Ohio State tightens death grip on Michigan
The better team won. Again. And, yes, the more serious team won.
Seriously.
Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields, new to the rivalry with Michigan, threw for 302 yards and four touchdown passes in a 56-27 blowout Nov. 30 but fired his most damaging salvo with his postgame remarks.
“I just think we take it more serious than they do,” Fields said about the Buckeyes’ winning streak in this storied series reaching eight games. “We prepare for it all year . ... I think it just means more at Ohio State.”
Asked a few questions later why he thinks that, Fields doubled down.
“I know a few players on the (Michigan) team and I just know the things we do in terms of workouts and how serious we take it at Ohio State,” he said. “Talking to those guys and getting their perspective on things, I definitely see we take it more serious.”
If serious means aggravating a knee injury and emerging from the medical tent the way Clark Kent used to emerge from a phone booth, then Fields epitomized the mental and physical strength the Buckeyes exhibited against their archrival.
The sequence of events that everybody was talking about afterward happened during a 12 and “0 no!” moment midway through the third quarter.
The Buckeyes were leading 35-16 and had all but put the wraps on a perfect regular season.
But tight end Luke Farrell rolled back into Fields’ left leg on a 15-yard pass completion to Austin Mack and Fields didn’t get up.
It was the second consecutive week that hearts stopped as Fields was attended to on the field. Thoughts immediately flashed to the Buckeyes losing the Dec. 14 Big Ten Conference championship game in Indianapolis to a Wisconsin team they’ve already beaten by 31 points and seeing their dreams of winning a national championship go down the tubes as well.
Fields eventually got up and walked gingerly off the field, replaced by Chris Chugunov. Before long No. 1 was stretching his legs on the sideline, getting limber, and seven plays later he was back.
It was like he never left. It was 2nd-and-10 from the Michigan 30. Again, victory seemed imminent.
But coach Ryan Day called for a pass. Fields improvised, rolled to his left and looked like he was going to be forced to throw the ball away. Instead his pass found freshman Garrett Wilson, another newly minted Michigan killer, for a 30-yard touchdown.
“I thought it was a magical moment, a Heisman moment,” Day said. “For him to go down, with that injury, put the brace on, come back out and make a throw we didn’t design that way ... for him to ad-lib, to make that throw going to his left, that’s about as a good a throw as I’ve seen in a long time.”
We didn’t learn until after the game that Fields had suffered an MCL sprain in his left knee on that scary play the week before against Penn State and that his mobility was limited against Michigan because of the brace he was wearing.
“His competitive toughness is as good as I’ve been around,” Day said. “I can’t say enough about the way he played.”
Ohio State improved to 12-0 and stayed on a road that could lead to its first national title since 2014. Under its first-year head coach. With its new quarterback. And with a revamped offensive line and a defense that has done a complete 180 this year under an almost entirely new brain trust.
It turns out Day’s toughest call in the game came afterward when asked to name his best Heisman Trophy candidate.
There’s Fields, who now has 37 touchdown passes and still only one interception on the season.
There’s tailback J.K. Dobbins, who followed up his career-high 36 carries against Penn State with career highs of 211 yards rushing and four touchdowns on 31 carries against Michigan.
And there’s defensive end Chase Young, who didn’t add to
his school-record 161⁄2 sacks, or even make a tackle, but had two quarterback hurries.
All three will be in Indianapolis to face Wisconsin.
Given the one scary moment against Michigan, and the reminder of how fragile a great season can be, it would be greedy to ask for more.