4B — Monday, November 26, 2018
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Offensive miscues stall Michigan in 62-39 loss

COLUMBUS — Shea Patterson 
took a few steps back, cocked 
his arm and let the football roll 
off his fingers. It was a dime of a 
pass, flying directly through the 
air towards senior tight end Zach 
Gentry, who was open for the catch 
in the endzone. He outstretched 
his arms, just barely grabbing the 
ball.
But there was no touchdown.
Instead, the ball fell to the 
ground, slipping through Gentry’s 
fingers and bouncing on the scarlet 
turf. In that instant, with Ohio 
State leading 7-3 early in the second 
quarter, a touchdown would have 
given Michigan the lead for the 
first time during Saturday’s game 
in Columbus.
Instead, 
freshman 
kicker 
Jake Moody made his way onto 

the field to make the most of a 
fourth-down, 31-yard field goal 
opportunity. With the swipe of 
his leg, he secured Michigan three 
points for the second time during 
that game, keeping 
the 
Wolverines 
close at 7-6 — but 
still without the 
lead.
Even 
with 
Moody’s six-point 
contribution 
through the first 
two 
quarters, 
common 
lapses 
in 
the 
offense 
throughout 
Saturday’s 
game 
were 
complemented by a defense that 
struggled to stall the Buckeyes’ 
offensive onslaught. In a game 
with 
Big 
Ten 
Championship 
and 
College 
Football 
Playoff 
implications on the line, and a 

rivalry game with Ohio State, no 
less, those collective struggles 
contributed to the Wolverines’ 
62-39 loss.
“This is why everybody comes to 
Michigan, to play 
in this game,” 
Patterson 
said. 
“That’s one of 
the reasons why 
I came here. As a 
child, I dreamed 
of 
playing 
in 
this game. You 
know, I’m the 
quarterback, and 
I have the ball in 
my hand every 
snap, and I take full responsibility 
for our faults on offense.”
The offense, in some moments, 
provided flashes of optimism. Late 
in the second quarter, Patterson 
connected 
with 
sophomore 
wide receiver Nico Collins on 

a 23-yard catch for Michigan’s 
first touchdown of the game. Six 
seconds on the clock later, after 
junior wide receiver Nate Schoenle 
recovered an Ohio State fumble, 
the 
Wolverines 
scored 
again 
courtesy of a nine-yard pass from 
Patterson to junior running back 
Chris Evans.
But, for every bright spot, 
there 
was 
another 
miscue. 
Another dropped ball, a penalty 
drawn, a missed opportunity to 
move the ball forward. Another 
reason Michigan was never able 
to establish that lead over the 
Buckeyes.
Late in the third period, the 
Wolverines struggled to close a 
34-19 gap. After senior running 
back Karan Higdon was tackled for 
a loss of two yards when rushing 
the ball, and Gentry missed a 
potential first-down catch off a 
hit that triggered a concussion, 
Patterson found himself facing 
pressure in the pocket.
Once again, he cocked his arm 
back and threw it, directed at the 
sideline — but this time, it landed 
directly in the hands of Ohio State 
safety Jordan Fuller, who ran it 
four yards before junior tight end 
Sean McKeon ended the drive.
“Sometimes you get desperate 
in those types of situations,” 
Patterson said. “I wasn’t really 
trying to force it, I was actually 
trying to throw the ball out of 
bounds. 
Whoever 
made 
that 
play made a good play and hit my 
elbow.”
Between quarterback Dwayne 
Haskins and running back Mike 
Weber, the interception soon 
turned into a touchdown to put 
the Buckeyes up, 41-19. Another 
interception 
from 
freshman 
quarterback Joe Milton resulted 
in Ohio State’s final touchdown, 
a 62-point total by the end of the 
game. 
In a day in which nothing went 
right for Michigan, the offense 
sputtered when it needed to seize 
control. The Wolverines ended up 
with 39 points, but it was the ones 
they left on the field that they will 
remember.

Wolverines’ defense 
shredded in 62-39 loss

COLUMBUS — Nearly four 
hours after kickoff, the sun 
shined down on Ohio Stadium 
for the first time.
If it was a sign, it wasn’t for 
Michigan.
The scoreboard read 55-32 
and would finish 62-39 in favor 
of the Buckeyes. The 62 points 
allowed by the No. 1 defense in 
the country were the most ever 
scored on the Wolverines in a 
regulation game, surpassing 56 
points allowed over a century 
ago to Cornell. Where Michigan 
made all the wrong history, it 
now finds itself absent again 
from a Big Ten Championship 
and 
potential 
national 
title 
hopes.
This 
wasn’t 
supposed 
to 
happen to his team, nothing 
remotely close, especially this 
season. Jim Harbaugh knew 
that Ohio State had never even 
eclipsed 50 points in the rivalry 
game. 
On 
an 
afternoon 
of 
unfettered domination, that stat 
was the only thing Harbaugh 
had an answer for.
“They 
had 
several 
successful 
plays, 
no 
question about 
it,” 
Harbaugh 
said. 
“They 
got some real 
speed 
plays, 
crossing routes. 
Threw the ball 
downfield well, 
I thought their 
protection was really good. We 
didn’t get the pressure on the 
quarterback that we wanted to.”
The list could read like its 
own history book. Buckeyes 
quarterback Dwayne Haskins 
throttled 
Michigan 
for 
318 passing yards and five 
touchdowns 
to 
become 
the 
single-season, all-time Big Ten 
leader in both categories.
Haskins 
didn’t 
just 
have 
answers, he had lessons. 
“We seen a lot of man coverage, 
lot of one high, so we knew that 
we could get a lot of one-on-one 
matchups and crossing routes on 
them,” Haskins said. “And made 
some plays when it mattered the 
most.
“I was licking my chops, I see 
the one-high covers and that’s 
a quarterback’s dream. The 
biggest responsibility for me all 
week was to be able to pick up 
blitzes and protection, because 
we saw a lot of different fronts 
and excotic looks. I spent hours 
in the film room just trying to 
figure out how we can pick the 
blitzes up.
“And once we picked it up, 
receivers make plays, and I’m 
going to put it there.”
The 
Wolverines 
had 
no 
response to the multitude of 
crossing 
patterns 
over 
the 
middle, let alone everything 
else thrown their way. Fifty-
one yards and a score came off 
crossing routes on Ohio State’s 
first drive — a 24-yarder to Chris 
Olave. It had three more on its 
second touchdown of the day, 
a 27-yard encore from Olave. 

Rinse, repeat.
“We 
try 
to 
stay 
upbeat 
throughout the whole game 
and trust each other and stay in 
the fight, but I don’t remember 
a point where it just got out of 
hand,” said senior safety Tyree 
Kinnel. “It slowly devastated 
us throughout the game, and 
knowing all the yards they 
were putting up, it was tough, 
extremely tough.”
Even in man-to-man press 
coverage that had rarely failed 
Michigan the previous 11 games, 
it simply got burned — Ohio State 
had 16 plays with double-digit 
yardage, including a 78-yard 
rush by Parris Campbell.
It may have been consistent 
with the defense’s day-long 
malaise. But it certainly was a 
byproduct of a pass rush that 
finished with zero sacks and 
quarterback pressures, leaving 
the secondary to cover for longer 
than it has all year.
“A-plus job,” Haskins said of 
his offensive line. “Zero sacks. I 
have to take them out to dinner. 
… I really had all day in the 
pocket.” 
After trailing just 24-19 after 
the first half, the 
defensive 
woes 
looked mendable. 
The 
Wolverines 
had surrendered 
just 
10 
third 
quarter 
points 
all year prior to 
Saturday. But if 
the non-stop, first 
half punches were 
any 
indication, 
this was not going 
to be like any Saturday.
Junior 
cornerback 
David 
Long left the game from a hip 
flexor on the first series of the 
second half. On the second 
series, Rashan Gary and Devin 
Bush needed medical attention 
on back-to-back plays. When 
help was needed most, there was 
nowhere to look.
“We made adjustments at 
halftime, addressed the issues 
we had in the first half,” Kinnel 
said. “And they came out and 
beat us with something else 
in the second half. … They 
completely beat us today.”
Unprepared, 
confused, 
sluggish. 
No 
one 
word 
encapsulates the otherworldly 
hurt that the Buckeyes inflicted. 
For defensive coordinator Don 
Brown, the onslaught pushed 
him past anger, and into a simple 
gratitude for coaching. 
“He just went and talked to 
every guy individually and said 
that he was proud of us, we’re 
a great unit, he loved to coach 
us,” Kinnel said of Brown. “They 
were pretty all positive in the 
locker room, but everyone’s 
down right now.
“They completely beat us 
everywhere. Run game, pass 
game — everyone’s to blame.”
With 
the 
sun 
continuing 
to beat down on the field that 
Michigan couldn’t compete on, 
the game clock struck zero and 
the Wolverines were put out of 
their misery. Fans rushed the 
field.
Ohio State beat Michigan at 
its own game. 

ETHAN WOLFE
Daily Sports Writer

“It slowly 
devastated us 
throughout the 
game...”

LANEY BYLER
Managing Sports Editor

‘M’ could not capitalize on enough opportunities to keep up with Ohio State

EVAN AARON/Daily
Senior tight end Zach Gentry dropped a potential touchdown pass during Saturday’s game against Ohio State before leaving the field with a concussion.

“I take full 
responsibility 
for our faults on 
offense.”

