Already ahead 17-9, Iowa began the fourth quarter driving at midfield. A 15-yard completion from James Vendenberg to Marvin McNutt followed, and it eventually was Marcus Coker scoring another touchdown for the Hawkeyes, from 13-yards out to the right side. Mike Meyer nailed the extra point and Iowa took a 24-9 lead. The Wolverines responded though, Denard Robinson took charge and led his team on an eight play, 57-yard drive that ended in a Kevin Koger touchdown reception from seven yards out. The Brendan Gibbons extra point was good.
Michigan got set up on what they hoped would be a comeback drive, after forcing the Hawkeyes to punt after a single first down. Robinson completed a pass to Junior Hemmingway for 19 yards, but the drive stalled out there. With around four minutes to go, Michigan opted to punt on fourth down. But they forced Iowa to punt with a three-and-out, and had yet another chance at it.
The Wolverines thought they had a touchdown when Vincent Smith was tackled, but rolled over the player and his knees didn't seem to touch the ground, so he got up and ran it into the end zone. But an official review revealed that his elbow was down on the play, so it was simply a first down for Michigan at the 29-yard line. Michigan converted a third down with a 13-yard completion to Martavious Odoms. A send and long was converted with an 18-yard completion into Iowa territory to Roy Roundtree. Yet another first down took the Wolverines to the Iowa 32-yard line with under forty seconds remaining on the clock.
Robinson continues to overthrow wide open receivers, but a completion to Roundtree sets them up at the three-yard line. Robinson threw a clear completion to Hemmingway for a touchdown but it's ruled an incompletion. Hemmingway's knee goes down in the endzone with possession of the ball, but the referees rule him out of bounds for some reason and uphold the review. It looks like the ball could have been over the out of bounds line when his knee came down. Robinson is faced with a third down and seven seconds to go, and he is forced to throw an incompletion.
On fourth down, the pass was broken up and Iowa takes a 24-16 win after a very controversial ruling by the referees.
It was a really close game, with the teams sharing similar stats in every category. Michigan rushed for 127 yards against Iowa's 131. They passed for just under 200 yards while Iowa had 171. It all came down to that play at the very end that could have went either way.