Cade McNamara rallies Michigan Football, but win feels hollow

Michigan football embarrassed itself on Saturday night and if Jim Harbaugh cared about the Wolverines, he would fire people or quit.

I’m writing this during overtime between Michigan football and Rutgers, because even if the Wolverines win, Saturday night was an embarrassment and people need to lose their jobs.

After repeatedly seeing quarterback runs and zone reads fail on short-yardage situations week after week, with the game on the line and needing three yards in overtime, Josh Gattis inexplicably called another QB run and not surprisingly, apparently to anyone but him, it was stonewalled.

But then instead of righting the wrong and going for it on fourth down in a 35-35 game, head coach Jim Harbaugh made a decision that was even dumber — he sent Quinn Nordin out for a lengthy field goal in overtime.

To be honest, I walked out of the room. I didn’t need to watch it. After seeing the previous two field goal attempts miss badly, the third miss was more than predictable.

But Harbaugh tried it anyways — passing up two chances for the quarterback who threw four touchdowns to rally his team — to make another play. It was astounding but it’s become the norm.

Thankfully for Jim and Josh, Rutgers missed their own kick in overtime.

Harbaugh was right when he said Michigan football wasn’t in a good place last week. It’s not and it won’t be rectified until changes are made. At the very least Don Brown has to go.

Firing someone mid-season might not be the Michigan way, but there has to be some accountability.

And Brown’s defense is just awful and allowed yet another 300-yard passer, which was the third in four games. Wisconsin could have thrown for 300 but chose to run for 300 yards instead, because that’s what Brown offers — more than one way for opponents to eclipse 400 yards of offense and 40 points.

Noah Vedral, who came into the game with seven interceptions, threw for nearly 400 yards and three touchdowns, just in regulation.

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Once Michigan football rallied from 17 down thanks to Cade McNamara‘s heroics and built a 35-27 lead, all it needed was one stop to wrap up a much-needed win.

Instead, the Wolverines allowed a 16-play, 80-yard drive, then allowed Vedral to drag multiple defenders into the end zone on the game-tying two-point play.

Finally, after a pair of overtime touchdowns the second coming from Hassan Haskins, the defense finally got a stop thanks to a Daxton Hill interception, giving the Wolverines a hollow 48-42 win.

McNamara deserves credit for rallying the troops and leading the Wolverines to the third-largest comeback win in school history. But after the way the game ended, it’s hard to feel optimistic about the future.

The only good news is that at least the Wolverines may have found a quarterback to close out the season. But as long as Don Brown is the DC, it won’t matter and Ryan Day is right, Ohio State will probably score 100.