Michigan Wolverine Football

 Michigan lost 24-16 to Iowa on Saturday. It meant more than that. With the loss, the Wolverines effectively eliminated themselves from the Big Ten Legends division race, which means they likely won't play in the inaugural Big Ten championship game in December.

At the beginning of the season, that was a longshot thought at best. But by the middle of the season it seemed possible. Now, Michigan would need a lot of help even to think about getting back into the race.

Although I am a die-hard Michigan Wolverine football fan, I would like to congratulate my close friend Kevonte Martin-Manley on beating the wolverines. It was two years ago that we were playing football together and now he is a red-shirt freshman and starting for the Hawkeyes. He's had a phenomenal career in his first few weeks of the season and tallied a game winning touchdown in the first half of this season.

The Hawkeyes are bowl eligible for the 11th straight season. Iowa has played in nine bowls since 2001. Iowa improves to 6-0 at home this season. This was Iowa's first game of the season against a ranked opponent and was Iowa's first win over a ranked opponent, at home, since a 37-6 triumph over fifth-ranked Michigan State a year ago on Oct. 30, 2010.

Iowa was also wearing an altered helmet. The Hawkeyes had an American flag Tigerhawk on one side of the helmet today to honor Veterans.

Michigan had first-and-goal at the 3-yard line in the final 16 seconds, but Iowa's defense kept the Wolverines out of the end zone on four plays to preserve the victory, including a pass break-up by B.J. Lowery in the end zone as time expired. The Michigan Wolverines cannot complain after this one because they were given the fair opportunity in the last seconds of the game and they could not finish. This shows that the Wolverines are not a fully developed team and cannot handle the tempo of college football in the last seconds at chances for comebacks.

Iowa has defeated Michigan three-straight times for the first time in the series. Iowa won 30-28 in Iowa City in 2009, 38-28 in Ann Arbor in 2010 and 24-16 on Saturday. After Saturday’s eight-point margin, Iowa and Michigan have played seven games the last 11 years decided by eight points or less.

Iowa's defense held Michigan to 16 points, its second-fewest scoring total this season (14 at Michigan State). The Wolverines entered averaging 34.8 points per game. Michigan entered averaging 441.2 yards of total offense per game. Iowa held the Wolverines to 323 yards of total offense. Iowa clearly handled Michigan like they were the leaders of the league and fought the hardest. Michigan is going to have to tie their shoestrings, except for Denard Robinson cause he is “shoelace”, and get back on track.

The Michigan Wolverines are now 7-2 after the shocking loss to the Michigan State Spartans and now Iowa. The Wolverines are however 6-0 at home and two of the remaining games are at home. They close the season up with a game this week at Illinois and then the remaining two game at home against Nebraska and the Ohio State Buckeyes. The Big House will be full to capacity as the Buckeyes enter Ann Arbor and we hope to get the victory this season because we seem to struggle with them as our last game of the season. Go Blue!