Michigan beat Western Michigan 13 to 12 on Saturday night on a 47 yard Hail Mary from Bryce Underwood to JJ Buchanan on the last play of the game. The play should not have been controversial. It was, because it was the second Hail Mary of the night: the first one fell incomplete out of the back of the end zone with the television clock showing 0:00, Western Michigan’s players ran onto the field to celebrate a 12 to 7 upset, and officials then put one second back on the clock. Here is exactly what happened and what the Big Ten says about it.
| Time | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1:40 left | Underwood fumbles while scrambling for a first down, Michigan’s third turnover of the night |
| 0:35 left | Western Michigan kicks its fourth field goal to lead 12 to 7. Michigan gets the ball at its 25 |
| 0:07 left | Buchanan catches a 28 yard third down pass to get Michigan to the Western Michigan 47 |
| 0:07 to 0:00 | Hail Mary No. 1. Underwood’s throw sails through the back of the end zone. Western Michigan’s Micah Davis touches it. The NBC broadcast clock reads 0:00. The Broncos celebrate |
| Review | The Big Ten replay center in Chicago reviews the play. Officials announce that one second remains |
| 0:01 to 0:00 | Hail Mary No. 2. Underwood rolls left, backpedals and throws 47 yards. Buchanan comes down with it in the end zone. Michigan 13, Western Michigan 12. Fans storm the field |
The Big Ten’s Explanation
At 12:48 a.m. ET the conference released a statement, audio from the replay booth and a side by side video. Its position: Western Michigan’s No. 18 (Davis) started his jump from an out of bounds position, his left foot beyond the end line, and made contact with the ball with one second still on the game clock. The clock that matters is the stadium game clock, not the graphic on the television broadcast, and the league says the two were out of sync. In the replay center’s synced video, the ball is touched at 0:01.
NBC rules analyst Terry McAulay said the same thing on air, that the stadium clock the officials used may simply have been different from what viewers saw. Kyle Whittingham said he glanced at the scoreboard as the first pass sailed out and was “pretty sure there was one second left.” Underwood said the opposite: “I definitely thought the game was over because there were zeroes on the clock.”
Why Western Michigan Feels Robbed
Three reasons, and none of them is that the Big Ten broke a rule. First, the broadcast showed zeros, and the broadcast is what 99 percent of the people who watched the game saw. Second, the review took a couple of minutes while a MAC team that had already celebrated its biggest win in years was pulled back onto the sideline by its own coaches. Third, the Broncos had earned it: four field goals, three forced turnovers, and a defense that held Underwood to 95 passing yards before the final drive. Buchanan accounted for all 75 yards of that drive by himself.
The honest read is that the replay center probably got the clock right and the optics could not have been worse. There is no mechanism to protest a timing decision, and the result stands.
What It Means for Michigan
Michigan came in as a 27.5 point favorite and needed a miracle to beat the defending MAC champion at home. Underwood, the $3 million sophomore, turned it over twice and was erratic until the final drive. Whittingham called it a game that “will go down in Michigan history,” and added that he did not know whether that was in a positive way. The Wolverines will fall in Sunday’s AP poll from No. 16, and next week they host No. 10 Oklahoma in the Big Noon window. That game is now the most important early test of the Whittingham era, one week in. Live score and schedule: Michigan football score. Where the game sits among the weekend’s near misses: Week 1 upsets.
The Bottom Line
Michigan won 13 to 12 because officials put one second back on the clock after Bryce Underwood’s first Hail Mary, and his second one landed in JJ Buchanan’s hands. The Big Ten says the stadium clock showed 0:01 when the ball was touched and the TV clock was out of sync; Western Michigan says it had already won. Both are true, and only one counts.