Michigan lost to TCU on Saturday, but if you ask Jim Harbaugh, the game of football won.
"Congratulations to TCU," Harbaugh told reporters after the Wolverines' 51-45 loss in the College Football Playoff semifinal. "I thought they played a great game. Very opportunistic team, very resilient team, really great team. Played a great football game, no doubt. There’s a winner, there’s a non-winner. But the real winner today was football."
To Harbaugh's point, the entertainment value was high. Two of the top teams in the country traded punches and counterpunches from the opening snap, a long run by Michigan's Donovan Edwards. It wasn't always the cleanest or prettiest football -- both teams committed three turnovers -- but it made for great theatre.
"One less big play by them, one more big play by us, one more opportunistic play by us, one less opportunistic play by them, and it would be a different situation," Harbaugh said.
Ultimately, Michigan was done in by its own mistakes. J.J. McCarthy threw two pick-sixes, the offense failed to score on two trips inside TCU's two-yard line and the defense missed tackles all over the field in allowing 263 yards on the ground. The Wolverines put up 39 points in the second half, but it wasn't enough to overcome everything they did wrong.
Harbaugh was nevertheless proud of his players for clawing their way back into the fight -- and very nearly winning it.
"I talked to our guys about, you don’t quit, you don’t give up, you never let up, you never give in," he said. "You just keep playing, one play at a time, and I could have easily been standing in our locker room at the end of the ballgame congratulating a whole locker room of heroes, because that’s what they are and what they have been this entire season, including this game.
"It was a great effort by both teams, and really proud of my team."
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