2022 Bowl Games schedule, college football scores, live updates: LSU routs Purdue in Citrus Bowl

Fiesta Bowl: No. 3 TCU 51, No. 2 Michigan 45

No. 3 TCU toppled No. 2 Michigan 51-45 for the most important upset in College Football Playoff historical past and one of the exhilarating semifinal video games the format has seen because it made its debut in 2014. The Horned Frogs had been eight-point underdogs at kickoff of the 2022 Fiesta Bowl, however the identical DNA that helped them overcome greater than a handful of second-half deficits through the common season has the Frogs now sitting 6-1 in one-score video games after eliminating the beforehand undefeated Wolverines. 

Saturday’s first CFP semifinal was not solely the highest-scoring Fiesta Bowl (relationship again to 1971), it featured the highest-scoring quarter in CFP historical past (44 factors, third quarter) and stands because the highest-scoring playoff sport by way of regulation.

TCU led by as many as 18 factors in the primary half and took a 21-6 lead into halftime earlier than that third quarter for the ages. Michigan not solely reached the top zone for the primary time all sport, it tacked on two extra touchdowns and a area objective throughout a 15-minute exhibiting that, in a vacuum, would have prompt the Big Ten champions had been making their transfer at one of many largest comebacks in playoff historical past. 

But at practically each flip, TCU had a response. 

When Michigan lower its deficit to 21-16, TCU first marched down the sphere in about 2 minutes to attain a lead-extending landing. Then it intercepted UM quarterback J.J. McCarthy for its second choose six of the sport. McCarthy received off the mat and led led two landing drives in the ultimate 3 minutes of the third quarter, however one other TCU landing got here in between.

Michigan even lower its deficit to 41-38 — the closest it might come all sport — early in the fourth quarter earlier than the Horned Frogs got here proper again with 10 unanswered factors to pad their lead additional. The first of these two scores, a 76-yard landing move from Duggan to Quentin Johnston, gave TCU a 48-38 lead that seemed to be the nail in the coffin. 

Of course, it was not the ultimate twist in the sport. Michigan used area place from a key defensive cease to arrange McCarthy and the offense for a 56-yard landing drive, chopping TCU’s result in 51-45 with 3:18 to play. However, TCU was in a position to choose a primary down and bleed sufficient clock to restrict Michigan’s probabilities at stealing the win in the ultimate minute.