Wolverines Stay Alive in Big Ten Race with win OT

By Dave Shepherd  |   Wednesday, October 26, 2005  |  Comments( 0 )

College Football
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Michigan Wolverines Coach Lloyd Carr finally captured his 100th career victory, and what a huge victory it was. With Michigan's 23-20 overtime win over the Iowa Hawkeyes, the Wolverines still have a legitimate chance at the Big Ten title, although they will need a little bit of help. The win also gave the Wolverines back to back wins for the first time this season, the longest it had taken them to get back to back wins since 1967. It also ended another big streak, as Iowa's 22 game home winning streak was snapped.

Michigan stumbled early, losing RB Mike Hart to an ankle sprain. Forced to use the “run by committee" approach, the Wolverines ended up with Grady gaining 62 yards, overtime hero Jackson gaining 44 yards and the winning touchdown, with Hart finishing for 17 yards.

QB Chad Henne, who has played rather inconsistently all season ended up going 14/21 for 201 yards 2 touchdowns and 1 interception, but played his best when it mattered the most. Down 20-17 in the first overtime, Michigan needed a touchdown. Henne dropped back to pass, and found Jason Avant for a crucial 18 yard gain, that set the Wolverines up on the 4 yard line.

Three plays later, Jackson rumbled into the end zone, giving the Michigan Wolverines their second big win in as many weeks. With this win, the Wolverines remain in contention for the Big Ten title, and are starting to play like the #3 team they were ranked as at the beginning of the season. There are four teams above them in the standings that only have one loss, and they still have games against two of those (next week against Northwestern and then against Ohio State), and have beaten one of them (Penn State). They will need some help though, as they lost to Wisconsin early in the season, and will need them to lose at least two conference games.
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