Ryan Day remains to be looking for a second win towards Michigan.
The Wolverines surprised No. 2 Ohio State 13-10 on Saturday to deal a crushing blow to the Buckeyes’ Big Ten title possibilities and hopes of a first-round bye within the College Football Playoff.
Dominic Zvada kicked a 21-yard area objective with 45 seconds to go to provide the Wolverines the lead for good. Ohio State had an opportunity to tie or take the lead with no timeouts however didn’t get a primary down.
A skirmish broke out after the sport as Michigan gamers went to go have fun at midfield with a Michigan flag.
The fracas seemed to be damaged up till a Michigan participant was celebrating with the flag once more and Ohio State’s Jack Sawyer ripped the flag from his arms. That reignited the shoving as coaches, police and safety personnel needed to break up the battle.
Unknown official personnel then reportedly used pepper spray to disperse the gamers.
“I don’t know all the small print of it however I do know these guys need to put a flag on our area and our guys weren’t going to let that occur,” Day stated in his postgame information convention. “So I’ll discover out precisely what occurred however that is our area and definitely we’re embarrassed with the actual fact we misplaced the sport however there’s some prideful guys on this group that weren’t simply going to let that occur.”
The defending nationwide champions entered the sport as 19.5-point underdogs and have now overwhelmed Ohio State in 4 straight video games. All 4 of these have include Day because the Buckeyes’ head coach after Ohio State gained seven straight video games over Michigan in Urban Meyer’s tenure. Day’s solely victory towards Michigan got here in 2019.
It’s the primary four-game win streak for Michigan since Ohio State gained in 1992 to finish a streak for Michigan that had dated again to 1988. Sawyer and different Ohio State gamers had been outspoken about their want to beat Michigan earlier than closing out their careers. Instead, the Buckeyes merely could not do something on offense.
Not solely did Ohio State fail to get a primary down on its remaining drive, the Buckeyes didn’t get a primary down the complete fourth quarter. OSU’s final first down got here with 8:24 left within the third quarter when Will Howard hit Emeka Egbuka for a 6-yard achieve on third down. OSU kicker Jayden Fielding additionally missed two area targets inside 40 yards.
It was an unpleasant offensive show for each groups. Each QB threw two interceptions and three of these 4 picks got here within the pink zone. The most egregious was thrown by Michigan’s Davis Warren, when Sawyer picked him off on the objective line.
The two offenses mixed for 486 complete yards and 29 first downs. Michigan threw for simply 62 yards on 16 makes an attempt and rushed 42 occasions for 172 yards. Howard was simply 19-of-33 passing for 175 yards and Ohio State mustered 77 speeding yards on 26 makes an attempt.
A mistake that doubtlessly value Ohio State time
Ohio State may have had excess of 45 seconds remaining after Zvada’s area objective if it wasn’t for a personnel blunder.
The Buckeyes known as their first timeout with 1:55 to go and Michigan dealing with a 3rd down. After the timeout, Ohio State didn’t have the best defensive personnel on the sphere and Day tried to name a second timeout. But faculty soccer guidelines now forestall coaches from taking consecutive timeouts.
The ensuing unlawful substitution penalty gave Michigan a primary down and allowed the Wolverines to run over a minute extra off the clock than they might have been capable of if Ohio State may have stopped UM on third down.
Ohio State’s playoff hopes
It’s not a lot of an overstatement to say that Ohio State’s remade offense failed miserably on Saturday. Yes, the Buckeyes performed the sport with an offensive line that was lacking two starters. But Howard and RB Quinshon Judkins had been introduced in to beat Michigan on the way in which to a nationwide championship. Judkins rushed 12 occasions for 46 yards.
A nationwide title ought to nonetheless be in play, nevertheless. Though it is doable the Buckeyes could need to go on the street to begin the postseason. Given the losses among the many SEC’s frontrunners and Clemson’s loss to South Carolina on Saturday, the Buckeyes ought to nonetheless be safely within the 12-team playoff area at 10-2.
A Big Ten title is probably going out of attain, nevertheless. Ohio State wants each Penn State to lose to Maryland and Indiana to lose to Purdue to make the Big Ten title sport towards Oregon.
