Iowa didn’t just beat Michigan on Saturday. It answered for what happened three weeks earlier.
The No. 17 Hawkeyes erased a five-point deficit in the final seconds and walked out with a 20-19 win over No.
18 Michigan on a last-play touchdown from Hank Brown to Reece Vander Zee. For a Michigan team already carrying the baggage of its bizarre Sept. 5 escape against Western Michigan, this one landed like a cosmic correction.
The setup was frantic from the start of Iowa’s last possession. After Caden Buhr missed a 51-yard field goal with 2:33 remaining, Michigan had the ball back and looked positioned to finish things off. Instead, the Wolverines went three-and-out, and Iowa still had all three of its timeouts to work with.
That mattered, because the Hawkeyes were starting deep in their own end and had almost no margin for error. From their own 9-yard line, they gained just 16 yards across their first four plays.
They burned their final timeout with 34 seconds left, then stalled again with a false start at the 28-second mark. Michigan cornerback Zeke Berry then drew an unnecessary roughness penalty, giving Iowa a little more life.
Brown finally moved the offense with 11 seconds left, finding tight end Addison Ostrenga for 29 yards. Two seconds remained after that, and things got strange in a hurry.
Wolverines defensive end John Henry Daley appeared injured, which effectively gave Iowa a free timeout. The Hawkeyes declined a 10-second runoff, CBS showed the clock with two seconds still on it, and Michigan had to brace for one more snap.
Brown took the shot. He dropped back and fired a 16-yard pass toward Vander Zee, who secured it, got both feet down and finished the play for the winning score.
For Iowa, it was a stunning finish. For Michigan, it was the kind of ending that feels like the bill coming due.
The Wolverines had controlled most of the afternoon, but in the end they were the ones left staring at the scoreboard and wondering how it slipped away. Western Michigan, meanwhile, got the result it had been waiting for in spirit if not on the field, after its own loss to Boise State earlier.
Michigan now turns to a late-October matchup against Penn State and Indiana, while Iowa’s next challenge is even steeper: Ohio State at home next Saturday. Maybe one of those games will be normal. Probably not.
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