Michigan football stunned by Iowa with walk-off touchdown on final play

This time, Michigan football came up on the wrong side of the clock.

Three weeks after Michigan won its season opener on a Hail Mary with no time remaining, it fell victim to a game-ending TD from its opponent.

As Iowa marched from its own 9-yard line, the Hawkeyes reached the 16 with 2 seconds remaining, the clock stopped for a first down and an injury to U-M edge rusher John Henry Daley. That gave the Hawkeyes one final play – QB Hank Brown connected with Reece Vander Zee on a 16-yard touchdown in front of Smith Snowden on a back-shoulder throw at the front pylon to stun the Wolverines, 20-19.

The drive had been kept alive moments earlier when Zeke Berry was flagged for a late hit out of bounds. Prior to the final drive, the game was a blowout in just about every way in Michigan’s favor other than the scoreboard.

Before the final drive, Michigan had more yards (429-196), more first downs (21-11) and more time of possession (34:29-25:31). But the Wolverines were never quite able to put Iowa away.

RELIVE SATURDAY'S LOSS: Week 4 highlights vs Iowa

The game-ender wasn't the first semi-miraculous play for the Hawkeyes, either. Michigan led 13-7 in the fourth quarter when Brown rolled right and flung the ball upfield. The pass was deflected by one Hawkeyes receiver and caught by another, DJ Vonhamme (after coming back from being out of bounds), for a miraculous 21-yard pickup.

One play later, Brown found Vander Zee on a 16-yard score to give Iowa the lead. A stunned silence settled over the 111,126 fans in attendance, but it lasted just more than two minutes.

Exactly 123 seconds later, Bryce Underwood felt pressure in the pocket, stepped up and rolled right. Instead of looking to run, he kept his eyes up field and floated a perfect ball deep up the right seam to JJ Buchanan who strolled in for a 49-yard touchdown.

It flipped the momentum and felt like it was enough to overcome a plethora of U-M mistakes.

Flubs such as Underwood’s goal-line interception early in the second half, when there was a miscommunication with Andrew Marsh on third-and-11. Or the second-quarter stuff of Underwood on fourth-and-1 on a QB sneak at the Iowa 18. Or even the first-quarter 99-yard kickoff return by Iowa, negating Buchanan’s first touchdown — an 18-yard reception on a corner route.

Iowa missed a kick midway through the first quarter, wide right, and U-M needed just one first down when it got the ball back with 2:33 left. Instead, three straight runs led to a punt and a shocking ending

Iowa had passes of 13, 12 and 29 yards and with the help of Berry’s personal foul, got one final shot. This was the third time U-M was tied or trailing in the fourth quarter in four games this season.

It was over when ...

Iowa quarterback Hank Brown threw up a last-second pass as time expired and connected with Vander Zee in the end zone to shock the Wolverines as time expired.

Player of the game: Bryce Underwood

There was zero indication this type of passing effort from Underwood was coming this week: the true sophomore went 17-for-28 for a career-high 276 yards, two touchdowns and one interception, completing passes in all types of ways.

A 49-yard bomb to Buchanan was the longest, but his 32-yard flea-flicker to the Utah transfer helped lead to a field goal earlier. He got the tight ends involved when he needed a safety valve. Their four receptions for 21 yards didn’t exactly move the needle, but it was more production than the room had in three weeks prior. He also went to fellow sophomore Andrew Marsh early and often, relying on his sure-handed target as Underwood picked up a combined 10 first downs (8) and touchdowns (2).

Underwood also ran 14 times for 36 yards, including a handful of runs that got U-M out of the shadow of its own end zone.

Trending up: Passing game

For the first time in a while U-M has a formidable receiving corps. On top of that, as noted above, Underwood looked good. Marsh and Buchanan combined for 12 catches for 236 yards, often picking up chunk yardage after the catch, with both receivers topping 100 yards in the game.

Marsh’s first grab was an 8-yard curl that he took for 27. His next grab was yet another circus catch, high-pointing the football and dragging his toe before his knee hit out of bounds for a pickup of 20. The drive was capped off on a corner route by Buchanan for an 18-yard touchdown.

On U-M’s next scoring drive, Buchanan caught a 9-yard curl and knifed through the defense to pick up 22, which led to a field goal and a 10-7 lead at the half — thanks in large part to a 32-yard connection with Buchanan on a well-timed flea-flicker.

But the game-changing play was the 49-yard deep ball to Buchanan — his fourth touchdown in four games as a Wolverine.

Trending down: Special teams

Iowa is largely inept offensively (despite what its stats against cupcakes said) and all U-M had to do was make the Hawkeyes go on length drives. Instead, on the heels of the Wolverines’ first touchdown, Kerry Coombs’ unit allowed Braeden Jackson to take the ensuing kickoff 99 yards the other way for a touchdown.

On the next kickoff, Iowa returned the ball to its own 37. In total, U-M gave up 150 return yards, which kept Kirk Ferentz’s team in the game much longer than it should’ve been. Cam Brown’s punting, also, was only okay. His four attempts averaged just 42.5 yards — and this time it wasn’t because of intentional pooch kicks — though he did have a booming punt to flip the game in the final two minutes.

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Michigan football schedule: Row the boat to Minnesota

The Wolverines hit the road for the first time this season as they visit Minnesota on Saturday, Oct. 3 (noon, Fox), in a battle for the Little Brown Jug. Michigan has won five straight against the Golden Gophers, with the most recent being a 27-24 squeaker in Ann Arbor in September 2024.

U-M’s last loss in the classic Big Ten rivalry came at home in 2014 (three years before current coach P.J. Fleck and his “Row The Boat” mantra came over from Western Michigan); the Wolverines haven’t lost in Minneapolis since 1977, a run of 18 straight wins on the Gophers’ (frozen) tundra.

• Week 1: W, 13-12 vs Western Michigan.
• Week 2: W, 17-10 vs Oklahoma.
• Week 3: W, 52-17 vs UTEP.
• Week 4: L, 20-19 vs. Iowa.
• Week 5: at Minnesota, Saturday, Oct. 3 (noon, Fox).
• Week 6: Bye week.
• Week 7: vs Penn State, Saturday, Oct. 17 (time and TV TBA).
• Week 8: vs Indiana, Saturday, Oct. 24 (time and TV TBA).
• Week 9: at Rutgers, Saturday, Oct. 31 (time and TV TBA).
• Week 10: vs Michigan State, Saturday, Nov. 7 (time and TV TBA).
• Week 11: at Oregon, Saturday, Nov. 14 (time and TV TBA).
• Week 12: vs UCLA, Saturday, Nov. 21 (time and TV TBA).
• Week 13: at Ohio State, Saturday, Nov. 28 (Noon ET, Fox).

Tony Garcia is the Michigan beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football stunned by Iowa with walk-off touchdown on final play