z i -:
_*
ak
a,"
i r
-. r:.: :
-. f
v
ti
a
The Michigan Daily I michigandaily.com I November 28,2011
MICHIGAN 40, OHIO STATE 34
11.26.11
THOSE
WHO
STAY
1,000
Robinson and Toussaint each
top 1,000 yards rushing - the
first duo to do so since 1975.
2,926
Days since Michigan last beat
Ohio State in 2003, a 35-21
final in Ann Arbor.
8-0
Wins. Last 'M' coach with
that mark in his first year:
Fielding H. Yost in 1901.
Home record. First 8'0 bone
record since Michigan
Stadium opened in 1927.
Michigan halts seven-year skid in The Game
In complete team effort,
Team 132 holds off
Buckeyes in final minutes
By MICHAEL FLOREK
Daily Sports Editor
Fifth-year senior defensive end Ryan Van
Bergen was crying as he emerged from the
crowd gathering by the student section.
Senior defensive tackle Mike Martin stood
in front of the tunnel taking photo after photo
with students he didn't know.
Senior tight end Kevin Koger was sur-
rounded by a group of fans who had rushed
the field along with thousands of their
friends, hugging and patting him, preventing
the Toledo native from making his wayup the
Michigan Stadium tunnel.
This is what beating Ohio State looks like.
How does it feel?
"If I could put it into words, I would,"
said fifth-year senior wide receiver Junior
Hemingway.
After seven longyears of waiting, the Mich-
igan football team finally figured out that
feeling, with a dramatic 40-34 victory over
the Buckeyes at the Big House on Saturday.
The 17th-ranked Wolverines (6-2 Big Ten,
10-2 overall) didn't do it easily or gracefully
- they needed a last-minute overthrow and a
final interception from the defense to seal the
game - but they did it.
"What satisfies you is when you see those
kids in that locker room and when you saw
them on the field, how (happy they are)," said
Michigan coach Brady Hoke. "It's fun as a
coach to see how they responded."
Junior quarterback Denard Robinson led
the way for Michigan. In one of the best and
biggest games of his career, he threw for 167
yards and three touchdowns and rushed for
170 yards and two more touchdowns. Robin-
son had just three incompletions. His touch-
down pass to Koger early in the fourth proved
to be the final margin.
But in a 74-point shootout, it came down
to a defensive stop. Two negated Michigan
touchdowns, one on an official review and
another due to penalty, gave Buckeye fresh-
man quarterback Braxton Miller a final
chance after the Wolverines settled for a field
goal and just a six-point lead.
The defense struggled all day against Mill-
er, who had a career day with a combined 335
total yards and three touchdowns. One drive
earlier, Ohio State needed just five plays to go
80 yards and bring the deficit within three,
37-34.
"(We felt) we let our offense down," Van
Bergen said. "We really wanted to be able to
let the offense hand the ball off to us so to
speak and we let them down once. We said
as we came to the bench, 'It's not happening
again. No way.'"
With 45 seconds left on the clock, on 4th-
and-6 from his own territory, Miller tried to
fit a pass in to Buckeye wide receiver Devin
Smith. The ball bounced off Smith and into
the air. Sophomore cornerback Courtney
Avery dove and made the interception, finally
sealingthe game.
At long last, 2,296 winless days against
Ohio State had come to end.
"When the interception came it was kind
of like, 'There it is,' " fifth-year senior center
David Molk said. "That's what we needed to
turn. That's that momentum change that we
needed to completely lock this game down.
The defense stepped up. They did what they
had to do when the time came."
For the final two minutes, it appeared
Michigan was one play away from ending the
seven years of frustration. Redshirt sopho-
more Fitzgerald Toussaint had a touchdown
See MICHIGAN, Page 2B
MARISSA MCCLAIN AND JED MOCH/Daily