Clarity is for the obtuse after a game like THE Game, 2016, which Ohio State walked away with a 30-27 overtime victory, but it can be found.
If you’re a Michigan player, coach, or fan, the result was so breathtakingly close, so easily your game so many times, it seems like nothing positive can be taken away from losing to the bitter rival Buckeyes.
But in a game where Ohio State didn’t run their 10th play in Michigan territory until the fourth quarter, in which the Buckeye offense had 14 points and an offense that had contributed all of 4 yards to that 14 points, the feeling for Michigan is that they gave one away that should have been theirs.
Wilton Speight had three massive miscues, one a pick-6 when OSU was on offensive life support, another a fumble inside the OSU 5-yard-line, and then a ghastly fourth quarter interception when Michigan was moving the ball on a clock slaying drive up three.
And those turnovers were beyond huge, because though the stats look one way after a double overtime game, the Wolverines, sieve-like in 2015, mostly shut down the OSU offense.
Ohio State mustered only 3.9 yards per pass and were a ghastly 3-16 on third down as up until the latter part of the game, the Wolverines’ defensive front was stacking the box with an extra rusher to account for J.T. Barrett and having their way for the most part.
Jim Harbaugh’s game plan was executed to a polar opposite of last year, never really allowing the Buckeye receivers to get open off the line of scrimmage and letting that front seven eat until late when they just seemed to run a bit out of gas.
COLUMBUS, OH – NOVEMBER 26: Michigan Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh does not agree with the call by the officials during an NCAA football game between the Michigan Wolverines and the Ohio State Buckeyes on November 26, 2016, at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, OH. (Photo by Khris Hale/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
But for all the negatives and the could-have-beens, the Wolverines have breathed long-lasting life into the most bitter of college sports rivalries, good for all on both sides and even those with no rooting interest.
In one season … following a cadre of games under Brady Hoke and Rich Rodriguez where the Wolverines looked like cannon fodder for the Bucks, Michigan has come back to nearly even with these Buckeyes on the field.
There are no more easy outs in this one, at least for the time being. Only white-knuckle, television hollering, need-a-shower-after-you-watch it affairs betwixt two of the most fiery coaches the sport has in Harbaugh and dice-rolling Urban Meyer (2-3 on fourth downs today in lieu of kicking a tying field goal), who was as animated on the sidelines as you’ll ever see him late in the game.
Yes, this looks like it could be the beginning of a new Ten Year War, if we all get so lucky to see this type of stuff every year, where The Game has implications beyond the Big Ten into the national landscape and the optics of it are that of a four-hour back ally knife fight.
There are no moral victories this late in the season when so much is on the line, but there is something to be said for the improvement made in one year in Ann Arbor and reason to be excited about the future.
Michigan hasn’t been as good as Ohio State in over a decade. They’ve won one, and made another close, but today was a sign that they’ve pulled even at long last, and may we all get another one of these next year just a few hours north.
