Justin Fields threw for 301 yards and J.K Dobbins ran for 211 to lead a Buckeye offense that finished with almost six hundred (577) yards in total offense against a Wolverine team that stayed reasonably close on the scoreboard, but wasn't able to find a way to score when they had the chance to really tighten the game.
Ohio State improved to 12-0 (9-0 Big Ten) with the victory and will now travel to Indianapolis for a rematch with the Wisconsin Badgers, who regained the Paul Bunyan Axe and won the Big Ten West yesterday with a snowy victory on the road over the Minnesota Golden Gophers.
I would suspect that this win would clinch a playoff spot no matter the result against the Badgers, but to have a chance at the top overall seed in the final four, a victory is mandatory,
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1) Have to admit when I saw Justin Fields clutching his knee in the third quarter, I saw the entire season going up in smoke.
Fields, who after the game, admitted that he has a strained MCL and will play through it for the remainder of the season.
Fields was wearing a small brace before the third quarter hit and missed a handful of plays while team doctors outfitted the knee with a larger brace.
Fields returned during the same possession and on his first play fired a 30 yard knife into the guts of the Wolverine with a touchdown pass to Garrett Wilson that took any real hope of victory out of the Ann Arbor crowd.
2) Underrated portion of the victory?
The job that was done by Ryan Day, backup quarterback Chris Chugunov and second team running back Master Teague on the drive that partially lost Fields at the helm.
Day played the drive like an undermanned gamer playing a video game by winding the play clock down before the snap, Chugunov was perfect under center in pulling the plan off without error, including a key third down conversion on an eleven yard pass to Garrett Wilson and Teague ran hard and gave the drive a chance to continue by making the conversions reasonable enough to convert.
3) Chase Young didn't finish with a sack and likely cost himself a realistic chance at the Heisman, but he was double and triple teamed all day, being held up and chip-blocked and by the pressure that the Michigan offensive line felt in having to address Young with two and three blockers, other Buckeyes were able to provide a pass rush on Shea Patterson.
Young showed that he was still in the game as twice Michigan gambled on tackle Jon Jansen blocking Young on his own and on both occasions it was Young blowing by Jansen and narrowly missing the sack.
4) Garrett Wilson caught the aforementioned touchdown pass and finished with over one hundred yards receiving on three catches, but he did muff a punt in special teams, so he's not perfect.
However, the skills that Wilson possesses and when you look at the receivers that the Buckeyes have committed in the next recruiting classes, the Ohio State passing game is only going to get better.
5) The defense did show an occasional hole in the first half as the Wolverines gained far too much yardage on short passes.
The biggest issue? Missed tackles and bad angles combined for a pretty good yards after catch average for Michigan and although this was shored up some in the second half, the bigger and more physical Wisconsin players could take advantage of similar sloppiness in Indianapolis, if it occurs.
6) Can we please retire the talk of the "legendary" Don Brown "defensive wizard" now?
Brown's an excellent defensive coordinator, but no Buddy Ryan is he and Ohio State has proved that to the tune of 111 points and over 1,100 yards in eight quarters of play.
Brown bragged before the game that he "had something special for Ohio State".
I'll take 56 points of special everytime!
Brown either refuses to change what he does with his defense or his players cannot execute outside of the "Brown Way", but it is crystal clear that Ryan Day has found the cracks in the foundation of the Don Brown System.
7) What a game for J.K. Dobbins as he bullied Michigan for 6.8 yards every time that he carried the football.Dobbins also passed both Eddie George and Ezekiel Elliott to move into second place on the all-time Ohio State rushing list and might have staked his claim for the Doak Walker Award for the top running back in the nation.
I'm doubtful that Dobbins returns for his senior season, but with at least two and possibly three more game this season, should he decide to return, Archie Griffin's spot at the top is likely to fall.
8) Senior defensive end Jonathan Cooper announced in the week leading up to the season that he was going to redshirt and return next season, but he had one game remaining to play before the redshirt.
Cooper could play in the game of his choice and he chose this one.
Ohio State is dominating the rivalry, but with championship games arriving and yet Cooper chose this one to finish his season.
That says all that you need to know about this rivalry-lopsided or not.
9) Jim Harbaugh made a few questionable decisions in this games when it came to fourth down attempts.
Twice, I would have thought that Michigan would have tried to go for it and instead kicked field goals in the second and third quarters.
The second quarter one really made me wonder as it was close to halftime and the Buckeyes would receive the kickoff to start the second half.
Harbaugh then went for it twice in the fourth quarter deep inside their own territory in situations that were better suited for going for it in video games.
After being summarily dismissed, the Buckeyes scored two touchdowns on the very short field and blew the score out of proportion a bit.
10) Michigan scored their share (27) and that was more than any other opponent, but they were only able to kick two second half field goals against the Buckeye defensive adjustments.
The defense was missing starting defensive back Shaun Wade and that didn't help, but Amir Riep played well in his place with an interception and a deflection in the second half.
11) Perhaps the biggest play in the game happened in the first half when the teams were trading scores and Michigan looking as if it was their turn to answer on the Ohio State 12 facing a third and nine to trim a 21-13 Buckeye lead.
Shea Patterson fumbled, Robert Landers recovered for OSU and then Ohio State crunched any momentum with a 84 yard touchdown drive to move the lead to 28-13.
12) Now it's a Wisconsin rematch.
The Badgers played the Buckeyes tough into the third quarter in a downpour in Columbus before Ohio State landed a flurry filled with touchdowns in a 38-7 win.
This one will be played on a fast track inside Lucas Oil Stadium, which is an advantage to the more physically talented Buckeyes, but Wisconsin, who made up two games on Minnesota in the waning weeks of the regular season, is a physical team and they usually play the Bucks tough, with the exception of their first meeting in Indy in 2014, which saw the future national champions roll to a 59-0 win.
Their second meeting in 2017 was a closer game that Ohio State won 27-21 and is best remembered for the large chunk of field turf that was missing and needed to be repaired in the middle of the game.
13) Ohio State is likely in the playoff with a win or loss against Wisconsin, but a win might get them the top seed, while a loss could drop them to third or fourth.
In most seasons, the seeding doesn't matter as much but this season the top seed would get either Oklahoma, Utah or Baylor as the likely opponent and the second seed will play undefeated and generally untested Clemson.
There is an advantage to being number one, hopefully Ohio State can land that spot.
Back next with either Browns vs Steelers or the boxing weekend.
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