Round Two: Sifting through the rubble of Ohio State’s debacle against Michigan

A lot of you probably spent the afternoon of Saturday, Nov. 30 like I did: watching the Ohio State-Michigan game.

And a lot of you probably spent the rest of the day like I did: wondering how the second-ranked Buckeyes and their gold-tinted roster could lose 13-10 at home to the worst Michigan team this side of Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke.

I know it’s a rivalry, and you can throw the records out.

I know Michigan had nothing to lose, and how Ohio State was playing for a spot in the Big Ten Championship Game and College Football Playoff seeding.

I know the Buckeyes had lost three in a row to the Wolverines, and once losing streaks to your rival reach that three-straight mark, it starts to play mind games with you. For proof, Michigan lost three in a row to Ohio State from 2012 to 2014 — and the misery was just beginning, because that Buckeye winning streak in the rivalry would eventually hit eight. And that was after Ohio State had beaten Michigan seven straight times from 2004 to 2010.

I know all that. But I don’t care. There was absolutely no excuse for Ohio State to lose to an unranked Michigan team that was missing its best offensive player, tight end Colston Loveland, and its best defensive player, cornerback Will Johnson, to injury — and that hadn’t done a whole lot with them in the lineup anyway. The Wolverines entered Ohio Stadium with a 6-5 record and destined for some lower-tier bowl game, the kind that the only people who could care less about it than the fans are the players — many of whom no doubt will skip out on the bowl game to “prepare for the NFL,” which probably means sitting on the couch playing video games.

The Buckeyes, on the other hand, were 10-1 on the season going into The Game, their only loss coming by one point to the No. 1 team in the country, Oregon, and it came on Oregon’s field. Which is notable, because nobody ever seems to come close to winning on Oregon’s field. The Ducks’ Autzen Stadium in Eugene is college football’s black hole: Opposing offenses and defenses just seem to disappear in there. So the fact that Ohio State only lost by one measly point at Autzen pretty much made Oregon No. 1 and Ohio State No. 1-A.

But not now. Yes, Ohio State is still going to make the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff field. But it’s almost certainly not going to get a coveted first-round bye, and it might not even host a playoff game at all. That happens when you’re at home against a 20-point underdog and lose.

There’s a lot to unpack from The Game, so let’s break it down point by point:

OFFENSIVE GAME PLAN

There either wasn’t one, or it was so incompetent that Chip Kelly, Ohio State’s offensive coordinator, should just say there wasn’t one. Because it looked for all the world like Ohio State’s game plan on offense was to ignore its NFL-ish wide receiver corps and instead try to hammer Michigan’s defensive line — by far the Wolverines’ best unit on either side of the ball — with an offensive line that has had trouble getting a consistent push all season. That the extremely accomplished and respected Kelly came up with this bright idea — and that head coach Ryan Day signed off on it — is astonishing. Michigan had one strength on defense, and Ohio State went out of its way to allow that strength to be the dominant force in the game.

What was especially maddening from the perspective of Buckeye Nation is that it was clear early on that Michigan’s secondary was not on the same level — or in the same galaxy — as the Ohio State receivers. Yet Kelly and Day never really tried to exploit this massive advantage, except at the end of the first half when the Buckeyes quickly passed their way downfield to a touchdown that tied the game 10-10 at the break.

Finally, Kelly and Day recognized that Michigan’s defensive backs couldn’t cover Ohio State’s receivers, and the second half would see Buckeyes crossing the goal line with regularity, right? Not so much. Ohio State scored zero points in the second half, Kelly and Day inexplicably determined to shove the ball down the throats of a Michigan defensive line that wasn’t in a throat-shoving mood.

THE DEFENSIVE GAME PLAN

Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles’ stop troops were outstanding. The only touchdown Michigan scored came after an interception thrown by OSU quarterback Will Howard, with the Wolverines taking over at the Ohio State 2 yard line. You got the feeling that if that “drive” had started at the 3 instead of the 2, Michigan would have had to settle for a field goal. The Wolverines have nothing resembling a competent passing attack this year, and the running game, while improving, isn’t a difference maker.

It’s the kind of offense that quickly becomes irrelevant against a team ranked No. 2 in the country. Teams led by former Buckeye coaches Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer would have taken this Ohio State roster and beaten the Wolverines about the head with it for four quarters. Both Buckeye bosses mashed sub-par Michigan teams, of which this year’s edition certainly qualifies. It’s almost unfathomable how Ryan Day could put this Ohio State team on the field against this Michigan team and even have a close game, let alone actually lose. At home, no less.

It’s not that the Wolverines are a terrible team, because they’re not. They’re mediocre. Which means that while they can handle inferior teams, their chances against elite teams are pretty much zero, as evidenced by their 31-12 loss to Texas and their 38-17 loss to Oregon — both in Ann Arbor. Those scores were in line for what should have happened Nov. 30 in Columbus.

Bottom line: Like it or not, Buckeye Nation, the Wolverines at this point in the rivalry have Ohio State’s number. And get ready for this blasphemy: Michigan is mentally and physically tougher than the Buckeyes. Period.

BACK TO THE FUTURE

Anyone up for a “Seinfeld,” “Frasier” or “The X Files” binge? With Day now 1-4 against Michigan and sitting on a four-game losing streak to That Team Up North, the 1990s have returned with a vengeance in Columbus. The specter of John Cooper, the former Ohio State coach who infamously went 2-10-1 against Michigan from 1988-2000, is casting a long shadow over the Horseshoe these days.

But thanks to Day, Cooper is finally starting to wriggle off that especially sharp hook. Their records against Michigan after five games are eerily — and for Buckeye fans, nauseatingly — similar: Coop was 0-4-1, with Day of course now 1-4. Cooper’s mark hit 0-5-1 before, with his job on the line, the Buckeyes finally broke through and beat Michigan in 1994 – before promptly losing another three straight to the Wolverines.

Buckeye Nation can see Day’s path taking this trajectory — and is horrified by it. While he beat Michigan on his first try in 2019, OSU fans are quick to point out that it came on the strength of talent recruited and developed by Urban Meyer, who had stepped down after the 2018 season. Since then, with his own recruits (and now transfer portal acquisitions), Day is oh-fer against the maize & blue.

The last thing Buckeye fans want to see is a nightmarish 1990s sequel where their favorite team only beats Michigan a couple times in a decade or longer. Many want Day fired now — or yesterday — before the monster gets any bigger, because they’ve seen this movie before and they know how it ends.

Except for one thing.

THE COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF

No one is paying a lot of attention right now due to the smoldering crater that used to be Ohio Stadium, but the Buckeyes are going to be in the playoff — and nobody should be shocked if they go on to win all four postseason games to capture the national championship.

Because, Michigan meltdown notwithstanding, this team is still loaded with the most talented roster in college football. Here are five reasons why the Buckeyes can win it all:

1. No More Michigan. Ryan Day has lost 10 games in his six seasons at Ohio State, with four of them coming at the hands of the Wolverines. Three other losses came in the CFP, including the 2020 national championship game against Alabama. So Day is a playoff veteran, and he won’t have to worry about the Wolverines, who are clearly living rent-free in his head. In the playoffs, he’ll be able to just coach rather than wrestle with that maize & blue monkey on his back.
2. No Dominant Team. The days of Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide rampaging through college football are over, which opens it up for everyone else. Georgia, which replaced Alabama as the king of college football for a couple years, isn’t quite what it used to be, either. The Buckeyes are as good as anyone in the country, if not better. If they play up to their capability, the trophy could well be theirs.
3. With A Little Help From Their “Friends”. The Wolverines may have unwittingly lit a fire under the Buckeyes by trying to plant a big block ‘M’ flag at midfield after Saturday’s game — the kind of fire that wins championships. The most emotion Ohio State showed all day was when Wolverine players, during the traditional singing of OSU’s “Carmen Ohio” after the game, took the low road and tried planting the flag (more on this in a minute), sparking the ire of the Buckeyes and causing a brawl to break out on the field between the two sides that only ended after law enforcement took control by using pepper spray on players from both teams. For the first time all season (and probably many seasons), Ohio State fans finally saw their team angry and willing to meet a fight head-on. If the Buckeyes can leverage that “We’re mad as hell, and we’re not going to take it anymore” attitude for the playoff, then this team is about to look a lot different – and they’ll have Michigan to thank for it.
4. The wide receivers. They were the forgotten men last Saturday, but if Day and Kelly remember who they are, no secondary in the country can handle them.
5. Oregon. The Ducks will be the best team Ohio State would face in the playoffs, and the Buckeyes were a few seconds away from beating them — on the road — the first time. So Ohio State knows what the top of the mountain looks like, and how to reach the summit.
   

All of which means this is no time for knee-jerk firings of coaches. Day and the Buckeyes can win this, and if they do, that could be a springboard to getting over the hump against Michigan, especially with another gem of a recruiting class coming in as well as the inevitable transfer portal (free agent) additions.

Of course, it’s also possible that the Buckeyes won’t have much left in the emotional tank for a playoff run after last Saturday’s shocking and demoralizing loss in The Game. If it’s one-and-done for the Buckeyes in the playoff, Day could be done as well.

THE BRAWL

This could be (and maybe should be) a column in itself, but I’ll keep it relatively brief here. We live in an ugly era of sports where it’s not enough to just win the game. Teams now feel it necessary to rub the opponent’s nose in it afterward by planting a great big flag on their field, running victory laps around the stadium, waving goodbye to opposing players and fans, etc.

It’s classless, and in a rivalry as heated as Ohio State-Michigan, it’s like pouring gasoline on a fire. I grew up in the 1970s, and if a team had tried to plant flags in the middle of the field back then at places like Oklahoma, Nebraska, Alabama, Texas, USC — and yes, Ohio State and Michigan — bodies would have littered the field. It wouldn’t have been tolerated, and it wouldn’t have been pretty.

So, unlike a lot of hacks in my profession across the country, I’m not going to blame the victim and call out Ohio State players for protecting their house. Yes, it would have been nice to see that kind of fight from the Buckeyes during the game, but it doesn’t mean they have to stand there and watch Michigan defile their stadium when it’s over. Kudos to the Buckeyes for not putting up with it.

For those who say planting flags on the other team’s field is just what teams do now, well, conference commissioners, university presidents, athletic directors and the NCAA had better put a stop to it before it turns into a soccer riot and people get killed. I’ve heard half-wits in the media say, “Ohio State should have gotten the hell off the field.” Ohio State? It’s Ohio State’s stadium. If the Buckeyes want to stay on the field for hours after a game, that’s their prerogative. The visiting team is the one that needs to get the hell off the field. Go home. You were welcome for four quarters, the game is over, now leave.

Defending Michigan’s actions, or any team that is doing anything other than normal celebrating after a win in someone else’s stadium, is irresponsible and dangerous. This moronic postgame behavior is a tragedy waiting to happen, and it has to stop.

One more thing: Gus Johnson, who did the television play-by-play call of The Game for Fox Sports, minced no words in calling out Michigan’s actions as they happened after the game, calling them “classless” on the air — and he’s now taking some serious heat for it. People can debate whether the Buckeyes should or shouldn’t have taken action in response to the flag planting, but what’s not open to debate is which side started the trouble: Michigan. If the Wolverines would have carried head coach Sherrone Moore off the field on their shoulders, that would have been fine. If they had poured Gatorade over his head on the sideline as the clock hit zeroes, that would have been fine. They had already celebrated on the field for several minutes after the game, which was fine, too.

They had just scored a monstrous upset in one of sports’ greatest rivalries, and they deserved to bask in their moment.

What they didn’t deserve to do, and what no team deserves to do, is humiliate their defeated opponent, and flag planting qualifies as humiliation. What started out years ago as just a little harmless gamesmanship has devolved into a deliberate attempt to disrespect everything about your opponent.

And good for Gus Johnson — a Detroit native, by the way — for having the guts to call it out.