It's no surprise that maybe the best game of Zoltan Mesko's career came a week after his decision to run on a fake punt contributed to Michigan’s overtime loss to Michigan State.

"I'm pretty good at cussing myself out and I did take it hard,” Mesko said. “You have those games where it’s just like on the golf course, sometimes you’re amazing cause you get lucky and sometimes you’re so bad you want to jump off a cliff. That was one of those jump-off-the-cliff games for me.”

Zoltan Mesko

Courtesy of U-M athletics

Along with the botched fake, Mesko had poorly-hit punts of 36 and 38 yards against MSU.

Against Iowa, he averaged a career-best 53.8 yards on five kicks and rocked a 61-yarder while backed up in his own end zone early in the fourth quarter.

Outside of Mesko, Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez wasn’t happy with his team’s special-teams play against the Hawkeyes. But Mesko said he’s partly at fault for the punt-coverage unit’s shortcomings.

The Hawkeyes returned the 61-yard punt 20 yards, and scored on the next play.

“The one thing I noticed was we were not in our coverage lanes as much,” Mesko said. “I take some of the blame for that because I wasn’t kicking the ball directionally as well. I was getting some good ball flight and it was going high and deep, but at the same time there’s a directional aspect to it that I could have done a little better on.”

Still, Mesko was named Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week for his performance.

“I’ve been telling myself not to get goo high or too low on myself,” Mesko said. “After a good performance it’s easy to get complacent and not focus on the hard work anymore, and the results will show the next game.”

Dave Birkett covers University of Michigan football for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached by phone at 734-623-2552 or by e-mail at davidbirkett@annarbor.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.