Buckeyes’ revival: OSU’s overpowering of Michigan raises intrigue about its deep Playoff potential.
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State football season started with coach Urban Meyer sitting on his couch with a threegame suspension. The Buckeyes then lost star defensive lineman Nick Bosa to a seasonending injury in September.
More adversity arrived with a 49-20 loss to unheralded Purdue. All season it seemed as if Ohio State was hanging on as much as it was winning.
But all of the pain was erased Nov. 24 when the then-No. 10 Buckeyes downed No. 4 Michigan 62-39 in one of the most dominant scoring performances this rivalry has seen. Not since Teddy Roosevelt was president, in 1902, has one team scored that many points in this rivalry game.
“We just played as hard as we possibly could and kept going and kept going and kept going,” Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said.
Now the question is which Buckeyes team will show up when they play Northwestern on Dec. 1 for the Big Ten championship. If they beat the Wildcats, especially in impressive fashion, there’s a good chance they could end up in the College Football Playoff.
We can guess coaches from national championship contenders wouldn’t like to see that because the Buckeyes might have the nation’s most dangerous offense.
Quarterback Dwayne Haskins threw five more touchdown passes against the nation’s No. 1 defensive team, giving him 41 TD tosses this season, breaking Drew Brees’ Big Ten record of 39. Haskins has thrown for 4,003 yards, which is also a new Big Ten season mark. He’s playing like a future NFL star. The running game has also grown stronger as the season progressed.
“I don’t know about 62, but I knew we were going to come out and put on a show,” Haskins said.
In Ohio’s State’s biggest game, the offensive line didn’t allow Haskins to be sacked once.
“I think we are the second (best) offense in America,” Meyer said. “And I know we struggle all of the time, but the second offense just put up a bunch of yards against the No. 1 defense in America.”
The Buckeyes generated 567 yards of total offense against a team that was giving up an average of 234.
Michigan had won 10 games by preventing opponents from mounting a passing attack, but Haskins connected on several passes of 20 or more yards.
He routinely located receivers with no defender within five yards of them. This is now an offense that has a multitude of weapons. Freshman Chris Olave had five receptions coming into this game, and he had two touchdown catches against Michigan.
“Didn’t have the opportunity to play much this year, so when he got in he made it matter,” Haskins said. “He is really a smooth, silky receiver, makes a lot of plays, plays fast.”
And he’s down the depth chart on Ohio State’s offense.
Meyer ordered an overhaul of the team’s defense and running game during a bye week at the end of October and what happened on the field against Michigan was a result of the changes made. While the Buckeyes gave up plenty of points, they made several big defensive plays throughout the contest.
“We play down or up to our competition, and we played above and beyond today,” said Buckeyes defensive end Dre’Mont Jones.
He said the win against Michigan was a statement. “You can’t mess with us,” he said.
Ohio State’s national title hopes have grown stronger, although it is not a given it will make the field.
In hindsight, the adversity the Buckeyes went through seems to have added another layer of motivation. The Buckeyes seem to be peaking at the right time. They played as if they could have beaten anyone.
“We had a chip on our shoulder, and we wanted to show who we really are,” said Ohio State linebacker Malik Harrison.
What the Buckeyes showed is they can score 50 points against any team. The Buckeyes had never scored more than 50 against the Wolverines. The last time they scored 50 against Michigan was in 1968.
This was an emotional win for Meyer, who is now 7-0 against Michigan in his career as an Ohio State coach. Out of respect for the rivalry, Meyer was careful not to say much about how much the game meant to him. But he had to pause to compose himself when a reporter asked him what it meant to greet his wife, Shelley, after the game.
Besides the suspension he received for how he handled fired assistant coach Zach Smith, Meyer has been dealing with severe headaches, caused by a cyst on his brain. He was driven to his knees by the pain against Indiana and he has looked to be in discomfort in other games. By any definition, this has been a trying season.
“There’s no one that means more to me than (Shelley),” Meyer said. “And there’s nothing more important than my three kids and my grandson. And another one on the way. And to see the smiles on their face, that’s priceless and that’s something I will never forget.”