Michigan beat Iowa at its own game Saturday night, earning a third straight Big Ten championship in a game fitting of two of the best defenses in the country.

A huge special teams play from a true freshman, a bizarrely friendly assist from the replay official and a 0-3 turnover advantage propelled Michigan to a 26-0 victory Saturday night at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

Michigan reached 13 victories for the second straight year, and also for the second time in 144 seasons. Win No. 1,002 in the storied history of Wolverines football gives the program 3 straight B1G titles for the first time since a run of 5 in a row from 1988-92. Michigan owns B1G highs of 45 total titles and 19 outright crowns.

Iowa was seeking its 12th championship and first since 2004.

With the victory, Michigan (13-0) sealed a third straight CFP bid. The questions now are if the Wolverines will get the No. 1 seed over fellow unbeaten Washington (13-0 after beating Oregon for the Pac-12 title), and, either way, who their opponent will be.

Mike Sainristil sets the tone

In his final year as a Wolverine, the 5-10, 182-pound grad student is closing his career with a flourish.

His first blitz off the corner caused an incompletion to force Iowa’s first punt, and served as a prelude to his game-breaking play early in the third quarter. Again blitzing off the edge, he knocked the ball from quarterback Deacon Hill’s hand.

There’s no dispute Sainristil made a great play, but it became game-changing when the official ruling of incomplete pass was changed to fumble on replay. Even though officials whistled and signaled the play dead as the ball was bounding around, replay ruled that a recovery by Michigan 15 yards down the field would count. Iowa argued that its players stopped playing on the whistles and signals of incomplete pass, with OC Brian Ferentz drawing an unsportsmanlike call.

Sainristil jarred the ball free with a second-quarter hit on WR Jaziun Patterson to force Iowa’s first turnover, ending the Hawkeyes’ best scoring chance.

A former wide receiver, Sainristil has made huge plays all year, including 5 interceptions, using his athleticism and football IQ to huge effect. DC Jesse Minter has employed him all over the field.

Michigan faces issues entering CFP

Michigan’s offensive line, down 2 of the top 7 in the rotation, didn’t even hold their own, let alone dominate, against Phil Parker’s stout and disciplined defense.

Without freshman Semaj Morgan’s 87-yard punt return that set up Blake Corum’s 23rd rushing TD of the season, the Wolverines might have been clinging to a 1-score lead at halftime rather than 10-0.

Corum had just 15 yards on 7 carries at the break. Thanks to JJ McCarthy taking 32 yards of losses on 3 sacks, Michigan had just 16 yards of 15 carries to that point.

McCarthy’s trend of high completion rate (22-30, 73.3%) yet low yardage (147) and TD throws (0) continued. And he took another 8-yard sack in the second half.

Corum scored a second TD thanks to a short field set up by Sainristil’s 2nd forced fumble, but he never did really get going. He finished with 52 yards on 16 carries. The hard-earned yards were enough push him over 1,000 for the season, with 28 to spare.

Much of the trouble came up front, where Zak Zinter (broken leg vs. Ohio State) was out and Myles Hinton (questionable) didn’t see action. The group up for a third straight Joe Moore Award as best o-line in the nation eventually did enough to wear down the Hawkeyes. But it wasn’t easy, and wasn’t particularly impressive.

From left to right, the line consisted of LaDarius Henderson, Trevor Keegan, Drake Nugent, Karsen Barnhart and Trente Jones. All are seniors/grad students, though all but Henderson could return for 1 more year. Jones was called for both a false start and a hold while manning right tackle.

Even with a month for players to heal and revitalize, that’ll probably be the group for Michigan’s Playoff run. And they’ll likely have to be better for Jim Harbaugh to avoid a 3rd straight CFP semifinal loss and 6th straight bowl loss.

Iowa’s offense nears all-time ineptness

Even the one time it was set up with primo field position, Iowa’s offense couldn’t deliver points. In the second quarter, a 16-yard sack of McCarthy followed by a poor punt by Tommy Doman put the Hawkeyes at the Michigan 38-yard line. Three plays later, Iowa turned over the ball on a fumble. That broke a string of 4 possessions ending in punts to open the game.

Heading to the locker room at halftime, Iowa had 61 yards (31 rushing, 30 passing) and 2 first downs. Rarely has a 10-point lead look so insurmountable.

But this is Iowa, the worst yardage offense in the country and now nearly the worst scoring team in the country (128th of 133 in the FBS).

The Hawkeyes will need 14 points in their bowl to avoid being the worst-scoring 10-win team in history among current and future Big Ten teams.

Winning 10 games while averaging less than 20 points is extremely rare, even in a league known for its defense.

1903 Northwestern: 10-1-3, 229 points (16.36 per game)
2023 Iowa: 10-3, 216 points (16.62 per game)
1902 Nebraska: 10-0, 186 points (18.6 per game)
1932 USC: 10-0, 186 points (18.6 per game)
1959 Washington: 10-1, 209 points (19.0 per game)
1962 USC: 11-0, 219 (19.9 per game)

Iowa finished with 149 yards and 7 first downs, going 4-of-15 on third down and 0-3 on fourth down. Hill, the lowest rated qualifying quarterback in the FBS, finished 18-of-32 for 120 yards, avoiding his fourth sub-100 passing game since replacing injured Cade McNamara as Iowa’s starter.