What they're saying about Michigan football's win over Ohio State
Michigan finished off its undefeated regular season with a dominant 45-23 win over the Ohio State Buckeyes on Saturday in Columbus, its first win in Ohio since 2000 and first time winning back-to-back games in the series since the 1999 and 2000 seasons. It will now play Purdue for a Big Ten Championship next weekend in Indianapolis.
Plenty of reactions came in locally and nationally after the contest was over. Here is a sampling of the reviews that came in from the contest, big-picture narratives and more.
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• Postgame reactions to Michigan’s domination of Ohio State
Chris Balas, The Wolverine
Michigan 45, OSU 23: Notes, quotes, and observations … a new sheriff in town
No snowflakes, no flu, no “caught off guard” … Ohio State couldn’t lean on any of it after a second straight butt kicking at the hands of a rival it once used to bully.
This one, a 45-23 beating, was somewhat of a stunner, really, given the circumstances going in, and especially the way the Buckeyes played in the first half. We knew junior running back Blake Corum probably wasn’t going to last long, after all. He showed great heart in trying to play on a bad knee, but he lasted two carries (6 yards) before limping to the sideline.
The Michigan coaches used sophomore Donovan Edwards mainly as a decoy in the first half, tried freshman CJ Stokes (not yet ready for primetime), and managed 10 — 10 — yards rushing in the first half, on 11 carries.
OSU moved the ball with ease on its first drive behind quarterback CJ Stroud, and the Buckeyes’ defensive game plan worked extremely well early. They seemed prepared to run away with it early, going up 10-3 and having Michigan pinned back facing a third down from its own 31.
But in games like these, sometimes it only takes one play. We go back to 1996, when defensive back Shawn Springs “slipped” early in the third quarter, allowing Tai Streets to take a slant pattern to the house and cut a 9-0 deficit to 9-7. OSU had dominated play in the first half but couldn’t score touchdowns, and that opened the door to an upset win.
When doubt creeps in, the pressure mounts. And make no mistake — for all the “we’re going to show them last year was a fluke,” and “my little boy was sick” talk from the parents, etc., the onus was on the Buckeyes to back it up.
John Borton, The Wolverine
Wolverine Watch: Michigan rocks The ‘Shoe
Michigan shocked the world, shook The ‘Shoe to its foundations, and stunned every Buckeye on the planet — maybe even some of its own fans.
In one of the most brilliant U-M halves of football in a series dating back to 1897, the Wolverines exploded from a 20-17 halftime deficit to a 45-23 win in a battle of unbeaten, top-three teams.
The 12-0 Big Ten East Division champs did it without their top back, junior Blake Corum. They did it with a backup sporting a cast on his broken right hand. Sophomore Donovan Edwards broke away for 216 yards, most of them on a pair of electrifying touchdown bolts of 75 and 85 yards.
And they did it with a quarterback-receivers combo that lingered in limbo all season on big plays. Sophomore QB J.J. McCarthy cut loose for 263 yards passing and 3 touchdowns on only 12 completions, unleashing TD throws of 69 and 75 yards to senior wide receiver Cornelius Johnson (5 catches, 160 yards, 2 touchdowns).
“It’s just like pipes bursting,” McCarthy insisted. “We’re putting the pressure on, putting the pressure on. Then eventually it’s going to burst.”
It burst in The ‘Shoe in nearly unfathomable fashion. Even some of the Wolverines insisted during the week leading up to the game they didn’t expect to change their identity, with or without Corum, who lasted two carries on his injured knee.
Their identity all year, of course, involved a dominant, opponent-withering rushing attack. The popular narrative without Corum assumed the Wolverines would roll in like a tank without one of its treads.
But Michigan harbored bombs nobody could be certain about. And a change of identity? The Wolverines changed like they’d gone into witness protection.
ESPN writers weigh in on College Football Playoff field
Andrea Adelson: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. TCU 4. USC
Blake Baumgartner: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. TCU 4. USC
Bill Connelly: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. TCU 4. USC
Heather Dinich: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. TCU 4. USC
David Hale: 1. Michigan 2. Georgia 3. TCU 4. USC
Chris Low: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. TCU 4. USC
Harry Lyles Jr.: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. TCU 4. USC
Ryan McGee: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. USC 4. TCU
Adam Rittenberg: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. TCU 4. USC
Alex Scarborough: 1. Georgia 2 Michigan 3. TCU 4. USC
Mark Schlabach: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. TCU 4. USC
Paolo Uggetti: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. TCU 4. USC
Tom VanHaaren: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. TCU 4. USC
Dave Wilson: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. TCU 4. USC
David M. Hale, ESPN.com
Best of Week 13: Michigan beats Ohio State with style and brazenness, Gamecocks ice the ACC
And if McCarthy’s shredding of an overmatched Ohio State secondary wasn’t enough, Michigan used its linebacker-turned-running back to throw a 15-yard jump pass on third down in what was less a play call and more akin to slipping a whoopee cushion onto Ryan Day’s seat just as he sat down for Thanksgiving dinner. It was designed to embarrass as much as to succeed. Such is the beauty of a rivalry like this one.
Indeed, it was bad enough that even Michigan’s punter was dunking on the Buckeyes.
Perhaps as shocking as Michigan’s role reversal on offense was the way Ohio State simply cashed in its chips down the stretch. The Buckeyes mustered just three points in the second half, turned the ball over twice and watched as Michigan’s Donovan Edwards reeled off touchdown runs of 75 and 85 yards on consecutive drives. Had Ohio State kept the game close, fought to the end, took Michigan to the brink — perhaps there’d still be a reasonable case to put the Buckeyes into the College Football Playoff.
Instead, the epitaph on their season will read, “Lost by 22 at home to that teaX up north.”
It’s hard to know what this means in the bigger picture for Michigan. Last year, the Wolverines made the playoff, but their fate always felt all but assured, a sacrificial lamb just happy to live long enough to get a free trip to South Beach before getting whipped by Georgia.
Saturday showed something more to the 2022 incarnation though. While Day punted away chances to close the gap in the second half, Harbaugh seemed like a hedge fund manager on a heater at a Vegas craps table — all gas, no brakes, tipping the waitress with $100 bills on every fresh glass of 2% milk she brings (which is what we assume Harbaugh would be drinking in Vegas). While Ohio State was unable to maneuver the foothills in its souped-up sports car, Michigan showed it can sling it around the field, then run it down your throat. And while the Buckeyes were knocked from their place atop the list of contenders for Georgia’s throne, Michigan may well have delivered a statement that reverberates beyond Big Ten country. This team is for real.
Big Ten commish Kevin Warren thinks Michigan and OSU are CFP teams
ESPN.com: Big Ten boss Kevin Warren: ‘Without a doubt’ OSU deserves CFP spot
“This was a really good football game from start to finish,” Warren said, even after Michigan outscored Ohio State 21-3 in the fourth quarter. “These are two powerhouse teams and clearly two of the top four teams in all of college football. You look at all the games you watch. Put even the rankings to the side. If you ask yourself, who are the teams that are better than these two football teams in the country? These are two of the four best teams in the country. By far.”
The Big Ten has never had two teams selected in the College Football Playoff in the same year since the postseason model’s inception in the 2014 season. Ohio State reached the CFP once as a non-champion, going 11-1 in 2016.
In some ways, how Ohio State is perceived at 11-1 is a referendum on how the Big Ten is perceived.
“I truly believe that through this whole season,” Warren said. “Last season, this season. Today just reiterated how strong Big Ten football is. I’m excited to see these next couple weeks, where everything lands.”
Ari Wasserman, The Athletic
Wasserman: How Ryan Day failed Ohio State in yet another loss to Michigan
It’s not often in a game like this, one that ends in a lopsided 45-23 score, that you can identify exactly where things were lost. But in Michigan’s beatdown of Ohio State on Saturday in Ohio Stadium, it’s as clear as Ryan Day.
Down by four points with less than seven minutes remaining in the third quarter, Ohio State faced a fourth-and-5 from the Michigan 43. Quarterback C.J. Stroud — who could all but taste the Heisman Trophy coming into this game — pleaded for his coach to go for it. The entire football world saw Stroud begging for his coach to put the ball in his hands.
Nope. Seemingly without second thought, Day sent on his punt team and took his star quarterback — sure to be a top-five pick in the 2023 NFL Draft — off the field.
That’s it right there. That’s where the tension built on the sideline that you could feel through the television.
That’s where this game was lost. That might seem to be a reach in a one-possession game, but it’s not about one individual play call. It’s about temperament, about the message it sent to his team.
That decision showed weakness and trepidation. It showed fear. And, above all, it told his team that the offensive whiz and quarterback guru wasn’t confident in his loaded offense to take control of the game against a team it had dominated for much of the first half.
Punt.
It didn’t matter that Ohio State spent much of the past year obsessing over this game. It didn’t matter that Ohio State needed to reassert itself as the aggressor in the most bitter rivalry in college football. It didn’t matter that Day’s reputation as Ohio State’s coach was hanging in the balance. Day took his offense — and his thumbprint — off of the field in a situation in which Ohio State would have gone for it without hesitation in any other game.
Austin Meek, The Athletic
Meek: Michigan is Big Ten’s standard-bearer and a bona fide contender for national title
The scene was so different yet so much the same.
Instead of snow and slush, the only thing coming from the sky was the afternoon sun. Instead of fans pouring from the stands in unbridled joy, the crowd seethed and swore. Instead of catharsis, the feeling on Michigan’s sideline was one of knowing satisfaction, the confidence of a team that surprised everyone except itself.
When the game ended, Michigan players grabbed a blue flag and planted it on the giant “O” at midfield. “Where the upset at?” defensive end Mike Morris shouted, a reference to the oddsmakers who favored No. 2 Ohio State by more than a touchdown.
For the Buckeyes to be favored so decisively in this matchup of unbeaten teams reflected a belief that Michigan’s victory last season ranked as … not a fluke, exactly, but not something that would be replicated every year. Especially not with Blake Corum, Michigan’s star running back, hobbled by a knee injury.
Over the course of four quarters Saturday at Ohio Stadium, the No. 3 Wolverines showed something different. Their 45-23 victory was, in some ways, even more decisive than last year’s win in the snow at Michigan Stadium.
That was a Michigan kind of day — cold, wet, perfect for a team that loves to play ugly. This was an Ohio State kind of day, unseasonably warm and crystal clear. And yet, once again, Michigan was the team that imposed its will, dooming the Buckeyes and their revamped defense to another offseason of soul searching.
Bob Wojnowski, Detroit News
Wojo: Wolverines unload on Buckeyes, look primed for plenty more
No more questions, no more doubt. They waited all season to unleash, and when they did, it was a withering display of flash and mash. The Wolverines dismantled their bitter rival in stunning fashion Saturday, and in the process, rocketed expectations higher than ever.
By the end, it wasn’t even just about the rivalry. Ohio Stadium emptied throughout the fourth quarter, and as the Buckeyes trudged off, the Wolverines raced across the field, planted a giant M flag and celebrated the moment, then started looking toward bigger moments. In the aftermath of Michigan’s 45-23 pounding of Ohio State Saturday, fresh narratives and possibilities spilled out.
J.J. McCarthy indeed appears to be the “It” quarterback that Jim Harbaugh craved, shaking off a slow start to deliver one of the epic displays in the rivalry’s history. Harbaugh seized command of the rivalry with a second consecutive victory, UM’s first in Columbus since 2000. And the Buckeyes’ unstoppable offense with (former) Heisman candidate C.J. Stroud was stuffed again and again by a UM defense that didn’t get full credit against a lesser schedule, so went ahead and took it with force.
The Wolverines are 12-0 for the first time since their national championship season of 1997, and will face Purdue In the Big Ten championship game Saturday night in Indianapolis. This team carries the same sheen and swagger, created by Harbaugh, bolstered by punishing offensive and defensive lines, and directed by an array of highly motivated players.
