Looking Back: 2005 Season, Part III

By Sean · Thursday, July 20, 2006 · 4:17 PM |  Share | 2 Comments 

Welcome to the third and final part of Looking Back. In this edition of Looking Back I’ve featured the 2005 season. In total, I attended five games during the ’05 season. Part I featured the disappointing collapse against Ohio State and a big win on the road at Northwestern. Part II featured the most exciting game all year; a last-second victory against an undefeated Penn State team. That brings us to part III. Part III will feature a very tough loss to Notre Dame and also the home opener against Northern Illinois. Let’s not waste any time and get right into the reviews.

**September 10, 2005 – #3 Michigan: 10 vs. #20 Notre Dame: 17
Every year there’s an early game in a season that will tell you how your year will turn out. Sort of a swing game you could say. Year after year Michigan hasn’t come out on top in these swing games, mostly because they’re against great teams and are on the road. Mind you, that’s no excuse, but finally a chance to prove themselves at home.

Even though it was at home, Michigan’s own mistakes was just too much. Notre Dame took advantage and came out on top with a 17-10 win. Michigan had their opportunities all day long. Two plays on the 1-yard line ended up just becoming a fumble. With that fumble and also two other blown redzone appearances, Michigan couldn’t comeback and prevent the upset.

Notre Dame came out to a fast start. On the first drive the Fighting Irish marched right down the field without even having to convert one third down. The explosive drive ended on a 5-yard touchdown reception by Rhema McKnight. Michigan didn’t answer back until early in the second quarter when Garrett Rivas converted a 38-yard field goal. Notre Dame padded the lead with a touchdown pass to Jeff Samardzija. At the half, Michigan was probably lucky to just be down by eleven points as the game was definitely one-sided.

Nobody scored in the third quarter, which meant that Michigan would need a late comeback. Notre Dame didn’t help that cause as Notre Dame added three points after a field goal with fourteen minutes remaining. With six minutes to go Michigan had a brief look at success. Jason Avant took a reception on fourth down all the way to the ND 1-yard line, and probably would’ve scored if it wouldn’t have been for a missed block by Doug Dutch. This is when everything just crumbled down.

Chad Henne tried a QB sneak on first down and was stuffed, or it appeared that he was. The officials reviewed the play and nothing changed. Stop me once, shame on you; stop me twice, shame on me. Henne came out and did the same exact thing, except this time fumbled the ball into ND hands. The play was reviewed, but nothing changed. The student section proceeded to throw water bottles onto the field in disgust, which didn’t help at all.

Michigan was just way too over matched when it came down to the bottom line. A late 25-yard touchdown pass to Mario Manningham got the Wolverines within seven, but didn’t mean much as Michigan failed on a fourth and long at the very end of the game to give Notre Dame the ball and the win.

**September 3, 2005 – #4 Michigan: 33 vs. Northern Illinois: 17
Ahh, the first game of the 2005 season. The time when everyone’s hopes were high, and the expectations were for a great season. This is the only time when everyone is as good as each other. Michigan had the now traditional matchup with a MAC opponent who was not one to look down on. A Northern Illinois team came in, and although they would not come out on top, they caused some minor worries with the Michigan fans.

Jason Avant opened up the scoring on the first drive with a 4-yard touchdown reception from Chad Henne. Northern Illinois answered back with a short field goal before Michigan got on the board again with a 34-yard screen pass to Mike Hart for a touchdown.

The biggest play of the game for NIU came soon after in the second quarter when running back Garrett Wolfe took a 76-yard run to the house. But, that would be all that NIU could get. Even though the game quickly turned into a 33-17 blowout in Michigan’s favor, some questions were raised. The game was actually closer then the score reveals because of five costly NIU turnovers. Michigan allowed over 400 yards of total offense, which caused some concern. Even though it didn’t show a week later when Michigan came out pretty strong after a rough first half against Notre Dame, it was a hot topic on the post game radio shows.