THE GAME STORY: The fingers of blame pointed everywhere in Hawkeyes' loss

A 10-3 defeat at Michigan was ugly from the beginning.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Everybody wanted the blame, a nobility built in accuracy.

Iowa’s 10-3 loss to Michigan in Saturday’s Big Ten game at Michigan Stadium was a mess from the first fumble to the last pass that went nowhere.

The No. 14 Hawkeyes (4-1 overall, 1-1 Big Ten), so consistently cool all season, spent the day rattled and confused, and it was a feast for the Wolverines.

One rushing yard. One, although a lot of that total came from the eight sacks of quarterback Nate Stanley.

Three points, all on Keith Duncan’s second-quarter field goal.

Let’s go back to that eight-sack total. Eight that left quarterback Nate Stanley sore.

And here’s another eight — eight penalties. Two came on back-to-back holding calls on a fourth-quarter drive that went from first-and-10 at Michigan’s 25 to first-and-30 20 yards back.

So that blame that everyone wanted was deserved.

“It’s all a team thing,” said offensive tackle Alaric Jackson, rusty in his first game back after missing the last three with a knee injury.

“We had to execute better,” tackle Tristan Wirfs said. “That’s on us.”

“I need to get the ball out quicker, not hold on to the ball,” Stanley said.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said he wasn’t discouraged, just disappointed.

“What’s really critical is learning from a loss, how we handle it, and more importantly, grow from it,” he said.

“It’s a tough day for our guys.”

Tough day? Ugly day.

Iowa running back Mekhi Sargent fumbled on the Hawkeyes’ opening offensive play, and it really wouldn’t get any better than that.

The Hawkeyes came in with one turnover in the first four games, and they would leave with four more — the Sargent fumble and three interceptions by Stanley.

“Any time you lose a game, you’re disappointed,” Ferentz said. “I’m not discouraged. I’ve been with these guys, for the most part, since January. What I see these guys do every day, they have great attitudes and they work right.”

Stanley, who didn’t have an interception in the first four games, was nowhere near as sharp as he has been. The Wolverines blitzed, and kept blitzing once they figured the Hawkeyes didn’t have an answer.

“We knew they were a good defense,” Stanley said. “We knew we weren’t going to put up 644 yards like we did last week (in a 48-3 win over Middle Tennessee State). That’s just part of the game.

“We had drives where we would get it going, and then there would be one mistake. We would shoot ourselves in the foot.”

Iowa’s three running backs — Toren Young, Tyler Goodson and Mekhi Sargent — had 21 carries for 67 yards. There was nowhere to run.

“We needed to get the run game started, and we didn’t,” center Tyler Linderbaum said. “That makes it tough on our passing game, makes it tough for our receivers and our quarterback to work. We just lacked that today.”

Once that part of Iowa’s game was taken away, the No. 18 Wolverines (4-1, 2-1) constantly pressured Stanley. He was brought down for 65 yards of loss, plays that would smother any sort of offensive momentum.

“We have the ability to get the ball out quicker,” Stanley said. “They did a great job of keeping us on our toes, bringing different blitzes, and we didn’t pick them up.”

“I hate it. It’s tough,” Wirfs said. “Our whole position is keep Nate clean. Once a team starts building momentum, it’s hard to stop that.”

“That’s probably the worst feeling, knowing someone got through,” Linderbaum said.

“They’re a high-blitz team,” Ferentz said. “Once you get momentum doing things, you’re going to stick with it. Our protection was not good, obviously, and that made it tough.”

The Wolverines scored all of their points in the first quarter, a Jake Moody 28-yard field goal after the Sargent fumble and a Zach Charbonnet 2-yard touchdown run.

Michigan would get into Iowa territory just three more times the rest of the day, and ended with just a six-yard advantage in offensive yards.

Iowa was 61-1 under Ferentz in games when the Hawkeyes would allow 10 points or less. It was the fewest points allowed in a loss since a 9-6 defeat to Iowa State in 2012.

The Hawkeyes get Penn State at home next week. There is an education to all of this, Ferentz said.

Everyone took the blame, because they knew what they had seen.

“It was a pretty bad game,” Jackson said.