Ohio State 42, Michigan 13
Bryan Fuller/MGoBlog
One team came prepared.
Ohio State's coaches prepared for Michigan's soft edges with an attack heavy on the power read. The Buckeye defense prepared for every wrinkle the Wolverines could conceive to utilize Jabrill Peppers and stopped them.
Michigan looked unprepared to deal with the Buckeye running game. The scheme was too passive and the adjustments ineffective, especially a move to a 3-man line. The linebackers weren't prepared to tackle Ezekiel Elliott in the gap or track JT Barrett in space. Nobody was prepared to block Joey Bosa.
For the tenth time in eleven years, Ohio State won The Game. The Buckeyes ran at will; Michigan couldn't trust its run game enough to even use it without ample trickery. While Michigan's 9-3 record and obvious team-wide improvement stand as a testament to the remarkable work of Jim Harbaugh, today's game showed just how much ground the program must make up on their chief rival.
Unlike last year, Michigan will get a full slate of bowl practices to work on their issues, and they'll face a quality opponent in a decent bowl game. Much like two years ago, there's a good chance they'll have to play that game with their backup quarterback, as Jake Rudock exited the game with an apparent shoulder or collarbone injury after taking a huge hit from Bosa.
Ohio State looked like a playoff team today. Michigan looked a long way off. That's exactly what we expected heading into the season; it's still hard not to be disappointed after seeing how the last few months have played out.
November 28th, 2015 at 4:46 PM ^
Total and complete.
November 28th, 2015 at 6:43 PM ^
Jordan Elliott says hi.
November 28th, 2015 at 3:44 PM ^
MSU dominated OSU in the trenches. OSU dominated UM in the trences. You win if you win the trenches.
That's a huge part of the story. But in a rivarly game some of thhat talent disparity is supposed to out the window ...esp in underdog stadium. That was dispiriting to see.
But in the end football usually ends up who wins the trenches and unless you are in the B12 who can run the ball. They basically Jordan Howard'd us but with a QB and a rb.
Not going to use the injury excuse because people shat on MSU for blaming injuries vs UM (and they beat OSU with multiple injuries) but we are 2 top end LBs, 1-2 better OL, and a Jordan Howard back away from where we needed to be today. The speed and tackling ability of MSU LBs vs ours was startling and by 2nd half once our DL was worn down it was even more ugly how poor the LBs are in space.
We said two teams who could exploit those LBs in space were IND and OSU and yes indeed. The running game is the other massive issue. Both these were "it is what it is" issues as we won games but when opponent level goes up they are no longer just memes but massive holes we need to fix.
Darboh had some key drops too early that could have helped swing game and the punt block situation hurt ....would have made this been competitive but OSU was better.
Our D has now given up 42 pts to OSU 3 years in a row. Sad to see that.
November 28th, 2015 at 4:09 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 4:10 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 4:16 PM ^
This could have been 7-5 but also could have been 11-1. By the way, that is true for most college teams. MSU could be 9-3 or 12-0.
November 28th, 2015 at 4:22 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 4:30 PM ^
Their record is fairly indicative of who they are this year. You can get away with saying it's an 8-4 team that got a little lucky to be 9-3. Fine. That's still significant improvement over last year, despite losing Gardner and Funchess.
November 28th, 2015 at 4:41 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 5:07 PM ^
And that's good for something, given the last year or two.
November 28th, 2015 at 4:34 PM ^
Michgian went 2-2 in one score games. They ended up around where you would expect their record to be. Until today, they conssitently performed like a top 10 would be expected to perform. THis is a massive overreactiont to an admittably awful performance.
November 28th, 2015 at 4:40 PM ^
Wow talk about an overreaction to one game.........if this was so obvious I hope you mortgaged the house on Ohio State here at pick'em.
Every single advanced stat had Michigan a highly ranked team. Every single team has close wins this year.
Michigan isn't at elite levels yet and OSU is but there's no way Michigan played this season at 7-5 levels..........absolutely no way!!
November 28th, 2015 at 5:16 PM ^
Agreed. This post is definitely worth laughing at. For a highly intelligent football watching crowd, an unexpected number of hot takes following Michigan losses are very lizard brained and insanely reactionary. Pitch forks and fire!!
November 28th, 2015 at 6:48 PM ^
This is really funny. It's like you're retroactively trying to project a 7-5 season for this team that did in fact go 9-3.
November 28th, 2015 at 4:11 PM ^
that guy from App State, er, I mean JT Barrett had a great game, Like every mobile QB has against us over the last four coaching staffs. That is what is so dispiriting. I trust in Harbaugh, and clearly we have a talent disadvantage vs. OSU especially IMO at LB, but man, that was a downer of a game. We will be better, but sheesh....
November 28th, 2015 at 4:21 PM ^
We have not had great DE's for a long time and against a team like OSU that is were the game is won. Need to maintain containment. That is what MSU was able to do. I do not blame the LBs as much. It is tough to hold up when you have to fight OL who are 70 pounds heavier. The loss of our 3 linemen really hurt.
November 28th, 2015 at 7:09 PM ^
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November 28th, 2015 at 3:44 PM ^
"That's exactly what we expected heading into the season; it's still hard not to be disappointed after seeing how the last few months have played out."
Yep, this. UM lost in every conceivable way (close loss, shocker, blowout) with the last 2 coming unfortunately in rivalry games. The unfortunate thing is that this game is the first one to make me question where UM will be next year, especially at OSU. There was more than a year's worth of improvement between them on the field, hopefully JH can work miracles.
November 28th, 2015 at 3:44 PM ^
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November 28th, 2015 at 4:41 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 3:44 PM ^
If there was anything surprising about today's game, it's that a decisive OSU victory was a surprise — and that says a lot. Still, the most important game is the next one. Onward and upward.
November 28th, 2015 at 3:48 PM ^
just like last year.
UM's defense did not look much better than it did under Mattison save for the CBs. Whatever improvement they made was because of Zordich and Jackson.They still didn't create many turnovers.
The jury is still out on Durkin as a coach.
November 28th, 2015 at 3:50 PM ^
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November 28th, 2015 at 3:49 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 3:53 PM ^
Seems like we have struggled to slow down spread offenses for a decade--Troy Smith, App State, Oregon, Vince Young, Terrelle Pryor, Braxton Miller, Indiana, JT Barrett, etc. IMO we've lacked fast, athletic linebackers and D linemen that can really close and tackle and slow down these offenses.
November 28th, 2015 at 7:07 PM ^
This needs to be trumpeted throughout the board.
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November 28th, 2015 at 3:46 PM ^
Horrible game plan all around. I saw this coming after the Indiana game. The injury to Glasgow on defense helped, but we'd have been exploited anyway.
Also, in the future maybe Harbaugh should have a bit more focus during the year on the rival who is STILL light years ahead.
November 28th, 2015 at 3:57 PM ^
We could draw a team that doesn't have a strong running game. NW and BYU are bowl teams, and we'd have beaten them easily even with Speight.
November 28th, 2015 at 4:35 PM ^
Praying we don't get matched up with TCU or Baylor... or oSu for that matter.
Those offenses will destroy us.
Shiet even a Stanford matchup sounds scary as hell right now.
November 28th, 2015 at 4:57 PM ^
how much focus he had. Seriously? wow...........you watching too many movies or something.
November 28th, 2015 at 6:44 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 3:46 PM ^
Ohio made it sting but Michigan will bounce back. Sorry for the Grandpa's perspective but sometimes you just gotta take your lumps before greatness will manifest! Go Blue!!!
November 28th, 2015 at 6:25 PM ^
Reason and maturity - is this appropriate for this thread?
November 28th, 2015 at 3:46 PM ^
Ohio made it sting but Michigan will bounce back. Sorry for the Grandpa's perspective but sometimes you just gotta take your lumps before greatness will manifest! Go Blue!!!
November 28th, 2015 at 3:48 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 3:49 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 3:54 PM ^
Better QB, RB, OL, and WRs. The defenses are comparable. The 15' is lacking speed and athleticism in several areas and that is all on Hoke.
November 28th, 2015 at 4:14 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 3:50 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 4:07 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 3:50 PM ^
The LBs suck and we played to stop them with our LBs. On the offensive side we just didn't execute in the red zone even though we were there enough to win. Simple as that.
November 28th, 2015 at 4:38 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 7:04 PM ^
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November 28th, 2015 at 3:51 PM ^
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November 28th, 2015 at 3:52 PM ^
November 28th, 2015 at 3:57 PM ^
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November 28th, 2015 at 4:17 PM ^
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November 28th, 2015 at 4:29 PM ^
I second that
November 28th, 2015 at 4:38 PM ^
Today Harbaugh was soft. Punting on their 35, FG when down 17. He did not play to win, he played it safe.
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November 28th, 2015 at 6:37 PM ^
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