2B — November 19, 2018
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

For better or worse, this is it
Y

ou’ll read this sentiment 
several times this week:
The Michigan football 
team will 
play Ohio 
State — its 
biggest rival 
— Saturday, 
with a chance 
to keep its 
dreams alive. 
The Wolver-
ines can exor-
cise their Big 
Ten Cham-
pionship demons, their can’t-
beat-the-Buckeyes demons 
and continue their trek toward 
rising to the College Football 
Playoff. Put another way, they 
control their own destiny.
Those will be tired tropes by 
the time kickoff comes around, 
but that isn’t without good rea-
son.
Michigan is staying mum on 
the topic. The Wolverines have 
avoided any dream-killing loss 
for 10 straight games, doing 
what they must to get to this 
position by beating any and 
every team in their path. And 
they claim they’ll maintain the 
same mindset this week.
“It’s just another game,” said 
junior quarterback Shea Pat-
terson. “We understand the 
tradition and meaning behind 
it, and we’re gonna attack it 
the same way we have the past 
10 or 11 weeks. We know that 
they’re a good ball club, and at 
their place, but we’re just gonna 
prepare.”
The Wolverines have to say 
that, of course. But this isn’t 
another game, for all the rea-
sons listed above. It is a game to 
prove this season has been for 
something.
The last 14 seasons — the 
time since Michigan last won 
a share of the Big Ten — have 
been leading up to this. Realisti-
cally, it’s been longer than that, 
considering the Wolverines lost 
to the Buckeyes that season. 
The Wolverines haven’t beaten 

Ohio State and won the Big Ten 
in the same season since 2003. 
“It is different,” said senior 
running back Karan Higdon. 
“It’s been awhile since this has 
been a game 
to determine 
our fate in the 
national champi-
onship, for a Big 
Ten Champion-
ship. It definite-
ly is different 
year.”
That isn’t 
exactly true.
Michigan 
was in this same 
position in 2016, 
when it came into The Game 
ranked No. 2, while the Buck-
eyes were No. 3.
We remember how that went. 

The Wolverines played about 
as well as they could, except 
they couldn’t tackle Ohio State 
running back Curtis Samuel on 
a 3rd-and-long. Then JT Bar-
rett squeezed 
out a first down, 
and then Michi-
gan ultimately 
wilted, losing in 
overtime.
If you think 
back further, 
the Wolverines 
were here in 
2006, too, when 
the teams were 
ranked first and 
second, respec-
tively, and once again, the Buck-
eyes won.
What Higdon said is true in 
that this feels like Michigan’s 

best chance to actually go into 
Columbus and win the game in 
quite a while.
The 2016 Wolverines had 
just lost to Iowa, and they were 
probably at a 
talent disadvan-
tage with how 
the Buckeyes’ 
offense was 
clicking. If it 
weren’t for Ohio 
State’s kicker 
that afternoon, 
The Game 
wouldn’t have 
even reached 
overtime — let 
alone double 
overtime — that year.
In 2006, it was a knockdown, 
dragout fight, but Troy Smith 
was Troy Smith, and the Michi-

gan defense really struggled 
against the Buckeyes’ spread 
offense.
This season, though, the 
Wolverines have blown through 
every challenge 
that has come 
their way. They 
killed Wisconsin 
and Penn State, 
and they physi-
cally dominated 
Michigan State, 
even if the score 
didn’t reflect 
the bludgeoning 
that the yardage 
totals did.
Those games 
began the “Revenge Tour” that 
has shaped how this season has 
felt for Michigan.
All the wrongs that have been 

done to the Wolverines over 
coach Jim Harbaugh’s tenure 
have been righted.
There is one more regular-
season score to settle.
 “Everybody in the entire 
country knows what this week-
end is,” said junior defensive 
end Rashan Gary. “We know 
what this weekend is. So we’re 
gonna attack it. It’s been a 
whole year having a bad taste in 
our mouths. We’ve just gotta go 
out, prepare the right way and, 
you know, go out there on Sat-
urday and see what happens.”
Additionally, the Wolverines 
are nearly at full strength. Even 
with the injury to fifth-year 
senior defensive end Chase 
Winovich, who hurt his shoul-
der Saturday against Indiana, 
Michigan has had very good 
luck with injuries. Redshirt 
freshman wide receiver Tarik 
Black came back this season. 
Junior defensive end Rashan 
Gary came back too. And Win-
ovich’s backups, sophomore 
Kwity Paye and freshman 
Aidan Hutchinson, have proven 
capable.
So there are no excuses to be 
had.
It has all been leading up to 
this game for Michigan.
Forget the past, forget what 
has already happened this sea-
son and forget the future for 
now.
If the Wolverines want to 
reach that future, they need to 
win Saturday. It’s as simple as 
that.
You know it. I know it. They 
know it. Now it’s time to see 
if this whole season — the 
10-game win streak, the talk of 
a new attitude in the program, 
the Revenge Tour — is for real, 
or if it’s just another opportu-
nity in Columbus gone to waste.

Persak can be reached 

at mdpers@umich.edu, on 

Twitter at @MikeDPersak or 

on venmo at @Mike-Persak.

EVAN AARON/Daily
The Michigan football team will travel to Columbus on Saturday for the Wolverines’ annual rivalry game with Ohio State holding a 10-1 record for the season.

Michigan slips past Indiana, 31-20, Ohio State looms

Oh, you thought this would be 
easy, didn’t you?
With just a week before a 
clash in Columbus, conventional 
wisdom assumed the No. 4 
Michigan football team would 
cruise past Indiana (2-6 Big Ten, 
5-6 overall) on Saturday.
There 
was 
nothing 
easy 
about it, though. Between costly 
offensive miscues and defensive 
lapses, injuries and turnovers, 
and plenty in between, the 
Wolverines’ performance will 
leave much to be desired.
But as the saying goes: a win 
is a win
Against a Big Ten foe in late 
November, Michigan coach Jim 
Harbaugh will take it.
“When you’re in playoff mode 
— that’s our mindset right —
playoff wins are big,” Harbaugh 
said.
After 
a 
31-20 
comeback 
victory over the Hoosiers, the 
Wolverines 
(8-0, 
10-1) 
will 
square off against Ohio State 
next Saturday with the Big Ten 
East on the line and College 
Football 
Playoff 
hopes 
still 
squarely in the balance.
“Proud of our guys the way 
they played today,” Harbaugh 
said. “Onto the next game, 
onto the big game, onto the 
championship game. Onward.”
It was evident from the 
outset Saturday would yield no 
rout. Running back Stevie Scott 
scored from 13 yards out to give 
Indiana a 7-3 lead with 4:14 left 
in the first quarter.
Newly-minted starting kicker, 
freshman Jake Moody, cut that 
lead to 7-6 on the next drive — 
but only after junior quarterback 
Shea Patterson and redshirt 
junior tight end Zach Gentry 
failed to connect on a seemingly 
easy touchdown. 
Michigan added another field 
goal on the next drive to take 
a 9-7 lead, but, again, wasted a 
precious red zone opportunity. 
In the half, the Wolverines came 
away with just nine points in 
four first half red zone trips.
“I couldn’t put my finger on it,” 
said junior running back Karan 
Higdon said of the struggles. “I 

think it was us just not executing 
and being efficient the way you 
needed to be.”
With 
miscues 
piling 
up, 
responsibility fell on Moody, 
who answered the call dutifully. 
He finished 6-for-6 on field 
goals, a school record for made 
field goals in a game.
Even when Michigan’s offense 
seemed to break, though — like 
on a 41-yard touchdown catch 
by junior tight end Nick Eubanks 
in the second quarter — Indiana 
had an answer, marching down 
the field in three mintues to take 
back the lead.
The most boneheaded mistake 
of the game came at the end of the 
first half. With the clock winding 
down, Patterson found junior 
tight end Sean McKeon near the 
end zone. McKeon was tackled 
short of the goal line, allowing 
the half to expire without adding 
points and the attempt to spike 
the ball in time failed. Video later 
surfaced of an Indiana defensive 
lineman kicking the ball in an 
attempt to delay the snap.
“They made a great play on it, 

a great tackle in the field of play,” 
Harbaugh said. “… There seemed 
to be some problems getting the 
ball back in. Whether that was us 
not getting the ball to the official 
quick enough or seeing that they 
kicked the ball, I don’t know.”
The Wolverines came out of 
the half clearly re-energized 
and 
re-focused, 
particularly 
defensively. 
They 
forced 
a 
three-and-out 
on 
their 
first 
defensive drive and drove 67 
yards in 11 plays for a touchdown 
immediately after to lead 22-17. 
Despite an uneven performance 
throughout, Michigan held onto 
that lead the rest of the night.
“That kind of just tested our 
resiliency. It kind of felt like the 
Northwestern game a little bit, 
just a gritty game, they’re a good 
team,” said junior quarterback 
Shea Patterson. “I think there’s a 
lot of positives to take out of this. 
When you’re tested, you either 
give in to whatever or come out 
resilient.”
Despite the result, Saturday’s 
game will be clouded with 
unease. 
Fifth-year 
senior 

defensive end Chase Winovich 
left in the third quarter with an 
undisclosed injury. Fifth-year 
senior running back Berkley 
Edwards left the game in the 
fourth quarter after getting hit 
on a special teams play.
After the game, Harbaugh 
said Winovich’s x-rays were 
negative. 
Despite 
the 
grim 
nature of the injury, Harbaugh 
was also optimistic Edwards 
would be OK.
For Michigan it was one of 
those games — ugly injuries, 
inefficient red zone play, mental 
and physical errors aplenty.
But, in the end, a win. And 
a win that secures a date with 
Ohio State next Saturday with 
everything on the line.
“We’re 
proving 
stuff 
to 
ourselves,” Higdon said. “That 
we can definitely be the best 
team in the country. That we’re 
definitely a top-four team. And 
that we’re a playoff contender 
and we deserve to be in the 
playoffs. That only happens if we 
continue to dominate each and 
every week.”

Wolverines suffer emotional 

injuries in win over Indiana 

The Michigan football team 
has gone relatively unscathed this 
season in terms of injuries.
Really, the only notable ones 
were redshirt freshman wide 
receiver Tarik Black, who missed 
a majority of the season with a 
broken foot, and junior defensive 
end Rashan Gary, who sat out four 
games with a shoulder issue.
That has pretty much been the 
extent of it for the Wolverines.
On Saturday night, despite 
defeating 
Indiana, 
31-20, 
Michigan’s injury luck turned on 
its head.
It began, in earnest, in the 
third quarter. Fifth-year senior 
defensive end Chase Winovich 
was rushing the passer, matched 
up with the Hoosiers’ right tackle. 
Right guard Simon Stepaniak 
came over to help on Winovich, 
dumped him to the ground hard 
on Winovich’s left shoulder and 
dove on top of him to keep him 
down.
As it turns out, he kept Winovich 
down for quite a while. Winovich 
lay motionless on the field for a few 
moments before being tended to by 
trainers, as his teammates milled 
around on the sideline, hoping 
for the best. Junior quarterback 
Shea Patterson — Winovich’s 
roommate — even walked onto the 
field to give Winovich some words 
of encouragement.
“I don’t know the severity of 
his injury,” Patterson said after 
the game. “I know him really well. 
I just told him I love him, and 
we’re behind him no matter what 
happens. That’s basically all you 
can do. Just him, with his work 
ethic and as a senior in his last 
game … I just wanted to let him 
know I was there and the whole 
team was there for him.”
Reports later surfaced that 
Winovich’s parents joined him in 
the locker room, raising the level 
of concern among Wolverine fans. 
However, Michigan coach Jim 
Harbaugh said Winovich’s x-rays 
and CT scans were negative after 
the game.
From there, the Wolverines had 

no choice but to rally together.
“It’s a brotherhood,” Gary said. 
“So when you see one of your 
brothers go down, of course you’re 
gonna feel attacked and feel let 
down and hurt. But, you know, 
football is football, and when 
they went out, now the game is 
for them and us. So I tried to play 
any snaps with Chase just how 
he would when I wasn’t playing. 
That’s my brother, and we just had 
to play like that.”
That wasn’t the end of the 
jarring injuries for Michigan.
In the fourth quarter, on a 
kickoff return, fifth-year senior 
backup running back Berkley 
Edwards got blown up while 
trying to block.
The offender, Indiana’s Cam 
Jones, was ejected for targeting, 
while Edwards was eventually 
carted off the field on a stretcher 
and brought to the hospital.
Edwards’ brother, Braylon — 
the legendary former-Wolverines 
receiver — updated the situation 
later via Twitter.
“Berkley, everything looked 
good when he left the stadium,” 
Harbaugh said. “He did have a 
concussion — he had a pretty 
good-sized concussion. He looked 
good when he left here, but he 
was taken to the hospital as a 
precaution, so we’ll have later 
updates there.”
These 
two 
injuries, 
in 
particular, gave Michigan a sour 
taste in its mouth.
After Edwards went down, 
several players were jawing at the 
Hoosiers’ sideline.
“It did get chippy,” said senior 
running back Karan Higdon.
“… Obviously, the situation 
with my brother Berkley Edwards 
didn’t sit well with anybody, and 
that was a situation that was 
unfortunate, and it kind of shook 
the team up a little bit.”
In both Winovich and Edwards’ 
cases, the prognoses were better 
than originally expected.
Still, as Gary and Higdon said, 
the pauses were long and clearly 
emotional. But the Wolverines 
simply had to rebound.
If the final score is any 
indication, they did.

FOOTBALL

MIKE PERSAK
Managing Sports Editor

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Junior tight end Nick Eubanks notched a 41-yard touchdown for the Wolverines in the second quarter of Saturday’s game.

MAX MARCOVITCH
Daily Sports Editor

MIKE
PERSAK

“We know what 

weekend it is. 

So we’re gonna 

attack it.” 

“It’s been a whole 

year having a 

bad taste in our 

mouths.” 

