Thirty-two years after Colorado stunned Michigan with a Kordell Stewart to Michael Westbrook Hail Mary at the Big House, Michigan got a Hail Mary win of its own against Western Michigan, a 28.5-point underdog. The victory snatched from the jaws of embarrassment comes with a major asterisk.
The final-play touchdown pass from Bryce Underwood to J.J. Buchanahan happened after a highly questionable review restored one second on the clock for a last-gasp effort by the home team, giving Michigan an undeserved mulligan.
The entire purpose of replay review is to correct clear and obvious errors made by the officials on the field. In this specific case, there seemed to be no error whatsoever — clear, obvious, or otherwise.
The clock struck zero before the ball, which had been thrown out of the end zone, was touched.
The game was over. The last gasp was a gift from the football gods for Michigan, and a royal screw job for a Western Michigan team that had earned the win.
At a time when there’s nearly as much college-football action in court as there is on the field, Western Michigan should be dialing up Judge Wapner in an effort to secure the upset win that a nameless, faceless replay specialist stole from them. While there’s surely no procedure in place to correct the outcome, there should be — and maybe the outcry from this outcome will lead to a solution for fixing clear and obvious errors made by the replay process on what should have been the final play of a game.
In the age of widespread legalized and normalized gambling, there must be a way to fix such a blatant blunder.
