ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN OCTOBER 30, 2004 The shocked masses exiting Michigan Stadium late Saturday evening knew they just witnessed history. The men in Maize & Blue capped off a ridiculous 17 point comeback with a nail-biting triple-overtime win against the underrated Spartans.
This group from Michigan suddenly is a team that is characterized by furious comebacks. The stunning comeback over the Spartans is the third this year, with the Wolverines also making fourth-quarter comebacks against Minnesota and Purdue. Forget where this ‘ranks’ in Michigan history. Bottom line – it is one of the greatest ever in the 125 wonderful years of M football.
Notes and Takes:– For those concerned about the cold, good news is coming next year. The big game will move back to the early part of the Big Ten schedule, to October 1, 2005. Those who don’t think 3-4 weeks makes a difference must be from out of town.
– Hats off to Michigan State. Losing this game must really sting but the Spartans were a couple of bad breaks away from blowing Michigan away.
– Many fans left after the Spartans scored in the fourth quarter to go up 17. A few came back into the stadium after Michigan started to mount a comeback.
– My brother spotted super-lawyer David Boies walking up the aisle in Section 22. Boies was wearing an ‘M’ hat and had a Kerry-Edwards sticker on.
– Drew Stanton put together an incredible half. Had he remained in the game MSU would have won. No doubt about that. But that’s not to say Spartan back-up QB Damon Dowdell did not play well. Under brutal circumstances, Dowdell came in and played well enough to win.
– Freshman Mike Hart did it again. During the beginning of the fourth quarter, it looked like Hart’s remarkable game would be the only highlight in an overall dismal effort. It is funny because the opposite resulted. Hart’s performance was actually forgotten – replaced by the heroics of the huge passing plays and touchdowns during the 4th quarter and overtime. And the leg of Pork Chop-donning kicker Garrett Rivas.
– Spartan DeAndra Cobb was amazing. Three times Cobb got a few steps in the Michigan defensive back field and twice he was gone. Once you got a sense for his speed relative to that of the defense, you knew he was taking the ball to the endzone. For Michigan fans, this was tough to watch.
– What’s next? Michigan is off next week. The Spartans must suck it up and go home to face Ohio State. It looks like Stanton may be out a couple more weeks so we’ll see how the Spartans respond.
