Dave Portnoy reacts to Michigan's last-play loss to Iowa

Saturday started like a coronation. After weeks of people calling Bryce Underwood a bust, and after that ugly escape against Western Michigan, the Michigan QB came out against Iowa and moved the ball wherever he wanted. Dave was already handing him the Heisman before the 1st quarter was done.

Dave Portnoy

@stoolpresidente

BREISMAN UNDERWOOD DROPPING DIMES ALL OVER THE FIELD!!! WHAT A DRIVE!!!!!

By halftime the vibe had moved from joy to Michigan-fan dread. Michigan was pushing Iowa all over the field and had almost nothing on the scoreboard to show for it, and Dave could feel exactly where this was going. Go back and read this one knowing the ending. It's basically a prophecy.

Dave Portnoy

@stoolpresidente

Total and complete domination. Feels like we should be up 3 scores. Makes me very nervous. But maybe Michigan is just that good and we’ll pummel em in the 2nd half #goblue

That 2nd-half pummeling never happened. Midway through the 3rd quarter it was only 10-7 Michigan, the Big House was trying to rattle Iowa on 3rd down, and the rest of college football was starting to smell blood. Dave's 'So obvious they would take the lead, now it's a grunt fest' tweet summed up the rock fight, and Iowa is 4-0 because it plays in exactly that kind of game.

Brandon Walker

@BFW

Cowbells, @stoolpresidente?

Here's how it went wrong. Iowa missed a 51-yard field goal with 2:33 left, and Michigan was up 19-14 with the Hawkeyes pinned at their own 9 with 1:46 to go and 1 timeout. That's a game you win. Then on 3rd-and-12, Zeke Berry got flagged for unnecessary roughness, the drive stayed alive, and on the final snap Hank Brown hit Reece Vander Zee for a 16-yard touchdown. Iowa's student radio call is going to be replayed in Iowa City forever.

Barstool Sports

@barstoolsports

“Western Michigan and the college football world. Iowa has your back.” What a call from the Iowa Student network for their game winning TD vs Michigan

The stat sheet makes it worse. Michigan outgained Iowa 429-285 and held the ball for nearly 9 more minutes, and it lost anyway. Dave went straight to the camera in his block M hat and didn't hold back.

Barstool Gambling

@stoolgambling

"That was the worst Michigan loss I've ever fucking seen." - Dave Portnoy

Then came the weirdest part of the night. You'd expect a Michigan fan to wake up hating Iowa after something like this. Dave went the other way and wrote Iowa a love letter, since losing to a team that wins ugly by waiting for you to beat yourself is at least a loss that makes sense.

Dave Portnoy

@stoolpresidente

Nobody will make me hate Iowa. If we are gonna make idiotic mistakes and commit asshole stupid penalties and dominate a game and lose Im glad its vs. Iowa. Like that is what Iowa does. If it had to be anybody I glad it was you Iowa.

Everyone else had a blast, of course. Ohio State fans were filming themselves celebrating at bars, and Brandon Walker put Michigan No. 2 on his list of the week's biggest losers for letting Iowa go 90 yards in 2 minutes.

Brandon Walker

@BFW

Five teams that lost the week 1 USC - What a dud the Lincoln Riley hire turned out to be 2 Michigan - you can’t let Iowa go 90 yards in 2 minutes 3 Louisville - the hell was that? 4 Penn State - bye bye playoff talk 5 Ole Miss - That defense is something

On Monday Dave called into Wake Up Barstool with Michigan now 3-1, and he'd come up with a theory. Earlier this month Michigan beat Western Michigan 13-12 on a 47-yard Hail Mary from Underwood to JJ Buchanan as time expired. On Saturday Michigan lost on a touchdown as time expired. The universe collected, and one of the guys in studio literally jumped out of his chair.

Barstool Sports

@barstoolsports

“I guess I am a believer in karma, maybe we shouldn’t have got that first win” -@stoolpresidente talking about Michigan

He also made sure nobody forgot that he thinks Iowa had no business winning. Then he went full contrarian. Dominating a game and losing it on penalties is fixable, the way Dave sees it, and dominating is the hard part. So the takeaway from a walk-off loss at home was that this team can beat anybody.

Dave Portnoy

@stoolpresidente

I am more confident than ever in Michigan. After the Iowa game I think they can beat anyone

Is it cope? Kind of. Is it wrong? Not totally. Underwood threw for 276 yards and 2 touchdowns, and the defense held Iowa under 300 yards until the final drive. The 1 thing Michigan can't do is keep handing games away with stupid penalties. If that gets cleaned up, Dave looks like a genius. If it doesn't, the karma theory is going to get a lot more airtime.