Michigan rues lost opportunities (w/video)

IOWA CITY - Their final four plays kind of summed up Saturday afternoon from an offensive standpoint for the Michigan Wolverines. Not quite enough yards or execution.

Or favorable officials calls.

"We didn't play like we could have," said Michigan tight end Kevin Koger. "We didn't play like we should have. That's disappointing."

"There are always six to eight plays in a game that are really going to define (the game) when you're playing a good football team, when you're playing a team on the road," said Michigan Coach Brady Hoke. "You can think back and there are six to eight of those plays (today) that really determined who executed and who didn't."

With a chance to tie, Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson threw four incomplete passes from the 3-yard line as Iowa held on for a 24-16 victory at Kinnick Stadium. Robinson threw a slant in the left part of the end zone to Roy Roundtree on the final play that was broken up by  B.J. Lowery.

It was a bang-bang play, as they say, with Lowery maybe or maybe not getting to Roundtree a tad early. It was reminiscent of a late first-half play that resulted in Iowa's Christian Kirksey intercepting a tipped pass in the end zone.

Two plays before Lowery's breakup, Junior Hemingway had a falling catch in the end zone ruled incomplete after video review. Originally, Hemingway was ruled to have been out of bounds, but the replay showed he was in bounds, with possession of the football the issue.

Smith's apparent game-tying 82-yard run earlier in the drive was overruled after replays showed his elbow had hit the turf. 

"You can't leave the game up to the officials," Robinson said, diplomatically. "We have to do it ourselves."

Michigan Coach Brady Hoke was asked if he was surprised there was no flag on the final play.

"Were you?" he replied, with a semi-smirk.

Michigan came into the game averaging 441 yards per game but was limited to 323 by Iowa. The Hawkeyes always seem to have problems with dynamic, dual-threat quarterbacks like Robinson, but handled him to the tune of 249 total yards, 55 rushing.

Over half of the Florida junior's yards came in the fourth quarter, as he engineered one scoring drive and nearly another. He sat out one second-half series because of a minor hand injury after taking a big hit from an Iowa lineman.

"Iowa doesn't do a lot of (different) defenses," Koger said. "But what they do, they do well. They're gap solid."

"I'm proud of the kids because they kept swinging away, kept coming and fighting," Hoke said. "You get in the red zone, you've got to score touchdowns."

Here is postgame press conference video from Hoke and Robinson. There also is a field-level view of the final play.