that didn’t show any of the expected improvement.
Underwood was erratic, displaying some of his same poor habits, locking onto intended receivers and lapsing into sloppy footwork. He finished 12 for 22 for 170 yards and an interception, although he made the defining clutch plays at the end. His 28-yard pass to Buchanan on third down with 12 seconds left gave UM the ball at the fateful 47.
“I'm not saying that Bryce played a bad game,” Whittingham said. “This isn't on Bryce Underwood. It's on me, and I got to figure out a way to have these guys better prepared and be able to get into a rhythm offensively. We always found a way to screw it up. We're very fortunate to win, obviously.”
They won with their defense, holding the experienced Broncos to 221 total yards and mostly containing quarterback Broc Lowry and star running back Jalen Buckley. But they couldn’t contain anything on WMU’s punishing, 20-play drive that gobbled up 13:40 and ended with Dieter Kelly’s 39-yard field goal to take a 9-7 lead early in the fourth quarter.
Whittingham was brought here to restore discipline, but on the field, nothing is restored yet. Michigan committed nine penalties for 80 yards, turned the ball over three times and collected 12 first downs all game. And while the defense held the Broncos without a touchdown, it derived no satisfaction from the effort.
“Sick to my stomach is the way I explain my feelings about that game," Michigan defensive end Dom Nichols said.
There were no smiles, only pointed vows to get better. In that brief period when the clock first hit zeroes and players figured they’d lost, they stood motionless and dazed, while the Broncos erupted. Right up until the moment their second chance arrived.
“That wasn’t a moment we really wanted to be living in, to be honest,” Nichols said. “That’s not what we wanted out of the game, but this will bring us together, make guys realize their focus wasn’t where it was supposed to be.”
If their focus — and Underwood’s field vision — isn’t sharper, they’ll lose to Oklahoma by three touchdowns. All sorts of dire predictions were swirling in the aftermath, as Whittingham addressed the question of whether his team deserved to win.
“As long as you hang in there and keep swinging and keep fighting and keep scrapping, if you win, I guess you can say you deserved it,” he said. “But did we play well? No, we did not play well. Did they play well? Yeah, you know they did. I thought they had a better plan than we did, so we've got to really take a hard look at what we're going to do going forward.”
A hard look with more hard questions. Underwood didn’t show tangible signs of development, other than on the opening drive, and something has to change there. The offense was stodgy. The big-play backs were stymied. The Wolverines got a second chance and a second prayer in this one, and they did something with it. Obviously, they’ll need to do a whole lot more, a whole lot sooner.