It is the last day of November. It is a perfect Saturday after Thanksgiving for college football. The Game, Michigan vs. Ohio State, is minutes away from starting. The pundits and anyone looking at it logically would easily prognosticate that Ohio State should easily walk away with a victory. The panel of talking heads in the pregame, with the exception of Michigan’s Charles Woodson, picked Ohio State to win. Michigan’s chances seemed even dimmer with the news that our all-everything tight end Colton Loveland will not be playing today. Thus, there are zero starters from last year’s National Championship team on the Michigan offense today.
Michigan was a 19.5 point underdog and the over/under on the point total was 41.5 games. People thought, assumed, that Michigan would get blown out. Ohio State seemed like a juggernaut and literally the best team money could buy. They spent something like $20 million to bring in Chip Kelly as the Offensive Coordinator, Jim Knowles as Defensive Coordinator, quarterback Will Howard, and others to build a team to beat Michigan and win the National Championship.
Michigan won the National Championship last year in grand manner. It was an exciting year. At the end of that amazing season, there were wholesale changes in the coaching staff, 17 starters from last year graduated, and Sherrone Moore was named head coach on January 26 which was way too late to be able to recruit effectively. As a result, Michigan has struggled this season.
They began the season ranked number 8. After loses to Texas, Washington, and Illinois in they fell out of the top 25 for the remainder of the season. They came into the Ohio State game with a 6-5 record. Most everyone thought they would end the regular season a rather mediocre 6-6.
There was a buzz amongst the fan base that maybe, just maybe, Michigan could win. It was certainly aspirational but there was a wee hint of magic in the air. We were having dreams of the 1969 team, Bo Schembechler’s first team, upsetting Woody Hayes’s so called “team of the century.” That game was played in Ann Arbor. Michigan was ranked #12 and Ohio State was #1. Michigan won 24-12 and neither team scored in the second. This was the first Michigan game I ever watched from start to finish and it made me a lifelong Michigan fan.
That 1969 was the greatest upset of Michigan over Ohio State in the history of The Game. Well, it was until today.
The 6-5 Wolverines went down to Columbus and stunned the Buckeyes 13-10. It was a low scoring old style smash-mouth game that would have made Bo and Woody proud… well, for sure, it would have made Bo proud.
The second ranked Buckeyes averaged 38.9 points per game this year. Michigan held them to 10. Those 10 points were all scored in the first half: a touchdown and a field goal, that’s all. The Michigan defense held them to zero points in the 2nd half. That is a testimony to how well the defense played. Michigan held them to a season low of 77 yards rushing which was well below their 177 yards per game. Michigan also held Ohio State to 175 yards passing where their average had been 261.5. These are some impressive statistics. On offense Michigan ran for 172 hard earned yards and passed for a less than mediocre 62 yards which is a testimony to the Ohio State defense. Michigan’s 172 yards rushing against Ohio was the most Ohio gave up all season. Both teams threw 2 interceptions and Ohio State missed two field goals.
The 4th Quarter was Michigan’s which they won 3-0 to win the game. They had three possessions and had the ball for 13:03. Ohio State had two possessions. The first was 3 and out and the second was a turnover on downs. They had the ball a whopping 1:55 in the 4th Quarter and had zero first downs. These are some insane stats!
At the beginning of the game, the talking heads and the announcers talked about how Ohio State would bust it open in the second half, as had been their track record. They would do this by tiring out the Michigan defense through ball possession and sustained drives. In the end, the Michigan was the team that fatigued and stifled Ohio State.
Michigan fans were tough on quarterback Davis Warren all season long. They gave him zero respect. But he managed the game well today and did what he had to do to get their 13 points. Ohio State’s quarterback, Will Howard, on the other hand is a fifth year senior portal/NIL transfer to Ohio State. While he has been a good quarterback all season, this was his first Michigan – Ohio State game. I do believe he had first game jitters.
This crazy low scoring upset is bigger and more monumental than the 1969 version simply because Michigan was unranked, and the game was in Columbus. Any Michigan fan will tell you that this win made the whole season. And, four in a row over the Buckeyes? How sweet is that.
Go Blue!
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