Self-Inflicted Wounds Spoil Michigan's Improbable Playoff Dreams

The college football world will talk about the fumble for a long time.

The state of Michigan will dwell on it forever.

But Michigan punter Blake O'Neill's fumbled snap that resulted in a game-winning 38-yard touchdown return for Michigan State's Jalen Watts-Jackson as time expired was far from the only self-inflicted error for the Wolverines.

Michigan constantly shot itself in the foot during the second half of its improbable 27-23 loss to undefeated rival Michigan State on Saturday in the Big House.

While the special teams mistake was by far the biggest and most crucial to the result, the Wolverines had several missed opportunities that would've put some distance between themselves and the Spartans.

Michigan had eight penalties for 70 yards Saturday against Michigan State. The lost yardage was the second-most this season for the Wolverines, only trailing the rout of Oregon State in Week 2. 

The flags obviously loomed much larger in a high-profile matchup against an undefeated rival.

Half of those penalties resulted in first downs for Michigan State, including an unnecessary roughness call on Willie Henry late in the third quarter.

Tony Ding/Associated Press/Associated Press

One of those flags, a controversial targeting call on leading tackler Joe Bolden in the second quarter, led to a game-tying touchdown and drew the ire of head coach Jim Harbaugh afterward.

Two offensive penalties for Michigan pushed the Wolverines back in situations that prevented them from putting more points on the board.

The second one, a holding call on Ben Braden, turned a 1st-and-goal situation at the MSU 8-yard line into a much tougher one for quarterback Jake Rudock. The Wolverines could only get down to the 3-yard line on a third-down pass, and a field goal prevented them from taking a possible double-digit lead.

Some of the penalties were arguably tough calls on Michigan, and not all of the flags had a direct impact on the scoreboard.

However, they gave 70 free yards to a Michigan State team that would outgain Michigan by 156 yards on offense.

And as Bleacher Report's David Kenyon wrote last week, the Wolverines already had issues with avoidable penalties in their first six games of the season:

"

...the reasons for the laundry being thrown are correctable, eye-rolling mistakes. The Wolverines have committed seven false starts, five defensive pass interferences and two roughing-the-kicker penalties.

Overall, Michigan has granted eight first downs—which is a 16-way tie for 64th—to its opponents.

No team will ever manage the ideal total of zero penalties, but nearly eliminating procedural and pass-interference calls would cut penalty yardage—and free first downs—significantly.

"

While the offense was hit for two of Michigan's eight penalties, it also had issues with drops and misfires in crucial situations.

The Wolverines moved the chains on four of their 15 third-down situations Saturday, including five straight failed conversions to end the game. 

Rudock's extremely low third-down pass to tight end Jake Butt early in the fourth quarter was reviewed and ruled incomplete. Jehu Chesson's drop later in the period forced a three-and-out for the Michigan offense—one of six in the contest.

Tony Ding/Associated Press

Michigan failed on several late-game occasions to generate first downs and ice the game against a determined Michigan State team. The defense stood tall for most of the contest, but the offense had plenty of frustrations.

And if those self-inflicted wounds weren't already too much for Michigan, the final fumble served as the kill shot for a mistake-prone team.

Perhaps the writing was already on the wall for the unit. Earlier in the fourth quarter, Jabrill Peppers nearly gave the ball away by fumbling a kick return right after Michigan State cut the Wolverines' lead to 23-21.

The Wolverines kept the ball but went three-and-out. Two punts later, O'Neill bobbled the snap and tried to get the ball back for a last-gasp kick that would've sealed a wild win.

The rest, however, is now history, much like the Wolverines' chances of staying in the College Football Playoff hunt.

A win over Michigan State would've put Michigan in Top-10 range and made the Wolverines one of the most impressive one-loss teams in the entire country.

String together some more wins against lesser-quality opponents, and the Wolverines would set up a massive showdown with Ohio State for a Big Ten East title and a possible shot at the four-team playoff.

The loss to Michigan State won't put Michigan out of the race for the division—which is still a massive accomplishment for Harbaugh in his first season with this program—but it eliminated any chance of a playoff berth without some unfathomable chaos across the country.

In the final seconds, the ball didn't bounce Michigan's way during another late-game mistake. Now Harbaugh's Wolverines must recover and readjust after one of the wildest losses in college football history.

Game statistics courtesy of StatBroadcast. Unless otherwise noted, other statistics courtesy of cfbstats.com.

Justin Ferguson is a college football writer at Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JFergusonBR.