For 3,653 days — long, arduous, hollow 
days — the Michigan football program 
lived in the shadows of its unremitting 
failures against Ohio State. 
There won’t be a 3,654th day. At 
long last, that futile streak is over. 
After eight consecutive bitter 
losses to the Buckeyes, the Wolverines 
emerged from The Game victorious. 
No. 5 Michigan (11-1 overall, 8-1 Big 
Ten) shocked No. 2 Ohio State (10-
2, 8-1), 42-27, clinching the Big Ten 
East and punching a ticket to next 
Saturday’s Big Ten Championship 
Game. 
“One of my favorite sayings of all 
time is, ‘When there’s a will, there’s a 
way,’ ” Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh 
said after the game. “And the will was 
very strong for our team.” 
As the fourth quarter wound 
to a close, reality melded with 
imagination. Senior running back 
Hassan Haskins stood in the 

endzone with outstretched arms, 
celebrating 
a 
touchdown 
that 
handed Michigan a 15-point lead 
with 2:17 minutes to play. He blew 
kisses to the crowd, beckoning the 
raucous sea of maize pom poms that 
serenaded him for an electric five 
touchdown performance. 
Pandemonium had officially set in. 
When the clock struck double-
zeroes, everyone seemed to forget 
about the freezing cold and the endless 
nightmares from previous defeats. 
Droves of fans plunged from the 
stands and spilled out onto the turf, 
reveling in their newfound glory. 
Michigan, champions of the Big 
Ten East. 
“It was a surreal moment,” junior 
quarterback Cade McNamara said. 
“It’s something we’ve dreamed of. 
Every 6 a.m. (practice), that feeling is 
the reason why we do it.”
Saturday offered an opportunity 
for the Wolverines to exorcise past 
demons, escaping the recent doldrums 
and persistent pain of the rivalry. A 
win would vault them into the Big 

Ten Championship Game and buoy 
aspirations of a berth in the College 
Football Playoff, two hurdles that 
the program had yet to clear as of 
the morning, seven years into Jim 
Harbaugh’s tenure. 
But just as toppling the Buckeyes 
began 
to 
feel 
sisyphean, 
the 
Wolverines punched first — and 
refused to relent. 

“It was really like a war out 
there,” senior defensive end Aidan 
Hutchinson, who wreaked havoc on 
Ohio State’s offense with three sacks, 
said. 
On Michigan’s opening possession, 
sophomore receiver A.J. Henning 

found the endzone on a 14-yard 
touchdown run, whipping Michigan 
Stadium into an immediate frenzy.
In the second quarter, even as 
Ohio State took a brief 10-7 lead, 
Michigan proved unfazed, embodying 
its season-long serenity. A 13-play, 
82-yard touchdown drive sent the 
Wolverines into halftime clenching a 
14-13 lead. 
In past years, Michigan unraveled 
in similar moments, particularly in 
The Game. On Saturday, the team 
merely grew stronger. 
The second half started to a tee. 
The Wolverines’ defense forced a crisp 
three-and-out, and the offense blazed 
down the field, running the ball three 
times for a total of 81 yards; Haskins 
capped the drive with a touchdown. 
They had kicked Ohio State back 
onto its heels, and the Buckeyes would 
never recover. 
Michigan’s 
offense, 
having 
re-discovered its rhythm, operated 
with machine-like efficiency. A 31-yard 
pass from freshman quarterback J.J. 
McCarthy to sophomore receiver 

Roman Wilson set up a 34-yard flea-
flicker from McNamara to junior 
receiver Mike Sainristil. 
So hapless were the Buckeyes 
that only a brief kerfuffle could 
slow down the Wolverines. After a 
scrum triggered an unsportsmanlike 
conduct on Ohio State’s Cameron 
Brown, Michigan found the endzone 
again. Haskins bounced outside, 
scoring for the third time on the day, 
staking the Wolverines to a stunning 
15-point lead. 
The result incited delirium and 
momentarily broke the Michigan 
Stadium 
scoreboard 
— 
an 
apt 
microcosm for the shock of The 
Game’s result. 
Even as Ohio State scratched and 
clawed its way to an early fourth 
quarter 
touchdown, 
Michigan 
responded with yet another emphatic, 
methodic drive. Haskins wiggled 
his way down the field, ultimately 
plowing into the endzone for his 
fourth touchdown. 
In the game’s waning minutes, 
when Stroud’s fourth-and-18 heave fell 

shy of a first down, the reality set in. 
Bleachers rattled. The stadium shook. 
Hutchinson and fifth-year safety Brad 
Hawkins shed tears. 
“We 
have 
(a 
sign) 
inside 
Schembechler Hall, ‘What are you 
doing today to beat Ohio State,’ ” 
Hawkins said. “And today, we beat 
them. It’s a blessing.” 
A blessing, perhaps, but certainly 
not a product of luck. 
“Every workout, every practice, 
every game, everything that we put 
into this season — that’s something 
that we kept in the back of our minds 
every single day that we entered 
Schembechler Hall,” McNamara said 
of Ohio State. “We did enough to beat 
them today.” 
After nine years of perpetual 
suffering, Michigan had achieved the 
unthinkable. It’s a game that no one 
will soon forget. 
“We’ve got a lot of hours left 
today,” Harbaugh smirked, allowing 
himself to digest the gravity of the 
moment. “… Celebrating long into 
the night.”

Michigan shocks Ohio State, ends eight-game losing streak in The Game

JARED GREENSPAN
Daily Sports Editor

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, December 1, 2021

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY ONE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

FINALLY
FINALLY

“It’s something we’ve 
dreamed of. Every 6 a.m. 
(practice), that feeling is 
the reason why we do it.”

42
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