Michigan football's perfect season ruined, knocked out by TCU, 51-45, in Fiesta Bowl

GLENDALE, Ariz. — It was the scenario J.J. McCarthy has dreamed of since he was a boy — a one-possession game in the final minute of play with a national championship berth on the line.

But the drive stalled before it got started. A 5-yard run, an incomplete pass, a false start and another incomplete pass made it fourth-and-10 for Michigan on their own 25, with 35 seconds to play.

Michigan football never truly ran its final play. The snap was premature and hit McCarthy in the stomach before he was ready for it. The Wolverines tried to pick it up and lateral to move the sticks, but Colston Loveland was tackled to end the game.

"It was a brain fart, I didn't have my guys back," said Michigan's Rimington and Outland Trophy winner, center Olusegun Oluwatimi. "It cost us."

"It was loud as (expletive)," interjected Zak Zinter in defense of Oluwatimi from the adjacent locker.

Michigan (13-1), which spent all season clawing for a shot to get to the national championship game came up one win short in the College Football Playoff semifinal, falling to TCU (13-1) and Heisman Trophy runner-up Max Duggan, 51-45, the highest scoring game in Fiesta Bowl history.

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McCarthy finished 20 of 34 passing with a career-high 343 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. He added 10 carries for 52 yards and a touchdown. Duggan went 14 of 29 for 225 yards, with two touchdowns and two interceptions for TCU.

Michigan allowed a season worst 51 points and 527 yards.

"We heard all week about how we were going to get lined up (against) and run through," said TCU coach Sonny Dykes. "So I think the guys heard that."

It's the end of one of the best season's in U-M's history; its first 13-win season ever and the first back-to-back Big Ten titles since 1991-92.

On the wrong end of the haymaker

Michigan's calling card in 2022 was its physicality, especially in the run game. But in the CFP semifinal, the Wolverines were the ones who caught a one-two combo in the first half before TCU delivered the haymaker late. U-M was on the wrong end of almost all the big plays early: a fourth-and-goal trick play gone wrong, a costly pick-6 and a fumble into the end zone from the 1-yard line.

"We beat ourselves out there," Zinter said. "Adversity hit and I'm proud of this team the way the guys were able to respond. But yeah, we needed to respond on some of those (chances) we had early in the game."

After trailing by as much as 18, the Wolverines got within five midway through the third quarter when Ronnie Bell caught a flea-flicker touchdown pass from J.J. McCarthy.

But after a TCU touchdown made it a 12-point game, McCarthy threw his second pick-6 of the game; he never saw TCU linebacker Dee Winters who jumped the slant pattern and returned it 29 yards for the score with 2:52 to play in the third quarter and a 41-22 deficit.

Then the Wolverines put together a three-play, 69-yard drive capped by a 20-yard McCarthy run with 1:47 to play in the third. TCU needed only three plays to go 78 yards of its own — a 69-yard run by Emari Demercado the highlight — to respond 52 seconds later.

Michigan used up only 46 seconds to go 75 yards; after McCarthy found Bell on a 44-yard pass to get down to the one to set up a Mullings score with three seconds left in the third quarter. Bell, who finished with a team-best six catches for 135 yards and a score, caught a 34-yard touchdown on a flea flicker earlier in the quarter to get within a touchdown.

RAINER SABIN:Michigan's offense and defense seemed a step slow vs. TCU

The Horned Frogs fumbled the final snap of the third quarter, which set up the Wolverines at their 27 to begin the fourth.

Two plays later, Roman Wilson helicoptered his way into the end zone on an 18-yard end-around. The junior, who had just 14 catches for 101 yards and one score in Big Ten play, had five catches for a career-high 104 yards and one score.

"In the moment, I can't lie it was kind of exciting, just battling with my teammates, my friends and my family members," Wilson said. "It sucks that we lost, but it was fun going back and forth and being out there playing football."

McCarthy kept the two-point conversion, which got the Wolverines within three, 41-38. But TCU has another response; Michigan brought the house on third-and-7 when when Duggan found Quentin Johnston on a crossing pattern who ran 76 yards up the right sideline to make it a 10 point game with 13:07 to play.

Johnston finished with six catches for 163 yards and one touchdown.

The Wolverines made it a six-point game with 3:18 to play when McCarthy found Wilson on a 5-yard touchdown pass.

Early mistakes pile up

The Wolverines were only playing catchup all game because of an inauspicious start.

Donovan Edwards ripped through a hole in the a-gap on the first play of the game and was off to the races, galloping 54 yards down the field before he was tackled in the TCU red zone. Seven plays later, Michigan faced fourth-and-goal from the TCU 2-yard line.

The Wolverines dialed up a trick play: McCarthy handed the ball to Bell on an end-around, who reversed it to tight end Colston Loveland. The freshman wanted to throw it back to McCarthy who leaked to the right of the formation into the end zone — also known as the "Philly Special" — but the Horned Frogs defense snuffed it out and dropped Loveland for a loss of 8 and a turnover on downs.

SHAWN WINDSOR:Michigan got beaten where it always matters most: Up front

McCarthy got the ball back just one minute later, but the sophomore locked in on Bell who ran an out-route to the right; which allowed TCU defensive back Bud Clark to jump the route and return the interception 41 yards to put TCU on the board first.

After a Michigan three-and-out, the Horned Frogs marched down the field. TCU put together a 12-play, 76-yard drive, and Duggan's 1-yard plunge put TCU up 14-0, the first two-possession deficit of the year for Jim Harbaugh's team.

After a Jake Moody 42-yard field goal cut the deficit to 14-3, the momentum appeared to flip to the Wolverines. Duggan forced a pass over the middle which was broken up by Junior Colson and ricocheted to safety Rod Moore who made the diving interception.

On the next play, McCarthy faked the handoff to Edwards before he threw a deep bomb to Roman Wilson who came down with the pass in the end zone for what appeared to be a 51-yard touchdown. Upon review, the call was overturned and the officials determined Wilson was down just before the goal line.

"I thought I was in," Wilson said in front of his locker after the game. "But I can't see from the outside."

Converted running back Kalel Mullings took the ensuing handoff but fumbled on the goal line, which was recovered by the Horned Frogs in the end zone for a touchback — the first time the Wolverines had turned the ball over multiple times in a game all season.

"I was in a three-point (stance), went to get the ball and I didn't handle it clean enough," Mullings said. "When I went to tuck it away under my left, I felt it slip and then I didn't even realize I'd lost it.

"I tried to get on it, but by that point their defensive guys are going to hop on it."

After the two sides traded punts, Duggan again led TCU on a lengthy scoring drive, marching 83 yards on 10 plays when he found Taye Barber on a 6-yard crossing route to put TCU up 21-3 with 4:56 in the first half.

Moody, who became Michigan's all-time scoring leader (355 points) with his extra point in the fourth quarter, made a 59-yard field goal as time expired in the first half; a Fiesta Bowl record and the longest kick in program history.

Little things coming up big

For as costly as the interceptions were — and there's no getting around how costly 14 free points is — Michigan had its chances to win the game, but didn't execute in ways it had all season, starting on the ground on both sides of the ball.

The final rushing line looks respectable for U-M: 40 carries for 185 yards and three touchdowns, but the running backs didn't consistently move the ball on Saturday. After a 54-yard run on the first play of the game, Edwards and Mullings combined for 69 yards on 27 carries (2.55 per attempt) the rest of the way.

Meanwhile, the third-ranked rushing defense in the nation (85.3 yards per game) was gashed. TCU ran 41 times for 263 yards (6.4 yards per carry) and three touchdowns, all which were the worst marks of the year of Michigan.

"Mistakes, not doing our assignments properly," said defensive tackle Kris Jenkins. "We let the mistakes get the best of us, missing tackles that we shouldn't have, not fitting our run lanes. Obviously it was stuff that can be easily fixed, but we let that get the best of us today."

The inability to capitalize in the red zone was also costly. Michigan got inside the Horned Frogs five yard line three times in thee first 40 minutes of the game and came away with just three points on those trips.

Michigan was also 1-for-10 on third down until late in the fourth quarter and finished 3-of-13 on the day.

Contact Tony Garcia at apgarcia@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @realtonygarcia.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football knocked out by TCU, 51-45, in Fiesta Bowl