Another Miracle for Northwestern

Brian Gowins thought he’d won the game. The crowd Dyche Stadium was in a frenzy as his kick sailed through the uprights.

Then he was told he had to kick it again.

And he did, making a 39-yarder with 13 seconds left as No. 22 Northwestern rallied from a 16-0 fourth-quarter deficit to stun No. 6 Michigan 17-16.

Officials ruled after Gowins’ first kick that the play had not been whistled to start. One of the officials apparently was not in proper position as the ball was snapped, so the play had to be run over.

“They had to reset the clock back to 17 seconds and I was basically mad at the officials. I yelled ... ‘Like what are you trying to do?’ Michigan had already used its timeouts and couldn’t ice me.”

Gowins calmly kicked it through the uprights a second time -- his third field goal of the fourth quarter.

“That I had to do it twice made it even sweeter,” Gowins said.

The Wolverines couldn’t do much of anything in the fourth quarter. Entering Saturday’s game, the defense hadn’t yielded a point in the final period all season.

But Northwestern drove 80 yards in the final 1:53 mainly on the passing of Steve Schnur to set up the game-winner by Gowins.

Schnur’s biggest completion was a 12-yarder to Brian Musso on fourth-and-9 from the Michigan 46 with a minute left.

He also had a third-down completion to D’Wayne Bates when Northwestern used an unorthodox formation with six players split to the far sides of the field.

Musso and Bates each had one more catch, and a short run by Darnell Autry--who rushed for more than 100 yards (107) for the 18th consecutive game--gave Northwestern a first down at the 22 with 17 seconds left.

Northwestern Coach Gary Barnett decided to try a field goal on first down and Gowins responded. He also had field goals of 23 and 33 yards in the final quarter. Levelle Brown’s three-yard touchdown run and Schnur’s two-point conversion pass to Bates had made the score 16-8 with 13 minutes left.

Northwestern (4-1, 2-0 in the Big Ten) also rallied to beat Michigan, 19-13, in last season’s storybook run to the Big Ten championship and Rose Bowl berth.

But a comeback Saturday didn’t look possible against Michigan (4-1, 1-1) and an aggressive defense that constantly pressured Schnur and allowed only 160 yards in the first three quarters.

Michigan had built its lead on Remy Hamilton’s three field goals and a three-yard touchdown run by Chris Howard that was set up by Tai Streets’ 27-yard reception, one of 12 he made in the game for 150 yards.