Michigan enjoys win, turns attention to OSU: 'We all know what time it is'

For the second year in a row, Michigan played a closer-than-expected game in Week 12, the week before the Ohio State game. Last season, the Wolverines snuck past Illinois by the skin of their teeth. It took an Isaiah Gash reception on a fourth-down play and a late Jake Moody field goal to lift Michigan over the Fighting Illini at the Big House.

This year, Michigan found itself in a similar situation, but this time on the road. Although Jim Harbaugh wasn't in attendance, Michigan jumped out to a 23-3 lead, and it appeared the Wolverines would take care of business rather easily, like they had in their first 10 games of the season.

But Taulia Tagovailoa and the Terrapins offense got hot in the second half, while J.J. McCarthy — who was clearly not 100% — and the Michigan offense failed to do much of anything on the ground or in the air in the third and fourth quarters.

Maryland had two opportunities down five late in the game to put together a potential game-wining touchdown drive, but Tagovailoa was flagged for intentional grounding in his own end zone, which resulted in a safety.

Michigan got the ball back and ran out the remaining 3:36 to secure the 1,000th win in program history.

It was pretty clearly the Wolverines' worst showing of the season, but they got the win, which is all that matters.

The team now turns its attention to Ohio State, which is shaping up to be another duel for the ages at the Big House next week.

"Now that we're able to finally shift our focus to Ohio State, everything is going into this game," Mike Sainristil said. "This is where a championship can be won, and hopes for the playoffs, Big Ten Championship is all going into this game. So, can't wait for that opportunity next Saturday."

Sainristil came up clutch with two interceptions in Saturday's win, both of which shifted momentum in a major way at crucial moments in the second half. His first interception nearly went for a pick six — which would've been his third of the season — but Sainristil's elbow barely touched the ground after a review.

Michael Barrett said he gave Sainristil a pep talk after his pair of interceptions.

"I told him when he came off, he['s] a d--- dog, man," Barrett said. "Especially those clutch moments whenever we needed it — we talk to each other all the time: 'This is our team. We came back for a reason, so we gotta be those tone-setters, make those tone-setting plays.'"

Barrett made a number of tone-setting plays himself, but perhaps the biggest tone-setting moment of Barrett's day was his return to the game in the third quarter. He went down with an injury in the second quarter, and it appeared to be serious, but he returned to help out the defense in the third quarter.

"Just a little AC sprain on my shoulder," Barrett said after the game. "Just kinda came in [to the locker room] got it looked at, got it padded up and went back out there. Nothing a little Tylenol won't fix."

The two captains played a tremendous role in Michigan's victory on Saturday, and they'll look to cap off their careers against Ohio State with three consecutive victories.

"We all know what time it is," Barrett said. "Once this game was over, we all knew where our attention was going to go."

The attention goes to Ohio State, and Barrett says the team needs to "lock in."

"We know it's that time. Gotta lock in. We didn't really want to shoot the gun too quick, you always gotta play every opponent, prepare every opponent just like they're the same, so we didn't want to get too far ahead, kinda worrying about them too early, but it's that week."

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