Michigan outclassed, gets warts exposed in 27-9 loss to Ohio State

Ann Arbor — The snow-filled air hovering over Michigan Stadium on Saturday couldn’t obscure a scoreboard Michigan fans didn’t want to read. 

And by their own efforts, the Wolverines on the field couldn’t obscure what seemed evident and is now undeniable: Ohio State is demonstrably better than Michigan right now, and this Wolverines outfit was never a serious contender.

It’s really been true for the last two years, as a national championship-winning Ohio State team inexplicably vomited up a loss to a subpar Michigan team a year ago. But the No. 1 Buckeyes (12-0, 9-0 Big Ten) came to Ann Arbor and left no doubt on Saturday, misfiring to start before dominating the balance of the game. And in losing, 27-9, to its arch-rival, No. 15 Michigan gets a dose of reality: The Wolverines are a talented, but young and undisciplined team, and issues that were there early in the season never got ironed out.

And sloppy football, particularly for a young team, is understandable if not excusable early in seasons. That it persisted to the regular season finale is cause for concern. Bad special teams, lacking passing offense and defensive inconsistencies persisted deep into the season and cost Michigan, finally. 

The Wolverines papered over these shortcomings with wins against lesser competition in recent weeks. Ohio State offered no such reprieve. 

"Credit to them," Moore said, postgame emotion still hanging in his voice and worn in his expression. "There's no excuse for — we've gotta be much better and they outplayed us today, so, got a lot to work on." 

Take the dagger on Saturday: 50 yards from Julian Sayin to Carnell Tate, wide open on a post route in the middle of the third quarter. 

Michigan trailed, 17-9, at that point, clinging to the game by virtue of an early Ohio State interception — the only real blemish of the game for the Buckeyes. Michigan had just forced a needed stop to open the quarter and moved out to midfield when yet another drive stalled. Michigan punter Hudson Hollenback punted for 11 yards, another special teams gaffe in a season full of them. 

Ohio State took over at its own 43, ran a play out to the 50, and then Sayin found Tate as Michigan busted a coverage, with safety Brandyn Hillman biting on a half-boot look and getting run past into wide open space to make it 24-9. 

At that point, the outcome was academic, even with more than 20 minutes to play. 

Michigan’s offense, helmed by one of the most expensive and hyped quarterback recruits in the history of hyped quarterback recruits, showed flashes and promise but never coalesced into a cohesive, threatening attack. That was true this season, and that was true in front of 111,373 frost fans at Michigan Stadium on Saturday. 

Michigan entered Saturday with 2166 passing yards and Bryce Underwood completing fewer than 65% of his passes for nine touchdowns and five interceptions. The finer points and details of the passing game never seemed to get polished. A run-centric team by nature, Michigan has won games without much passing performance. Underwood evidently has the talent, but that talent evidently didn’t get cultivated as necessary. 

So then came Saturday, the day that Michigan needed to pass the ball, needed Underwood to make plays with his arm and needed receivers who could make them on the other end, and the Wolverines had nothing to offer. 

Underwood finished 8-of-17 for 63 yards against the Buckeyes and an interception off a deflection in garbage time. Michigan had three scoring drives, and all ended in field goals after stalling out against a superior defense and not much testing by Underwood’s arm. 

Michigan's offense on the whole ran 42 plays at 3.9 yards per play.

"When you're kind of one-dimensional, it's a lot of pressure on the other guys," center Greg Crippen said. "And I know as offensive linemen, we take accountability for how the offense didn't execute today." 

Concurrently, a defense that has been good for the Wolverines but not a championship-level unit by any stretch, made Ohio State work for it to start and came up with the early interception to set up a 6-0 lead, but couldn’t affect the Buckeyes at all down the stretch

Sayin, one of the least-sacked quarterbacks in the country, faced no pressure. 

"We didn't get enough rush," Moore said. "There's things we could've done, things we really didn't do well enough, twist-game wise and things and they just picked up the pressure. They did a good job."

Michigan finished with no sacks and barely forced the second-year quarterback off his spot as he placidly carved apart a youthful Wolverines secondary. 

Michigan defensive coordinator Wink Martindale seemed to opt for a defensive game plan heavy on four-man rushes and dropping men into coverage against Ohio State’s vaunted pair of receivers, so as to not leave defensive backs on islands. 

But the result wasn’t covered receivers and a panicked quarterback. It was the Wolverines getting no pressure and Sayin calmly standing in, knowing one of his pass catchers would come open eventually, often with plenty of cushion.

"Our game plan was more coverage based and when we did run pressures, we didn't get home and just overall, we just couldn't get the quarterback. 

The Buckeyes and head coach Ryan Day also attacked Michigan’s often-undisciplined linebackers and defensive backs with motion and misdirection to build an angle and squeeze a few more yards out of a play. It's how they freed up Brandon Inniss for a walk-in touchdown against Jacob Young.

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Sayin’s final line reflected as much: 19-of-26, 233 yards and three touchdowns, plus the early interception. Ohio State finished 10-of-17 on 3rd down and went 2-of-3 on 4th downs, including for a touchdown.

And so the image at Michigan Stadium was a familiar one prior to the four-game winning streak Michigan had strung together: Scarlet celebrations, emptying blue bleachers and the class of the Big Ten heading into the visitors locker room. 

And Michigan again contends with coming out on the wrong side of The Game, and the evident gap between the Wolverines and the current cream of college football. It's probably true that injuries and the current talent gap made it that Michigan needed to be near perfect to win this game.

But when Michigan needed its best, the worst version of the Wolverines — one that's been under the surface all season — showed up.

"You know you don't want this feeling again," Moore said. "So, 364 days a year, work on ways to figure out to win this game, along with all the other games we're going to play. But we've got another game we've gotta play after this. So, we've gotta regroup and try to get 10 wins."