I Hate Michigan!

What is it with the B10 and Michigan? Michigan has top talent, good coaching and incredible tradition. They don't need extra help from the officiating.

IU shot itself in the foot on their first series. After getting to the Michigan 13 with a first and 10, their new center snapped the ball clean over LoVecchio's head for a 34 yard loss and zero points.

Michigan scored on their first possession. Then with IU driving, a blatant interference call in front of the IU bench went uncalled forcing IU to punt. On that punt, the IU gunner was dragged down from behind, an obvious hold, that wasn't called leading to a Michigan punt return for a TD... 0-14.

After a Michigan turnover, IU was forced to punt again. This time, the Michigan return guy called for a fair catch then ran into his teammate. The Official threw a flag for interference on Indiana. The B10's new replay rule came into play as the booth called for a review. The official upstairs saw the obvious error and overruled the call on the field. The Umpire went over to explain to Lloyd Carr... after about 5 minutes, the Umpire shared that they would re-review the play... WTF? Only Michigan would get special rules. Fortunately the play stood as called by the booth.

With a minute left in the first half, IU sacked Michigan forcing a fumble and Kyle Killion scooped up the ball and returned it to the Michigan 11. Under a minute and with only 1 time out left, IU ran 2 plays and got a first down at the 1 with clock stopping at 20 seconds. On the next play LoVecchio fumbled the snap, picked it up and dove over the top for a touchdown. IU sent out its kicking team and just as they were ready to snap the ball, Lloyd Carr calls timeout and calls the Umpire over. After a minute long discussion, the Umpire says that they will review the play. Again... WTF? A coach can't decide what play gets reviewed... that has to come from the booth. Of course the review showed that LoVecchio's knee was down at the 1 yd line, no touchdown. The officials proceeded to set the ball down at the 3 yd line. After LoVecchio argued, they moved it to the 2. IU proceeded to run their strongest play of the year blasting off the line and opening a hole that allowed Green-Ellis to walk into the end zone untouched.

So IU went to the locker room only down 7-14.

IU kicked off to start the second half... only to see Michigan return the ball all the way to the IU 3. IU put up a good fight keeping Michigan out of the end zone on the first 3 plays and nearly stopped them on 4th down. The air went out of the balloon. IU couldn't move the ball on their next possession and after the punt, Michigan went for broke and hit a 60+ yd pass play for a TD. Down 7-28 5 minutes into the 3rd period sent a lot of fans to the parking lot. But those that stayed saw IU continue to fight and while Michigan scored another TD on a perfect pass, IU did drive right down the field and we got to see one more pathetic blown call. LoVecchio threw a fade route to the corner. Courtney Roby made a great play on the ball despite being held and made the catch in the corner. The official on the play threw his flag for pass interference. He was so busy looking for his flag, he didn't see Roby make the catch. While IU protested, the officials were setting the ball up at the 1 yard line. Fortunately the official in the booth reviewed the play and saw Roby get 3 feet in on the catch and ruled it a touchdown.

While the score was a typical IU-Michigan game, the actual game was much closer and IU isn't that far off. Give DiNardo more time and I think he just might be able to get IU respectable again.

IU 14 - Michigan 35 - IUHoosiers.com