C

OLUMBUS — It feels like a 
lifetime ago.
Last year when the Michigan 
football team finally broke its decade-
long curse against Ohio State, when the 
Wolverines stormed the snowy streets of 
Ann Arbor and when Michigan coach Jim 
Harbaugh deemed it just a “beginning.”
It was the Wolverines’ biggest win 
of the millennium. And on Saturday in 
Columbus, Michigan did it again.
Whenever they needed to, the third-
ranked Wolverines (12-0 overall, 9-0 
Big Ten) delivered blow after blow to 
Ohio State (11-1, 8-1), as they defeated the 
second-ranked Buckeyes, 45-23.
“It feels great to sing ‘The Victors’ in 
Columbus,” Harbaugh said Saturday. 
“Our team really earned it in every way.”
The Game this year was different from 
the last, and that was obvious from the 
start. Ohio State’s offense took the field 
first and immediately got to work. A 12 
play, 81-yard drive capped off by receiver 
Emeka Egbuka’s touchdown sent the 
Horseshoe into a frenzy. 
Not even five minutes into the game, 
Michigan was already in an unfamiliar 

situation: For the first time all season, 
the Wolverines didn’t score first. The 
discomfort was obvious.
Sophomore quarterback J.J. McCarthy 
was erratic. He dipped out of the pocket 
before he needed to, he was missing 
throws — nothing was working.
“In the first half, I was a little amped 
up because I’ve been waiting to play this 
game so long,” McCarthy said. “But once 
the nerves kind of calmed down and 
everything settled, I knew it was over 
from there.”
It took a while to get to where 
McCarthy knew the outcome — his team, 
at times, looked like they were just trying 
to survive the first half. The Buckeyes 
smelled blood, and they were trying to 
run away from Michigan. Everyone in 
the packed Horseshoe could sense that 
Ohio State was thoroughly outplaying 
the Wolverines in the first quarter, and 
yet, there was an uneasiness settling in.
Michigan was just hanging around. 
After giving up the opening drive 
touchdown, the Wolverines’ defense 
regrouped — only allowing three points 
on the next three possessions.
“We felt like any kind of stop was 
going to be like gold,” Harbaugh said.
Without junior running back Blake 
Corum able to play through injury, 

Michigan’s offense didn’t look like its 
normal self. But somehow that was 
alright. 
In a wild, back-and-forth second 
quarter, McCarthy found senior wide 
receiver Cornelius Johnson for long 
touchdowns on two consecutive plays. 
The Game was turned on its head.
Ohio State had its chance to bury 

Michigan, but it couldn’t, and the 
Wolverines made the Buckeyes pay for it.
After converting a fourth and one on 
its own side of the field, Michigan drove 
down the field and McCarthy found 
freshman tight end, Colston Loveland, 
for a 45-yard touchdown. After the 
Wolverines’ first drive of the second 
half, the Horseshoe fell silent.
“After that touchdown coming out of 
the half, we were able to do everything 
we wanted at that point,” McCarthy said.

Michigan never looked back.
Two drives later, the Wolverines 
finally found their running game. Their 
offense slowly leeched the life out of 
Ohio State’s once ravenous crowd on a 
nearly 
eight-minute-long 
touchdown 
drive. When McCarthy ran in a three-
yard touchdown on third and goal, 
extending Michigan’s lead to 11 right as 
the fourth quarter started, the anxiety 
that hung over the Horseshoe was as 
nauseating as it was palpable.
“We looked at their sideline and they 
were over there hanging their heads,” 
senior defensive back Mike Sainristil 
said. “We knew… they’re vulnerable right 
now.”
That was a mindset shared by every 
Wolverine.
“You can feel when their will breaks,” 
graduate linebacker Michael Barrett 
said. “… You can feel it when it goes out 
of them.”
That’s when the avalanche came.
With only a one-score lead the 
Wolverines were faced with their biggest 
offensive possession of the season. On 
their first play, sophomore running back 
Donovan Edwards found daylight and 
burst through to the right for a 75-yard 
touchdown. 
In one final attempt at victory, Ohio 

State drove down the field only for a 
desperate flick from quarterback C.J. 
Stroud to fall into the hands of graduate 
edge rusher Taylor Upshaw. To add 
insult to injury, Edwards subsequently 
broke an 85-yard touchdown run and 
hordes of scarlet and gray headed for the 
exits.
After the clock hit zero, and a 
familiar feeling of jubilation swept over 
Michigan, Sainristil hoisted a massive 
maize and blue Michigan flag. He ran 
around the field in celebration until 
finally planting it in the block ‘O’ at 
midfield; an exclamation point on the 
Wolverines’ emphatic victory.
Last season, Michigan finally broke 
through against the Buckeyes, showing 
that it’s no longer just the second-best 
team in the Big Ten, sentenced to an 
eternity of living in its rival’s shadow.
But this year; this year was different. 
In the first undefeated clash of arch-
rivals since 2006, the Wolverines came 
out on top. Not only is it Michigan’s 
first win in Columbus since 2000, its 
first back-to-back victories against the 
Buckeyes and its first 12-0 record since 
1997 — it showed that there’s a new team 
on the top of the Big Ten.
And that team is Michigan — the 
champions of the east.

SPENCER RAINES
Daily Sports Editor

Michigan defeats Ohio State for second year in a row

Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, November 30, 2022

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY TWO YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

michigandaily.com

AGAIN

On Saturday in 
Columbus, Michigan 
did it again.

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INDEX
Vol. CXXXII, No. 100
©2022 The Michigan Daily

NEWS............................ 2

A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

S TAT E M E N T . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

MIC ............................10

O P I N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 2

S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 5
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