Michigan loses second straight game, falling to Indiana

After a disappointing loss to Michigan State last week, Michigan was hoping to get a Top 25 win against the very strong team in Indiana. It was a tough game for Michigan, in which they did not lead. 

Indiana jumped out with a 7-0 lead, but for most of the first half it was a very competitive back-and-forth game until a touchdown run from Sampson James brought the Hoosiers to lead 24-7 at the half.

Michigan cut the second half lead down to 10, when Ronnie Bell caught a 21 yard touchdown pass to cut the lead to 31-21. 

However, Michigan’s defense struggled all game. They were unable to get enough pressure on Indiana’s Quarterback and left the man-corners alone for far too long. As a result, Indiana drove down the field and scored a game-sealing 38-21 touchdown. 

Michigan fell to 1-2 for the first time under Jim Harbaugh, and it doesn’t look to be getting any easier for them having to play a very good Wisconsin team next week. Michigan and Jim Harbaugh are going to have figure something out quick! 

Meanwhile, for Rocky Lombardi, Michigan State Quarterback, who grew up a few hours away from Kinnick Stadium in Clive, Iowa, it was a homecoming game. Unfortunately, Lombardi and the entire team struggled. It was simply not Michigan State’s day. They got picked off three times, one returned for a touchdown, and allowed a punt return for a touchdown and, overall, didn’t play skillfully. 

Iowa started the game with an eight- play, 75-yard drive to take an early 7-0 lead. Then, on Michigan State’s next drive a Rocky Lombardi interception led to another Iowa touchdown which completely took the wind out of MSU’s sails. Later in the first half, a pick six led to a 35-0 first-half lead. 

In the second half, it was more of the same. Michigan State drove down the field and scored a touchdown to cut the lead to 28 but a quick Iowa touchdown put the lead back to 35. An additional late second-half touchdown gave Iowa a 49-7 lead, which ended up being the final score.

After getting a huge win against Michigan last week, where Michigan State played almost perfectly, this might have been an alarming sight for some MSU fans. Michigan State came out flat, they turned the ball over, they couldn’t run the ball, they couldn’t stop the run, they practically didn’t even compete against Iowa. Michigan State has a big game next week against ranked Indiana, they need to fix a lot of mistakes, but if they come out like they did against Michigan two weeks ago, this could be a trap game for Indiana.