The cover image was from a happier time.
I didn’t hear a thing.
You see, I have a theory. Technically, a superstition by popular definitions. But this theory is that – in key football moments — muting the television prevents horrendous and abysmal things from happening.
This started in the late 2010s on special teams plays. Michigan’s kicking game was wildly-inconsistent. I found that muting the volume to avoid hearing the catastrophe started to result in far less catastrophes. (I continued this tradition until the Jake Moody 2021 – Dominic Zvada 2024 era. It did make a resurgence during Zvada 2025).
At various points in my fandom, it’s carried over onto fourth down conversions, final plays of the game, and the like. It’s not every time. But it’s when things feel particularly dark with disaster lurking. Because it’s only crazy if it doesn’t work.
I muted the final play of the Iowa game.
It didn’t work.
A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS
Michigan dominated a football game on Saturday. They held a revamped Iowa offense — that looked very much like the same Iowa offense — to just 194 yards before the final drive. Tony Diaz found the candy shop closed. On offense, Michigan hung ~450 yards on the nation’s top-ranked defense. Bryce had throws for ~275 yards and multiple TDs.
And none of it mattered.
I can’t remember Michigan being on the losing end of a game they played so definitively better than their opponents. I don’t think anyone could watch this game and walk away feeling like Iowa deserved to win as much as they got lucky. But you also create your own luck. Iowa did enough to put themselves in position to win it and they did exactly that.
When you lose a game like this, your natural inclination is to be mad at someone or something. And — to be fair — there is plenty of understandable blame to be shouldered.
- Michigan’s 4th & short playcall (and greater redzone execution)
- Whittingham & Beck turtling on the final drive
- Zeke Berry’s selfish and inexcusable penalty
- Giving up a kickoff return for a TD
This list could go on. That’s not even mentioning a half-dozen of the flukiest plays I’ve ever seen, all strung together to even put Iowa in position for a final shot. Including (but not limited to):
- Hank Brown nearly-crossing the LOS and finding a receiver who re-established himself in bounds to somehow catch the ball.
- A double-tipped pass that ended up with an Iowa TE with :02 left
- JHD getting injured which allowed Iowa to actually get a play off
It’s a tough pill to swallow, even writing this the next day.
THE GOOD NEWS?
One silver-lining for Michigan remains: this was, despite the result, an incredibly positive performance overall. Bryce was poised and consistent. The utilization of the run game — Marshall/Hiter and Underwood – was very encouraging. The offensive line and TE blocking vastly improved. The defense was lights out, despite the eventual collapse (which I attribute to penalties and fortuitous bounces more than on account of the defensive play itself).
There are no moral victories. Period. That said, Michigan can look at this game and the way they controlled a vast majority of it, and feel good about where the program is at. Does it feel that way now? No. But the objective improvement of this team bodes well for the remainder of their schedule. Look at it this way.
Indiana, Oregon, and Ohio State all remain quite daunting. And there’s a sense in which Michigan’s playoff hopes (distant as they may feel) haven’t changed that much.
IF MICHIGAN BEAT IOWA: They’d need to upset one of those teams to make the CFP. A 9-3 team that hasn’t beaten anybody (sorry Oklahoma) would not get in.
SINCE MICHIGAN LOST TO IOWA: They still need to upset one of those teams to make the CFP. A 9-3 team with a win over an upper-echelon team could very well be enough.
That’s not to downplay this loss. (I can’t stand when teams shrug and say “Well, it’s an expanded playoff so it doesn’t matter!” It DOES matter). An upset win over, say, Ohio State, makes this team 10-2 and a lock for the playoff.
But the reality is that a 9-3 team with a win over Ohio State or Indiana or Oregon is likely going to have a resume stronger than any other team on the fringe. All goals remain in front.
The better team did not win on Saturday. Call it karma, if you must. But a team that plays at that level each and every week is going to be a tough team to beat. That should give hope for the rest of the season, even if this weekend is spent wondering what might have been.
