It happened again.
Something that hasn’t happened since the turn of the century has happened. I’ve been fortunate in my own lifetime as I wasn’t really cognizant of football when it last occurred. In terms of the world, HDTV hadn’t yet been invented and sometimes I think we had just created the forward pass. Ok I’ve made the cheap joke about a forward pass.
Michigan torched the Buckeyes for the second year in a row today. After the defense came out inspired and put the clamps on Michigan early, the offense failed to take advantage of the chances.
Michigan’s offense showed signs of life with two awful broken plays, the first, in which JJ McCarthy chucked the ball to the sideline as he was falling back on a blitz, but it hit his receiver and Cam Brown made an incredibly poor tackling attempt. Later, a double move with no safety help led to another long strike. Michigan didn’t do much other than those 2 plays in the first half, but Ohio State, whom had the opportunity to put up 28 or even 35 points, only got 20.
Even still, despite the concerns, Ohio State was up 20-17 at the half and everything was still in front of them.
It wasn’t meant to be. The offense continued to sputter in the second half, Michigan found the end zone continually on big plays, and Ohio State allowed Michigan to plant a flag on the block O. This really isn’t a tradition that the players should let continue and the best way to prevent it is to take care of business during regulation.
In the end, Ohio State focused for a year on how to respond to Jim Harbaugh’s first victory as a coach and they did by letting him get his second victory as a coach. We’ve seen in the recent past where a key loss leads to a massive change in philosophy, new hires, and a response. Last year’s Michigan loss led to the hiring of Jim Knowles, who in his first season as Defensive Coordinator has made Ohio State’s D-Line and LB corps look competent again and, at times, dominant. The lone black eye being the defensive backs and their inability to turn their heads, an unwelcome habit reminiscent of the Kerry Coombs era. Despite this, it took Knowles three years to turn Oklahoma State into one of the nation’s best defenses. Today, Ohio State is trending upward.
But, at the most pivotal moment, Ohio State gave up the biggest plays to an offense that was down its best player.
Some of the scores came in garbage time, at a point in which the game was over. The score really makes it look worse than what it was. Frankly, Michigan’s score was inflated.
Ohio State’s score, that’s a nightmare all it’s own.
There’s the occasional detractor of the Ohio State offense, in every facet. I talk to some of these people to get their perspective. Some folks want them to run the ball more. Some folks think CJ Stroud should run more. Some think this offense inflates it’s numbers verse bad competition. One I know in particular has a bone to pick regarding clock management and playcalling.
The naysayers are out tonight. Michigan fans and outside commentators are calling the team soft, undeserving, overrated, you name it. Many of the naysayers are out from the Buckeye side as well. I’ve seen two or three variations of a Scooby Doo meme saying that Ryan Day was John Cooper all along. That’s not the kind of company you want to be held in. That’s, “I don’t get the rivalry” company and that’s also, “I didn’t succeed in the rivalry” company.
You aren’t going to win every game in this rivalry. Jim Tressel dropped one. Urban Meyer dropped none. Those are two outliers in a series that has gone back and forth for over a century, albeit Ohio State owns the success of the rivalry when you do get to the modern era of football. Ryan Day also owns two outliers in this series in having teams that are vastly more talented on paper, but getting boat raced both times.
If you’d ask most Ohio State fans how they felt after the first half, or if you asked me, I felt that we gave up some broken plays, but we were clearly the better team. The defense was shutting down their run game and the offense just had to get started.
Ohio State didn’t actually come back out of the locker room at the start of the second half. They’ve earned every bit of slander thrown their way. From top to bottom, they were embarrassed last year and they were even more embarrassed this year.
Last year, Stroud lost his voice in the week leading up to the game, the weather was crap, and they were playing in Ann Arbor. This year, he was healthy, he had unseasonably warm weather, and he had the home crowd. He crumbled and lost any chance of the Heisman with it.
When Ohio State needed him to make plays, he nearly threw interceptions, he refused to run, and he was only able to muster three points and the defense crumbled without getting the complimentary football they so desperately needed.
Again, you can’t win them all, but this is the most important game. It’s THE game. Ohio State could go 1-11, but if the win is against Michigan then you had a successful season.
CJ Stroud had a peculiar quote after the game. He stated that this game didn’t define him and it didn’t define the team. You’d be hard pressed to find any Ohio State fan that agrees with this.
People remember Troy Smith’s clutch performances against Michigan. They remember Dwayne Haskins heroics and throttling of the Wolverines. They remember Justin Fields ripping them to shreds in Ann Arbor. They remember the failure as well.
Ryan Day showed his disappointment, but he also began campaigning for his team’s right to be in the playoff. I remember Luke Fickell, tears in his eyes, expressing the disappointment of losing that game in his single season as Ohio State’s head coach. The playoff talk from Day came off as tone deaf at best, blasphemy at worst.
In what the kids would call, the ‘dankest’ timeline, Ohio State would meet Michigan in a National Title and emerge victorious. I think every Big Ten member would get some schadenfreude with two Big Ten teams in the title, considering the stupidity of the SEC’s conference pride.
But, Ohio State doesn’t deserve to go to the playoffs (I’ll secretly hope for that dank timeline). They had a full year to think of the ramifications of this game, what it meant towards their playoff aspirations, the rivalry, their legacies. They laid an egg in nearly the exact same fashion as last year.
They deserve all of the criticism and the naysayers should be out in droves. Again, you can’t win them all, but the standard set by Tressel and Meyer means two losses in a row is unacceptable.
Ryan Day is officially on the hot seat and a lot of fans wouldn’t give him that benefit. He’s got one more chance to right the ship and now, he has to go to Ann Arbor to do it. He also has to contend with a coach who for the last two years has made the rivalry the prime focus for his team. Quotes like we are going to beat Ohio State, “or die trying.” Posters plastered in their facility, “what have you done to beat Ohio State today.” Yep, after a 7 year shellacking from Urban Meyer and a hangover year, Harbaugh has made it the singular goal for the program as it should be. The road is uphill.
Hopefully, Ryan Day has a new Quarterback who understands that this game DOES define your legacy at Ohio State because Stroud’s quote alone shows two potential problems. Either Ryan Day has a culture problem and/or CJ Stroud is clueless about the office he holds. If this result didn’t sound the alarm, then CJ Stroud’s post game quote better have.
Jim Tressel once said, “I can assure you that you will be proud of your young people in the classroom, in the community, and most especially in 310 days in Ann Arbor, Michigan,” to a raucous applause.
Someone outta play that for CJ Stroud and Ryan Day because Jim Tressel understood what the rivalry meant.
