Michigan entered Ohio Stadium with massive expectations — a Big Ten Championship Game berth, a spot in the College Football Playoff and maybe more.
Nobody expected this.
Ohio State (11-1 overall, 8-1 Big Ten) added countless insults to Michigan’s injuries in a shocking, 62-39 rout of the Wolverines (10-2, 8-1). The shattering loss made it seven in a row for the Buckeyes, but few have stung this much.
Michigan’s 10-game win streak evaporated in devastating fashion. Ohio State rang up an overwhelming 567 total yards against the Wolverines, including 249 on the ground.
OSU quarterback Dwayne Haskins carved up a pass defense that entered the game No. 1 in the nation. He went 19-of-30 passing for 318 yards and five touchdowns.
Jim Harbaugh’s crew tried to answer, junior quarterback Shea Patterson going 20-of-34 passing for 187 yards and three TDs, and senior tailback Karan Higdon carrying 15 times for 72 yards.
But any hope for the Wolverines got swept away in a 38-point second-half outburst by the home team.
In short, it was a lost afternoon for the visitors, when they most needed to show up.
“I guess you could say shocked,” senior safety Tyree Kinnel said, describing his postgame view. “Our mindset as a defense was to play like we’ve been playing all year. We had high confidence. We felt like we had a good shot of dominating this game. I guess I am pretty shocked that the outcome was like this and how easily they moved the ball, how easily they made plays.”
He wasn’t alone. Patterson led an offense that eventually put 39 points on the board, and couldn’t see the Buckeyes from there.
“We prepared like we have the past 10 weeks,” Patterson said. “We just ran into a good Ohio State team. Obviously, we had Big Ten championship hopes and playoff hopes. Maybe that got in the way a little bit, but hats off to them. They played a helluva game.”
The Buckeyes grabbed the upper hand early, going 57 yards for a touchdown on their opening possession. Haskins dumped a blitz-beating crossing route to wideout Chris Olave, who raced 24 yards untouched into the end zone, giving the Buckeyes a 7-0 lead just 3:31 into the game.
The Wolverines struck back immediately. Patterson’s scramble and 15-yard toss to sophomore wideout Tarik Black moved the chains once on third down, then junior tailback Chris Evans’ 11-yard run on third down set up freshman kicker Jake Moody’s 39-yard field goal.
At the 6:22 mark of the first quarter, the Wolverines crept back to trail 7-3, on the strength of the rookie’s leg.
Moody made it 7-6 nine seconds into the second quarter, pounding through a 31-yard field goal to cap a 12-play, 52-yard drive. The Wolverines could just as easily gone ahead, had Patterson’s perfectly thrown rollout toss into the end zone not slipped from redshirt junior tight end Zach Gentry’s hands.
Michigan quickly got another chance. A Buckeye dead ball personal foul penalty helped kill a possession, and pressure on the punt gave U-M the ball at the 50.
U-M recovered from a sack on Patterson to face fourth-and-two in OSU territory. But a false start led to a punt, and the Buckeyes took full advantage.
Haskins came out firing, hitting wideout K.J. Hill for 28 yards on a crossing route, then gunning a 24-yard TD toss to Olave. The Buckeyes went 80 yards in nine plays, making it 14-6 with 9:08 left in the half.
Then it got ugly.
An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty put the Buckeyes in a major third-down hole. But a pass interference penalty on fifth-year senior cornerback Brandon Watson ignited what turned into a 79-yard touchdown drive.
The Wolverines missed several tackles on a quick, short toss to Ohio State H-back Parris Campbell (five catches, 114 yards, one TD), who turned it into a 23-yard gain. Haskins then gunned a 31-yard touchdown pass to wideout Johnnie Dixon III.
At 21-6 with 3:18 left in the half, the Wolverines looked to be in huge trouble. Then a frenetic final three minutes changed plenty.
U-M struck back aggressively, on an eight-play, 79-yard touchdown drive, featuring four completions and a 15-yard Patterson scramble. The QB then floated a 23-yard toss that junior wideout Nico Collins (four catches, 91 yards, two touchdowns) soared to snag at the apex of his jump, pulling Michigan back within eight, 21-13.
On the ensuing kickoff, OSU running back Demario McCall called for a fair catch and couldn’t make the grab. Michigan junior wideout Nate Schoenle dove on it at the Buckeyes’ 9, and the Wolverines stared down a gift.
They unwrapped it when the Buckeyes declined to cover Evans, who slipped out for a nine-yard TD toss. Even with a two-point conversion try featuring Patterson getting dragged down, the Wolverines were suddenly, shockingly, right back in it.
They looked to go into halftime down just 21-19, with 47 seconds remaining. But that’s not how this game rolled.
Three Michigan penalties helped the Buckeyes quickly go from their own 25 to the U-M 1. But OSU had to settle for a 19-yard field goal as time expired in the half. At 24-19, Buckeyes, the 106,588 in the stadium and millions watching at home shook their heads and exhaled heavily.
And things were just getting heated up.
“We had a burst of momentum,” Evans said. “We got that kickoff, and we felt good coming out the second half. We needed our defense to get a stop so we could come out and score.”
The Buckeyes hurt Michigan coming out in the second half — literally. On consecutive defensive series, U-M saw a pair of All-Big Ten performers carried off — junior cornerback David Long and junior linebacker Devin Bush.
Bush went down on a 31-yard crossing-pattern completion to Campbell, setting up a 19-yard field goal at the 8:25 mark. It could have been worse. Michigan held the Buckeyes off after they had first-and-goal at the U-M 5.
Soon after, it was worse.
Olave blocked freshman punter Will Hart’s boot, the ball tumbling high into the air. OSU’s Sevyn Banks caught it on the dead run and scored from 33 yards out. At 34-19, things were getting desperate, and soon became more so.
Arnette followed with a pickoff at the U-M 22 on a wobbling throw by a pressured Patterson. A quick toss to Hill covered 20 yards and a pitch to tailback Mike Weber finished it off, the Buckeyes taking full command at 41-19.
“Sometimes, you get desperate in those types of situations,” Patterson said. “I wasn’t really trying to force it. I was trying to throw the ball out of bounds. The defensive guy made a good play and hit my elbow.”
The Wolverines did fight back, going 75 yards in eight plays, Patterson’s 12-yard fade to Collins pulling them back to 41-25. Another two-point conversion attempt failed, with 14:11 left in the game.
But in Michigan’s most shocking defensive effort of the year, the next OSU score lurked right around the bend.
Campbell ran around right end on the sweep, racing away untouched on a 78-yard touchdown run to boost the margin to 48-25 just 16 seconds after Michigan scored.
“They played great,” Harbaugh said. “Third quarter especially, a lot of speed plays that got out on the perimeter and got loose. We also set them up in good field position with a couple turnovers, and of course the blocked punt contributed to the score, as well.”
The Wolverines struck back with an 86-yard TD drive, sophomore fullback Ben Mason scoring from a yard out. But even this proved costly, Patterson leaving the game after getting bulldogged to the ground by the facemask by Ohio State defensive end Jonathan Cooper.
But OSU’s repeated scoring drives made thoughts of a comeback wishful thinking. The Buckeyes went 75 yards in six plays, Haskins’ one-yard throw to Hill making it 55-32 with 6:59 left.
After freshman quarterback Joe Milton came on to fire an interception to Buckeyes’ safety Brendon White, Haskins tossed a 16-yard TD pass to Campbell. That left the nation stunned, the Buckeyes flexing over the Wolverines at 62-32.
Milton ran in a four-yard touchdown with 3:16 remaining after unloading a 43-yard pass to Collins. But the horses were out of the barn, across the field and halfway across Indiana by then.
“It’s tough,” Kinnel offered. “It’s very unexpected. We fought through adversity. We didn’t think we’d have to go through that much pain during a game. It’s really tough to go through.”
Five Top Players Of The Game
1. OSU quarterback Dwayne Haskins — Haskins set new Big Ten standards with his 318 yards and five touchdowns passing. He’s got 4,003 passing yards on the year, eclipsing Curtis Painter’s record of 3,985, set with Purdue in 2006. Haskins has also thrown 41 touchdown passes, two more than Drew Brees’ record of 39 for the Boilermakers in 1998.
2. OSU H-back Parris Campbell — When you see Michigan junior linebacker Devin Bush chasing and losing ground on someone, they’re moving. Campbell made five catches for 114 yards to lead OSU’s devastating passing game.
3. OSU wideout Chris Olave — Olave caught a pair of touchdown passes for the Buckeyes. He also blocked a punt, returned by a teammate 33 yards for a touchdown.
4. Junior quarterback Shea Patterson — Patterson battled in Ohio Stadium, making three touchdown tosses of his own. He threw one interception when his arm got hit, but directed an offense to 39 points — more than enough in this series, in most years.
5. Sophomore wide receiver Nico Collins — Collins snagged four passes for 91 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He and classmate Donovan Peoples-Jones (seven grabs, 64 yards) were the go-to guys when the Wolverines tried to keep pace.
---
• Talk about this article inside The Fort
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolverine
• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolverineMag, @BSB_Wolverine, @JB_ Wolverine, @AustinFox42, @Balas_Wolverine, @DrewCHallett and @Qb9Adam.
• Like us on Facebook
