A couple weeks back I put a post on the MGoBoard about an upcoming series I was planning that would be revisiting great games in Michigan Football history, told by someone who had never seen the game before (me) using insight from someone who had (Craig Ross). This is the first piece in that series and it revisits the most recommended game in the thread I put up... 2004 Michigan State also known as "Braylonfest". 

The team: The 2004 Michigan Football season saw a changing of the guard at the two most prominent positions of the era, with the graduations of QB John Navarre and RB Chris Perry in the offseason. In stepped the true freshmen who would define the program over the next four seasons, Chad Henne and Mike Hart. Though being a true freshman starting QB is quite difficult, having returning production in the passing game helped Henne. It especially helped to have a superstar to throw to in Braylon Edwards. Coming off an 1100 yard, 1st Team All-B1G season in 2003, Edwards would be the star of the season and of this game. Fellow wideouts Jason Avant and Steve Breaston also returned, as did TE Tim Massaquoi, meaning four of the top five players in receiving yards in 2003 returned for '04 and were at Henne's disposal (Perry was the other). 

On the offensive line, starters returned at LT (Adam Stenavich), LG (David Baas), and RG (Matt Lentz). The team graduated All-B1G C Dave Pearson and RT Tony Pape, plugging Mark Bihl into the C spot and RS Fr Jake Long into the RT spot. By the time this game rolled around, Bihl had been injured, with Baas sliding to center and Rueben Riley taking over LG. Kevin Dudley returned as fullback for his senior season, while David Underwood and Jerome Jackson returned to the 2004 squad at RB, though Hart got the vast majority of the carries (Max Martin was on the depth chart as a freshman as well in '04). 

[Bentley Historical Library]

The defensive side of the ball was led by star corner Marlin Jackson, the team's lone defensive All-American (1st team). Opposite him at corner was Markus Curry to start the season, eventually supplanted by sophomore Leon Hall. The safeties were a duo of Ryan Mundy at FS and Ernest Shazor at SS, the latter a hero the week before this game. Scott McClintock manned the middle at MIKE LB, while Lawrence Reid was the starter at WILL. Neither LB earned postseason honors and this game will provide a decent window into why. 

Along the defensive line, the gargantuan (6'8") Pat Massey and Gabe Watson, a fellow junior, started for the Wolverines. Watson earned 1st/2nd Team All-B1G for his work that season and they were joined by sophomore OLB/EDGE LaMarr Woodley, who earned 2nd Team All-B1G. Rotational pieces down along the defensive line included Larry Harrison and Alex Ofili, among others. At special teams, Garrett Rivas was a sophomore at kicker (his second season of starting duty), while Adam Finley was a senior at punter, his third and final year as the starter. Steve Breaston handled returns for the Wolverines.  

[Ronan Silberman/AP]

The opponent: Michigan State was in year #2 of the John L. Smith era in 2004. They had gone 8-5 the previous season, ending the year with a loss to Nebraska in the Alamo Bowl. Multi-year starter at QB Jeff Smoker had graduated, with Drew Stanton taking over command of the offense in '04. He was given reasonable stability at the skill positions but a defense that would take a sizable step backwards in 2004 relative to the prior year. The Spartans went 1-2 in non-conference to start the season, with losses at home to Notre Dame and at Rutgers, but strung together strong results to open the B1G slate. They knocked off Indiana, lost at Kinnick to Iowa, but then defeated Illinois and ranked Minnesota at home to situate themselves at 3-1 in the conference heading into the bye week, prior to this game (4-3 overall). 

[AFTER THE JUMP: The game and my takes on it]

The season context: Michigan kicked off the season with a win over Miami (OH) in Henne and Hart's first NCAA games before heading to South Bend to take on the Irish. Against unranked Notre Dame, Michigan held a lead for the first three quarters until Notre Dame's Darius Walker scored two touchdowns to put ND ahead 21-12, eventually holding on to a 28-20 win. Michigan returned home and played a tight contest against San Diego State, emerging with a 24-21 win. The Wolverines then notched double digit point wins over Iowa and Indiana ahead of the meeting with Minnesota for the Little Brown Jug. A close game, Michigan pulled it out on a 31 yard pass from Henne to TE Tyler Ecker with 1:57 to go and a subsequent defensive stand to win 27-24. 

The tradition of winning close games would follow. After trailing at halftime, the Maize & Blue rallied to win 30-19 in Champaign over Illinois and stayed on the road to face Purdue the following week. A low scoring game, Michigan took a 16-14 lead with just over three minutes to go via a 35 yard FG by Garrett Rivas. Purdue got the ball back, but a massive fumble forced by Shazor turned the ball over with 2:13 left, recovered in bounds along the sideline by Leon Hall. Michigan would seal the win on offense and move to 5-0 in conference play. 

[US PRESSWIRE/Jerry Lai]

That leads us to the day before Halloween, October 30, 2004. Michigan sat atop the Big Ten at 5-0, ahead of 4-1 Iowa (who they owned a H2H tiebreak with) and tied with 5-0 Wisconsin (who was on a bye week). Michigan State was lingering at 3-1 and had a chance to vault into contention with a win over Michigan, while Ohio State was wallowing at 1-3. Winning would give Michigan a great chance to win at least a share of the conference (Northwestern and @OSU were left), while a loss would put the Badgers in pole position and give Sparty a chance to draw even with Michigan while the Wolverines were on their bye week. 

The personal context: This is one of only a couple games in this series that your author was alive for. At five years old, I don't have any firm recollection of what I was doing this day, but my parents informed me that we went on a Halloween-themed nature walk at Leslie Science Center in Ann Arbor that night. Getting in the woods was probably the only way to escape the pandemonium of Ann Arbor. 

As for the older perspective, I watched this game with both Craig and David Nasternak, both of whom remarked about how cold the game was after the sun went down. They noted that the wind was blowing heavily (something apparent on the game tape) and that once the sun was obscured, the wind combined to make it one chilly evening. David was wearing shorts and regretted the decision. Craig remembered the cold but focused more on the decision of a friend to leave the game early, thinking Michigan had lost, and coming to regret it after the fact. 

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What Happened

Michigan got the ball to start the game and quickly moved it into Michigan State territory, thanks in part to a long run by Hart. Craig wanted to shout out the efforts of Kevin Dudley (Craig: one of the best fullbacks Michigan ever had!) on a block down the sideline (it's the very first play shown here):

FB #32 plowing MSU #36 into the sideline

Unfortunately, a poor throw from Henne on 3rd & 4 (it would be a theme all day) set Michigan up for 4th down on the Spartan 41. In a down & distance situation that would almost universally be a go for it today, Lloyd Carr opted for the punt. State got the ball on their own twenty after a touchback and struck gold within a few plays. The Spartans called a run play out of 11 personnel Wk that pulled the RT and was greatly helped by disastrous Michigan defending: 

That's WILL Lawrence Reid picking a mystifying gap and a horrendous angle from FS Ryan Mundy combining to a collective swing and a miss as DeAndra' Cobb took it to the house. 

That touchdown continued to set the tone for a first quarter that saw very little defense played by either side. Michigan let the Spartans off the hook with the punt in plus territory on the opening possession, which was then followed by three straight TD drives by the two teams. Michigan's series saw a personal favorite of mine, a successful QB sneak on 3rd & inches, and also what no one likes to see: a blown block by Jason Avant that could have freed up Braylon Edwards for a rushing TD on a smart reverse play. Regardless of that, Michigan marched down the field and punched it in on another boo yah! block from Dudley in front of Mike Hart: 

The subsequent MSU drive was the beginning of the Drew Stanton show. The Michigan State offensive coaching staff began to introduce the QB run component that would terrorize Michigan for the remainder of the first half and Stanton's wheels mixed with his arm bore fruits for the Spartans. This play in particular stood out: 

It's a fake option play that turns into a pass, a play that Craig noted derived originally from Wishbone offenses. This time we see Stanton show his scrambling ability, but designed QB runs were a key part of the MSU offensive gameplan on the drive. The very next play in the series we see MSU run a Stanton rushing play involving a mesh point with Jason Teague, something that the radio broadcast of Frank Beckman and Jim Brandstatter (which was the audio for the game copy we watched) seemed to have never encountered before.

MSU drove to the goal line, fumbled the ball backwards (but recovered it), setting up 3rd & G from the 5. Michigan shows blitz and brings it, with Mundy again being a primary culprit on the play. The safety knifes into the backfield but is unable to wrap Stanton up, with the QB sprinting into the end zone for a TD: 

Now 14-7 MSU, Michigan would go three-and-out in the first proper stop of the game for either side, which was followed by one of the worst on-field refereeing botches I can recall. Punter Adam Finley's punt was clearly blocked by the Spartans, but referees originally called it roughing the punter. Replay overturned the call by determining it had indeed been blocked by Michigan State, negating the penalty, but I found myself incredibly puzzled by how exactly they could mess that call up when the punt was impacted by a mass of white jerseys surrounding Finley. 

MSU got good field position and had Michigan dead in the water with a wheel route passing play that isolated Cobb on Reid and Reid was toasted [he made Mike McCray covering Saquon look fast], but Stanton's pass was errant. Michigan State had to settle for a long FG but a bad snap ruined the opportunity and gave Michigan a break, another of a great many they'd get on this afternoon. 

Michigan's offense punted again, a stretch of this game where they were mostly stuck in the mud. The rushing game wasn't doing significant damage and the passing game held back dramatically by Henne's inaccuracy, due at least in small part to the windy conditions. Henne was brutal for much of the first three quarters of this game, missing wide open receiver after wide open receiver and the macro results were what you'd expect. 

The defensive side of things saw Michigan hanging by a thread for this portion of the game. MSU was pinned on their own 9 for a drive to begin the second quarter and marched all the way into Wolverine territory. Stanton's appendages continued to rip Michigan apart as the same suspects were struggling, LB Prescott Burgess in particular committing back to back egregious mistakes and getting yanked off the field. The speed option that John L. Smith was dialing up in particular saw Michigan's LBs bamboozled in comic fashion, no more knowledge of how to defend it than a schnauzer would: 

I mean, just look at this!!: 

Lawrence, where are you going??? The QB has the ball and HE'S RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU. 

Thankfully for the Michigan partisans, an important play by LaMarr Woodley stuffed the Spartans on 3rd & G and held them to a FG, making it 17-7 MSU. Still, the Wolverine defense was reeling, having allowed 241 yards in just under 21 minutes of football(!!!). The defense started to get stops after that and then was handed the biggest break it would get all game. On 3rd & 8 towards the end of the second quarter, MSU ran the same option play, Stanton kept it, and was tackled short of the line to gain by Woodley. Stanton did not get up on his own: 

Stanton would not return to the game. The defense had gotten its big break right there, while the offense finally started to move the ball during the two minute drill. They moved the ball through the air into MSU territory before setting up Garrett Rivas for a short field goal, making the score 17-10 Spartans into halftime. 

Out of the intermission, we began to see the new-look MSU offense with Damon Dowdell at QB instead of Stanton. It was less aggressive, less spread out, though (as I will detail) Dowdell didn't play poorly. Their first drive of the half marched into Michigan territory before the ultimate punt arrived. Michigan did the same on their first drive, but it instead ended on a lost fumble... by Braylon Edwards! Indeed, at this juncture of the game it was anything but a Braylonfest, the star receiver rarely being seen in the first half and then popping up early in the second half with a backbreaking mistake: 

Michigan State got the ball, still leading 17-10. The teams then traded punts, one of which coming after a drive that featured what David believed to be one of the first combo Alan Branch/Woodley sacks. Michigan State would eventually drive deep into Michigan territory on a possession helped out by great field position. Dowdell had a solid feel for the game at this point, decently accurate on his passes and moving the Spartans along. They got inside the ten but eventually stalled and kicked another chip shot FG (on 4th & 2 from the 3...) to make it 20-10. 

Another Wolverine punt gave MSU the ball with 11:11 remaining in the fourth quarter, the game well into night conditions at this point and the temperature rapidly dropping. At first glance, it seemed Michigan would be let off the hook by an MSU mistake, a holding call to negate a third down conversion, but then on 3rd & 12 the Spartans got another long run for Cobb, this one a play that seemed as if it would seal the deal: 

It's a counter draw sort of play that Michigan State ran several times in this game. It gets the defense moving one way, then hits you the other direction, with great blocks set up. Michigan wasn't paved in the rushing game, but they didn't do a great job and this play was one of the lowest moments (they were quite terrible in pass rush though, generating little to no pressure most of the game). With only 8:43 to play, the Spartans led 27-10, a three-score margin. To put further salt in the wound, Steve Breaston botched the kickoff, having it bounce over his head to pin the Michigan offense inside their own 10. In every sense of the phrase, Michigan State had total control of the game. 

Enter Braylon. 

After Michigan ran the ball twice on two separate first downs(!!!), they started to air it out more. Henne found Jason Avant to get it out near midfield and then the first of many spectacular catches arrived: 

Unfortunately, that catch only produced a FG, as Henne couldn't find a receiver on the eventual 3rd & 5. Rivas booted a FG and MSU led 27-13, 6:53 to go.

If Stanton's injury was the first miracle that Michigan needed, the onside kick recovery after the Rivas FG was the second:

At this very moment, it was a competitive football game again. Michigan ran a screen to Mike Hart (they ran a lot of screens in 2004 in general), who was the victim of one of the most grotesque facemasks I've ever seen, setting them up now inside the Spartan 40. Next play, this one: 

What stuck out to me watching this play was how poor of a throw it was by Henne, a clear interceptable ball for Jaren Hayes except for, ya know [SEE PLAY ABOVE].  

Michigan State's next drive would be bogged down by penalties and transformed into a turtling by John L. Smith, content to punt the ball back to Michigan with 3:24 to go. He should not have been. The formula was the same as the previous drive, a sizable Mike Hart play (a run not a screen this time) and then another Braylon dunk (the most iconic one): 

What else can you say? That rocks. 

The game was now tied at 27 with just about three minutes remaining, the Spartans still with a chance to win. They got a chunk gain on another counter draw play for Cobb but ran out of gas around midfield. Michigan went three-and-out with the intention of playing for OT, punting to MSU and putting the Spartans at the 50 with three seconds left. Dowdell's final play of regulation was a throw nowhere close to the end zone, nor anywhere catchable for a receiver, yet referees flagged Leon Hall for one of the most phantom DPI calls I have seen (our second refereeing fiasco of the game!). The 15 yards moved MSU into FG range, 52 yards for the win, but the kick was going into the wind and fell way short. Overtime!

Michigan got the ball first, giving it to Mike Hart, but the star back would come up limping. They attempted to give him the ball again on 3rd & 2, but lacking any real acceleration or bounce, #20 was unable to make a play on a convert-able run. Michigan booted the field goal and went up 30-27, their first lead of the game. Cobb rushed Michigan State down inside the Wolverine 10 before a huge stand on 3rd & 1 from the Wolverine defense slammed the door and Smith opted to kick rather than play for the win. 30-30, to double OT. 

Dowdell made one of his best throws of the game on the first play of 2OT and then a beautiful run by Jason Teague shaking tacklers got MSU down to the 4. Two plays later, Teague punched it in: 

Michigan went through the air to answer the 37-30 Spartan lead. Henne delivered a quick strike to Avant to get it started, then a screen to Braylon got it inside the 10. Tim Massaquoi's tough drop two plays later put Michigan in a precarious 3rd & 6 and then it was time for a receiver other than #1 to be a hero. Avant, with what David insists was possibly his best catch as a Wolverine: 

Carr also declines to play to win by kicking the PAT and we go to 3OT tied at 37. Michigan gets the ball to start and finds itself in 3rd & 9 just a couple plays in. MSU does something that I cannot for the life of me figure out: single cover Braylon. After he already has two TDs and has singlehandedly willed the opposition back into this game, dunking on multiple of your cornerbacks. It's a passing down, Henne is not a major run threat, you have the manpower to bracket him. Why????: 

Yes, Hayes is not totally on an island here. There's safety help over the top, but once Braylon makes his move inside, you're toast. The safety isn't going to be able to come down and clean it up in time once Hayes has lost all leverage on Braylon and is in the dust. Michigan must go for two and Massaquoi goes up to snag a high fastball from Henne for the conversion. 45-37. 

The Spartans are in trouble, a sentence that would ring even more true once the referees dinged MSU for OPI on a pick play(!!!). Dowdell's throws during this series also happen to be his worst of the game and eventually the Spartans find themselves in 4th & 8, game on the line. Markus Curry, get it done for us: 

Ballgame! 

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[The Michigan Daily]

The aftermath 

Game analysis and takes: My initial thought after watching the game was how much luck, how many random and fortunate breaks Michigan needed to yoink this game away from the Spartans. The biggest of course being the Stanton injury, which put a hard cap on an MSU offense that was putting Michigan's defense through the wringer the entire first half to that point. I was a bit surprised at how well Damon Dowdell played in this game, given that he was a backup tossed into this game cold and a player who attempted a grand total of 192 passes in his NCAA career, but he was no Drew Stanton. 

As I noted in the narrative, the MSU offense seemed to crawl into a shell when Stanton went down, putting a lot of that QB run component on the shelf, which had been the primary source of Spartan success to that point. Dowdell made some big time throws and the run game was still decently effective, but it was just enough of a step down to give Michigan a window back into this game. And when it mattered the most, in the 3rd OT with MSU's back against the wall, Dowdell's arm failed the most. 

But beyond the Stanton injury, there was the bad Stanton miss on the wide open Cobb wheel route. That would've likely netted MSU at least three points (they missed the long FG vs. having a fresh set of downs deep in M territory) and then the onside kick speaks for itself. I don't know what the win probability numbers would have looked like in a 2020s lens, but even up 27-13 with seven minutes to go and Michigan kicking off should have had MSU above 95% to win at that juncture. The onside kick recovery was the turning point, compounded by the quick TD Michigan scored after that. The difference in win probability between Michigan kicking off down 27-13 with seven minutes to go and Michigan kicking off down 27-20 with six minutes to go is vast. That singular minute swung the game and the onside kick was the biggest randomness-influenced play. 

[The Flint Journal/Ryan Garza]

But of course a win is a win and you have to credit Michigan for recognizing that they were being gifted an opportunity to grab the game by the horns and win it. Michigan's defense, as much as I have ragged on it (535 yards against is deserving!), came up with enormous stops in the shadow of their own goal line to force FGs. MSU kicked FGs of 19 and 23 yards in regulation and another 23 yarder was added in OT. That ability to deny MSU a proper conversion of total yards into points allowed them to get to OT despite being gashed regularly. LaMarr Woodley in particular stood out in the way he brutalized the MSU OL and provided Michigan their most important defensive stands of the game in those situations. You could tell in this game that even though Woodley was two years away from his collegiate peak, he was going to be a Dude in the future. 

On the offensive side of things Michigan took advantage of the MSU mistakes and good luck by suddenly remembering, with 10 minutes left, that they had the best WR in college football on their team. I pointed it out earlier but for being the Braylonfest, there wasn't much Braylon going on in the first 3 quarters of this game. Michigan rarely targeted him and when they did, he fumbled the ball and turned it over. Edwards was hardly notable until Michigan decided to punt it up to him and let him do the rest. Seems like they could've done that a bit earlier in the game, but just in time I guess!! MSU has only itself to blame for putting undersized corners (Hayes was 5'9"!!) on Braylon without additional help. 

In that vein, this was a classic example of a game that was incredible for the final stretch + OT but was mostly boring as hell before that. The first four drives were interesting, with no defense being played by other side, but once some adjustments started to be made, the game quieted down. The 3rd quarter in particular was extremely slow and Craig, David, and I found ourselves battling an urge to peer over at a second TV in the corner showing an NHL playoff game than pay attention to this game. The first Braylon catch on the drive to make it 27-13 was the moment of lightning strike, when suddenly the game that had become increasingly dull and morose for the Michigan side turned in a heartbeat and sucked your attention back in like an industrial grade vacuum. From that point forward, the action was gripping. 

[Michigan Athletics]

As a whole, though, Michigan's offensive performance was middling. I thought the offensive line was rather iffy (pass protection would be a problem all year in 2004), with Hart doing a lot of the work himself on the ground. Magnificent per usual, but Michigan's run offense wasn't elite in this game, despite Dudley's best blocking efforts. Henne was dreadful for much of the contest and as the first Braylon TD showed, even when the passing game got rolling, Henne was getting considerable help from his receiving corps to make it happen. 

From a tactical side, what most surprised me the most was the amount of spread concepts John L. Smith's staff had ready to go for this game. Not just weaponizing Stanton's legs but using space and isolating athletic advantages. It helps that Michigan's defense had next to no idea how to go about defending many of these, but it was a neat gameplan I thought. The counter draw play that fooled Michigan several times was just one nugget of this. On the flip side, Michigan was almost never in the shotgun for the vast majority of the game, were content to run on first down trailing by a lot in the fourth quarter, and the totality of the offense felt as dated as the Kerry/Edwards buttons numerous fans in the crowd were shown wearing during the broadcast. It was not the prettiest or most tactical brilliant approach to offense but talent often wins out and in this game the talent of one Braylon Edwards won out.  

[Richard Mackson/USA Today Sports]

What it meant: The win made Michigan 6-0 in conference play, still in the driver's seat for the league title. They'd be tied with Wisconsin when they returned to action after the bye week, but a win over Northwestern and a Wisconsin loss @MSU clinched Michigan's share of the Big Ten crown. The Wolverines would lose their first and only conference game against Ohio State, while Wisconsin lost to Iowa, meaning that Michigan and Iowa tied at 7-1 for first, with Michigan owning the head-to-head tiebreak. That placed the Maize & Blue in the Rose Bowl against Texas, who were filling in for USC (playing Oklahoma for the national title in the Orange Bowl). 

Much of what was seen in this game would return as storylines in those final two games. The immense struggles of Michigan to defend the QB run that we detailed in this one reared its head again against the Buckeyes and Longhorns. Troy Smith would rush 18 times for 145 yards (including sacks) in The Game and Vince Young would rush 21 times for 192 yards (including sacks) and four TDs in the Rose Bowl. Ugly! The brilliance of Braylon Edwards, exemplified in this game and true all year long would also appear in the remainder of the season, 10 catches for 103 yards and 3 TDs in the Rose Bowl. 

Michigan State on the other hand, blew its opportunity at bowl eligibility in part by losing this game. They lost to Ohio State the following week to drop to 4-5. A win over Wisconsin drew them even at 5-5, but defeats at the hands of PSU and Hawaii left the Spartans with a 5-7 losing season. John L. Smith would go 5-6 in 2005 and then 4-8 in 2006, a tailspin kicked off by the famous meltdown against Notre Dame. That 1-8 stretch to close '06 would result in Smith's firing and the hiring of Mark Dantonio. 

[Pro Football History.com]

As for the players themselves, Drew Stanton would start in both '05 and '06 for the Spartans, being drafted by the Lions at pick 43 of the 2007 NFL Draft. DeAndra' Cobb would be picked in the 6th round of 2005, but the Spartan with the longest NFL career was DT Domata Peko, picked in the 4th round of 2006, playing nearly 15 years in the league, most of it with Cincinnati before his recent retirement.

On the Michigan side of things, Edwards would be drafted 3rd overall by the Browns in 2005, but despite a strong season in 2007, his NFL career never quite matched the prodigious success of his NCAA one. His fellow wideouts, Jason Avant and Steve Breaston both were drafted and had productive NFL seasons. Along the offensive line, David Baas would play close to 10 years in the NFL and win a Super Bowl with the New York Giants and Jake Long would go 1st overall in 2008 to the Miami Dolphins. Adam Stenavich had a brief pro career as a player and is now the offensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers. Henne and Hart started four years at Michigan together and then went different directions in the pros, Henne a brief starter and then long-time backup QB and 2x Super Bowl champion, while Hart returned to the college ranks to coach (wonder where he's working today). 

On defense, Marlin Jackson was drafted in the 1st round of the 2005 NFL Draft and would win a Super Bowl with the Colts. Young Leon Hall went in the first round two years later and made an All-Pro team with the Bengals. LaMarr Woodley went in the second round of that same draft and would make an All-Pro team and win a Super Bowl with the Steelers.