Why Michigan/Ohio State will win The Game

I 

get it.
You look at the recent 
history against Ohio State 
— losing 13 
of that last 
14 matchups 
— and you 
think a loss 
is inevitable. 
Then, you see 
the Michigan 
football 
team has to 
rewrite that 
history in 
Columbus, 
where it hasn’t won since 2000. 
And it’ll try to do it against one 
of the country’s best coaches, 
with one of the country’s best 
quarterbacks beside him.
A lackluster 31-20 win over 
Indiana surely inspires more 
concern than confidence about 
beating the Buckeyes.
I ask you to do one thing: 
forget all of it.
“It’s a different game, and 
we’re going to make sure we’ll 
handle our business,” said 
senior running back Karan 
Higdon. “They still have to play 
us on Saturday. Nothing that 
happened in the past matters at 
this point.”
The rivalry game will be 
different in more ways than one. 
The Wolverines will beat Ohio 
State. Michigan will claim sole 
ownership of the Big Ten East 
title.
What’s at stake is very 
apparent. And the Wolverines 
are approaching it with 
measured responses.
“Everybody in the whole 
entire country knows what this 
week is,” said junior defensive 
end Rashan Gary. “We know 
what this week is, so we’re gonna 
attack it. It’s been a whole year of 
having a bad taste in our mouths. 
We just gotta go out, prepare 
the right way and go out there 
Saturday and see what happens.”
The first, and most obvious 
reason the tables will turn 
this year is quarterback Shea 
Patterson. John O’Korn was 
abysmal in “The Game” last 
season, sailing balls left and 
right and throwing a game-
sealing interception facing 
marginal pressure.
This season, the Buckeyes 
rank 77th in passing yards 
allowed per game (237.4), and 

have struggled to contain 
quarterbacks that the 
Wolverines’ defense outright 
punished like Nebraska’s 
Adrian Martinez, Penn State’s 
Trace McSorley and Indiana’s 
Peyton Ramsey. Those three 
quarterbacks all threw for at 
least 260 yards and a touchdown 
against them. Patterson is 
the most accurate and mobile 
quarterback Michigan has had 
since Denard Robinson, the last 
quarterback to beat Ohio State 
back in 2011.
Patterson is also playing 
behind an offensive line that 
is significantly better than last 
season’s, which allowed five 
sacks on O’Korn. Saturday’s 
game serves as a homecoming 
for offensive line coach Ed 
Warinner, who coached for the 
Buckeyes from 2012-16, and he 
will get to showcase his latest 
work to his former team. The 
loss of Ohio State defensive end 
Joey Bosa, the likely No. 1 overall 
pick in the NFL Draft, further 
opens the door for an impactful 
O-line performance.
The second reason, 
conversely, is Buckeyes 
quarterback Dwayne Haskins 
and his offensive line. The 
numbers don’t lie — Haskins 
is third in the country in 
passing yards per game, and 36 
touchdowns. Haskins has also 
been sacked just 13 times. But 
the offensive line has been far 
below average for the Buckeyes 
in the run game — 54th in the 
country in yards per game — 
even with J.K. Dobbins and 
Mike Weber in the backfield. In 
other words, facing Michigan’s 
top-ranked defense, Haskins 
will have to throw.
Few quarterbacks have found 
success this season against 
the Wolverines. Immobile 
quarterbacks like Haskins 
haven’t fared any better.
And the only aspect of the 
team worse than its offensive 
line is its run defense.
Maryland’s Anthony 
McFarland ran rampant on the 
Buckeyes in a 52-51 shootout 
(Yes, the same Maryland that 
only dropped 10 points against 
Michigan), registering 298 yards 
and two touchdowns on just 21 
carries.
Senior running back Karan 
Higdon, who averages nearly 

111 rushing yards per game, will 
have a field day in Columbus.
So fire away with your takes:
“Jim Harbaugh can’t win the 
big one.”
“Michigan will just choke.”
“They can’t win in Columbus.”
And they would all be wrong. 
This isn’t about cliches or empty 
narratives. The Wolverines 
are unequivocally better than 
the Buckeyes, who have rarely 
looked impressive against the 
same competition.
Michigan’s sole loss is a 
one touchdown heartbreaker 
at No. 3 Notre Dame in the 
season opener. Purdue romped 
Ohio State by four possessions, 
and the Boilermakers hope to 
become bowl eligible with a win 
next week.
For Ohio State fans and 
Michigan skeptics, harping on 
the past is easy, but this time the 
past will not matter.
“Just another game,” 
Patterson said. “We understand 
the tradition and the meaning 
behind it, but we’re going to 
attack it the same way we have 
the past 10, 11 weeks. We know 
they’re a good ball club at their 
place, but we’re just going to 
prepare and come out firing.”
And with coming out firing, a 
win will follow.

Wolfe can be reached at 

eewolfe@umich.edu or on 

Twitter @ethanewolfe

S

aturday’s game will be the 
biggest 
Michi-
gan football 
game in 
at least 12 
years. For 
Ohio State, 
it won’t even 
approach the 
top 10.
That’s not 
to say the 
Buckeyes 
don’t care about Saturday’s 
game; obviously, they do. 
Instead, it is to say the pressure 
will be disproportionately 
slanted toward one side. The 
line opened at Michigan -4, and 
that’s properly indicative of 
which team has looked better 
all year. 
But what, in the recent 
history of Michigan football, 
leads you to believe this 
program is capable of handling 
that pressure?
Take the 2016 game, for 
example. Forget the JT 
Barrett play for a moment. The 
Wolverines entered the fourth 
quarter up 17-14, then gained 
a total of five yards, neglecting 
every chance to put the game 
away.
Take the 2012 game for 
another. Michigan entered 
halftime up 21-20. In the second 
half Michigan failed to cross 
midfield, turned the ball over 

three times and didn’t score. 
How about 2007? The 
Wolverines came into the home 
game having a chance to claim 
the Big Ten East with a win, 
then scored just 3 points all 
afternoon.
Let’s revisit 2004. Michigan 
was favored heading into a 
matchup against an Ohio State 
team that was 3-4 in conference 
play. The Wolverines led 14-7 
after the first quarter then got 
their doors blown off — giving 
up 27 unanswered points in a 
blowout loss.
The Wolverines haven’t won 
in Columbus since 2000 and 
have beaten Ohio State just 
three times since the turn of the 
century. There’s a foundational 
reason for that beyond “Ohio 
State is usually better.” This 
game has devolved into less of 
a rivalry and more of an annual 
event to breed self-loathing.
Which brings us to this year, 
a game Michigan absolutely 
should win, but a game in which 
the alternative would be entirely 
unsurprising.
There’s plenty of reason to 
believe this Michigan team is 
going to finally lay this two-
decade-long nightmare to rest. 
It has the best quarterback in 
recent program history in Shea 
Patterson. It has an historically 
great defense anchoring the 
other side of the ball. It has 
a signature road win against 

(a retrospectively average) 
Michigan State team under its 
belt. 
But be honest: any optimism 
is clouded with fear. Confidence 
is guarded with ample caution. 
Ohio State has owned Michigan 
for the better part of my lifetime, 
and 10 wins against inferior 
opponents doesn’t change that 
framework until the Wolverines 
overcome it.
Not to mention this Buckeyes 
team — while in the midst of 
a “down” season by its lofty 
standards — is certainly no 
pushover. They have a shoo-in 
all-Big Ten quarterback and 
dynamic offensive weapons 
aplenty; Ohio State is still 
averaging nearly 42 points per 
game. They are still a top-10 
team nationally, and you best 
believe they will be motivated to 
continue the reign of dominance 
— and, by the way, play for its 
third Big Ten championship in 
the last five years.
Each side is coming in 
with predictable hymns of 
motivation.
“Everybody in the whole 
entire country knows what 
this week is,” said junior 
defensive end Rashan Gary after 
Saturday’s win over Indiana. 
“We know what this week is. So 
we’re going to attack. It’s been a 
whole year of having a bad taste 
in our mouth, so we’ve just got 
to go out and prepare the right 
way.”
Ohio State quarterback 
Dwayne Haskins told reporters 
he has watched Michigan play 
every week. 
One is taken with measured 
confidence of a program that 
has dominated for 20 years. 
The other comes with a hint of 
desperation. One is the bully, 
the other is the downtrodden 
victim.
Until I see those roles are 
reversed on the field, I won’t 
believe it. For the 16th time in 
the last 18 years, Ohio State 
is going to beat Michigan on 
Saturday, and the hopes and 
dreams of this Michigan football 
season will come crashing 
down in the most disappointing 
fashion possible.

Marcovitch can be reached 

at maxmarco@umich.edu or on 

Twitter @max_marcovitch

Michigan will win
Ohio State will win

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh and his team will head into Columbus on Saturday with a chance to clinch the Big Ten East.

ETHAN 
WOLFE

MAX 

MARCOVITCH

From redzone struggles, Jake Moody has historic performance

With the clock ticking, the 
Michigan football team thought it 
could score one last time before the 
half against Indiana.
Trailing 17-15, the Wolverines 
were in the redzone following 
a 41-yard reception by redshirt 
junior tight end Zach Gentry. With 
only one timeout, Michigan ran 
three times. Then junior tight end 
Sean McKeon caught a pass at the 
two-yard line, getting tackled in 
bounds at the two-yard line. Time 

was vanishing when it didn’t have 
to.
As 
halftime 
approached 
following 
McKeon’s 
reception, 
Shea Patterson set the offense 
to spike the ball, stop the clock 
and kick a field goal. The referee 
carried the ball to position it, 
dropped it before he could give it to 
center Cesar Ruiz and an Indiana 
player kicked it away to lengthen 
the referee’s scramble.
Halftime adjustments in the 
locker room were coming next.
“We just didn’t execute well 
enough,” said redshirt sophomore 

tight end Nick Eubanks. “… We’ve 
got a lot of work to do.”
It’s as simple as that.
Michigan made eight separate 
trips 
in 
the 
redzone 
during 
Saturday’s 31-20 win over the 
Hoosiers, and scored a touchdown 
only once — a two-yard run by 
Karan Higdon, assisted by a pass 
interference the previous play.
Five of those trips ended with 
two short-yardage runs, and either 
an incomplete or short pass before 
the firstdown marker. On one of 
those instances, the Wolverines 
failed to find paydirt after a 

dropped ball by Gentry. It was 
a mishmash of monotonous but 
sustained errors that raise red flags 
heading into the season finale at 
Ohio State.
“They did a great job,” Higdon 
said. “We didn’t execute as well as 
we wanted to a couple times. We 
had some dropped balls, miscues 
and we can’t have that. I’d rather 
that happen now then next week.”
But Michigan’s struggles came 
with a silver lining. Through 
the Wolverines’ failed redzone 
execution emerged much-needed 
consistency from the place kicking 
unit. Freshman kicker Jake Moody 
took over field goal duties for Quinn 
Nordin, who Moody said didn’t feel 
good enough to enter the game.
Moody, who typically handles 
kickoffs, went 6-for-6 on the day 
— all within 33 yards — to break a 
Michigan football record last set 
by Nordin for most field goals in a 
game..

From a numbers and momentum 
standpoint, 
Moody 
was 
the 
difference maker.
“You talk about 139 years of 
Michigan football, and set a record 
six field goals,” Harbaugh said. 
“Cool customer, good thing for a 
kicker. … Every single field goal was 
big today.”
Added Moody: “The guys out 
there made it easy for me, the 
snaps and the holds. … I’ve been 
practicing all season. Quinn’s 
been a great role model for me. He 
taught me what to do when you get 
out there to get your mind right to 
kick.”
Harbaugh noted that his historic 
performance wouldn’t guarantee a 
starting spot for next week. While 
the perfect day could offer peace of 
mind, the performance was rooted 
in the offense’s inability to score 
touchdowns. Recording 507 yards 
of offense is usually conducive to 
more than 31 points.

“Just playing in the Big Ten,” 
Patterson cited for the offense’s 
shortcomings. “… Not everything is 
gonna go your way. I thought they 
had a pretty good scheme, pretty 
good defense. We just took what 
they gave us. I thought our defense 
put us in a pretty good position.”
The offense was not without 
its successes. Patterson rifled a 
41-yard touchdown to a wide-
open Eubanks. And if you’re really 
reaching, 
Higdon’s 
touchdown 
demonstrated that the red zone 
woes are fixable.
The Wolverines will have a week 
to do just that. They repeat the 
phrase “one game at a time” like a 
greeting, and a short-term memory 
is more of a demand than a request 
with the Buckeyes looming.
But if just for Saturday, the day 
rightfully belonged to Jake Moody.
“This 
guy 
was 
a 
sniper,” 
Patterson said. “He did a hell of a 
job.”

CARTER FOX/Daily
Freshman kicker Jake Moody set a Michigan record with six made field goals in the Wolverines’ win over Indiana.

ETHAN WOLFE
Daily Sports Writer

4B — November 19, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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