What seemed like a cast of thousands ranging from Urban Meyer to Dwayne Haskins to Chris Olave and more ranging all the way to Brutus Buckeye slammed the Wolverines without mercy until the kneeldowns inside the Michigan 10 at game's end as the Buckeyes crushed the hope of the blue with a record performance of 62 scored points in a 62-39 victory!
Dwayne Haskins fired five touchdowns, two of those to Chris Olave, Olave also blocked a punt that was scooped and scored by Sevyn Banks and Parris Campbell scored on a rush of 78 yards and caught a touchdown pass as well to pace what seemed to be even more than 62 points scored.
The victory gives the Big Ten Eastern Division title to the now 11-1 (8-1 Big Ten) Buckeyes and a trip to Indianapolis for the second year in a row to play the West champions, with a new defender of the West as its Pat Fitzgerald's Northwestern Wildcats winning the title for the first time.
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1) Honestly, NO ONE saw this coming.
Now, when I was asked about the game this week, I thought it was a pick 'em game and that home field for Ohio State made it that way with home field being worth three points to the oddsmakers.
Still, I picked Ohio State because I thought that Ohio Stadium would be a help after two weeks on the road and because when Urban Meyer's teams (at Florida and Ohio State) are thought to be the underdog, that's when Meyer has performed best.
2) Of all the boxes to check as when you evaluate the reasons for this win- number one goes to the work of the offensive line.
Against Chase Winovich and Rashan Gary, the often-maligned offensive line came through with its best game of the season as the vaunted Wolverine defense came up empty in rushing Dwayne Haskins as they finished the game without sacking Haskins and rarely putting pressure on Haskins to rush his passes.
3) Dwayne Haskins threw short, medium, deep with accuracy against the nation's top-rated defenses (by the numbers anyway) and it seemed like no matter where he wanted to throw, he hit his man.
19 of 30 seemed to be worse than I would have thought as it seemed that Haskins completed more passes than that.
Still, the coolness of Haskins set the tone to keep the Buckeyes at an emotional peak without being so hyped that they are making mistakes by being out of control.
4) Parris Campbell is the game breaker that might make an NFL team very happy as one of those "Swiss Army Knife" type players that is the rage when describing a versatile player.
Campbell doesn't get caught from behind and when he took a short pitch around the tackle and sprinted 78 yards for a score, mere seconds after Michigan cut the lead to 16 and had mild hopes of a comeback- that was the pin that popped the Wolverine balloon.
Campbell might not be a day one pick and we'll see if he is a day two, but he is going to be a player that can make a real impact if used properly in special situations.
5) Freshman Chris Olave has been a player that has been discussed by Urban Meyer, the coaching staff and some media as a player that is sitting on a breakout.
That breakout came on Saturday with not only the game's first touchdown and another later in the game, but in the second half when Olave burst through the Michigan punting unit to reject the boot of Will Hart, sending the ball careening toward Sevyn Banks who cruised into the end zone for six OSU points.
Olave's talents as a receiver have been often noted, but plays such as his block have been characteristic of the Buckeye receiver this season on special teams with Terry McLaurin and Johnnie Dixon often making big plays with the coverage units.
6) There really was just one time that I wondered about this game- the DeMario McCall muff of a kickoff after a Michigan score with under a minute to play in the half.
Michigan quickly scored and went for two points afterward for the tie, which failed.
Michigan had cut the lead from 21-6 to 21-19 within seconds.
They would never be that close again.
7) Michigan runner Karan Higdon had promised a victory but wasn't a factor in finishing with 78 yards rushing.
Now some of those numbers could be waved off as Michigan needing to throw the football for most of the second half, if not the game, but other than one run of 24 yards, Higdon was unable to make a real impact.
8) Now, even in defeat, I have to say Michigan has two excellent pass catchers in Nico Collins and Donovan Peoples-Jones.
Both of these sophomores are going to be top notch players next year (they already are) and I'm not looking forward to watching the Buckeyes corners cover them next year in Ann Arbor.
9) One of the main points made by so many this week for a Michigan win was the defense and its coordinator Don Brown.
Brown had been seemingly crowned as the best defensive mind since Buddy Ryan, with his unit allowing only 13 points a game and 238 yards of offenses, but his team and Michigan's recruiting learned very quickly that the difference between these two teams is speed.
Ohio State was simply faster and no matter what one thinks of Brown, it's that speed that overmatched his defense.
10) Urban Meyer is now 7-0 vs Michigan.
Add to that Jim Tressel's 8-1 and the loss by the 6-6 team by interim coach Luke Fickel in 2011 and the Buckeyes have lost two times (with one being a flukey year in 2011 and still almost won before losing 40-34 in Ann Arbor) since 2001.
15-2 is the greatest run in the modern history of this series.
I don't take this for granted, things don't last forever, but this game had the feeling going into it for Michigan supporters that "if we don't get them this year, when will we"?
They didn't and I'm not sure that malaise is not beginning to set into their program.
A loss in Ann Arbor next year might truly signal a resignation of "We just aren't at that level anymore".
11) The difference between the Buckeyes since Urban Meyer's arrival-Speed.
As mentioned above Ohio State was simply faster than Michigan and when Meyer's Florida Gators ran past Jim Tressel's Buckeyes for a national title- Urban Meter noticed and remembered that needed upgrading in recruiting.
That is typical of almost every Buckeye recruit and slow turtles may not apply.
12) What a game by the Buckeye linebackers, who have been wondered about all season under Bill Davis.
Malik Harrison and Tuf Borland seemed to be in on every play, made plays upon impact and weren't dragged for extra yardage- the type of linebacker that I complain about often with the Browns.
13) I made a statement a week or two ago that if the Buckeyes beat Michigan and won in the Big 10 title game, I would not complain if they didn't get into to the playoff.
I won't, if the 4th team is Oklahoma, I'll live with it.
Some one-loss team has to sit out, Oklahoma's loss to Texas is certainly more excusable than the Buckeyes loss to a 6-6 Purdue team and against Oklahoma, OK.
However, if Georgia upsets Alabama and the SEC gets two teams in again, I think this sets the stage for the needed move to a eight-team playoff.
No one can argue against undefeated Alabama, Clemson, and Notre Dame getting in, but IF both Oklahoma AND Ohio State miss out for two SEC teams for the second year in a row- the snowball for eight begins to roll.
14) So, what do we know about Northwestern?
The Wildcats might have completed the strangest path to a major conference title game ever.
8-4 Northwestern won each of their eight games in conference, went winless out of conference and one of those losses came to an eventual likely 4-8 (they play at South Carolina next weekend) Akron team at home in Ryan Field!
Northwestern started 1-3, but have won seven of their last eight and their only loss was by ten points to undefeated Notre Dame.
The numbers and the visuals favor Ohio State, but I am a big fan of Pat Fitzgerald, he knows Northwestern will have very few chances to win the Big Ten and the Wildcats will be well prepared.
Don't take them lightly.
15) What a win.
Every time OSU wins this game, my weekend is a good one, but this one is really special because for one of the few times over the streak, I wondered about this one.
I just want to hear from Desmond Howard, noted Wolverine, COUGH, impartial football observer, who picks Michigan to win this game every year and every year proclaims Michigan is back.
Wonder what that homer, ERR impartial football observer has to say?
See you from Indianapolis and later tonight with Browns and Boxing Challenge!
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