[jwplayer MfLEtgwV-XNcErKyb]
Coming off the 39-14 win over Indiana, Michigan was feeling good before playing Ohio State. That good feeling would end once the Buckeyes came to town as Michigan lost 56-27.
Quarterback Shea Patterson did everything he could against the Buckeyes as he was forced to air it out with the defense allowing points left and right against Ohio State. The defense struggled to create turnovers and make stops as they didn’t have an answer for the Ohio State offense all game long.
Check out what I found when rewatching the loss to Ohio State.
OFFENSE
- The opening drive to take the 6-0 lead was a perfect drive by the Wolverines. They mixed the run with the pass and used a perfect jet sweep play by Giles Jackson to score. The extra point though, I don’t get why they got cute with it instead of just treating it like a normal extra point attempt.
- On the first play on the second possession, after driving down the field with ease, Michigan runs a wildcat towards Ohio State defensive end Chase Young and to nobody’s surprise, it was a loss of two. The wildcat was unsuccessful for most of the time this season, so calling it against the best defense is just a horrible idea.
- Ohio State got away with back-to-back defensive pass interference calls on cornerback Jeffrey Okudah as he interfered with Michigan wide receiver Ronnie Bell and Nico Collins. The officials can’t miss calls in these games. You know hand-fighting will be a thing, but Bell got hit in the back and Collins arm was being held and couldn’t try and catch it.
- On the touchdown pass to wide receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones, there was some confusion by the Ohio State secondary with Bell as the defensive back covering him told the safety to go cover him as he went in motion. The safety waved him off and told him that it was his job. The original defensive back didn’t see that and both went to cover Bell, leaving Peoples-Jones in single coverage for an easy score.
- There were five drops in just the third quarter alone, and in games like this, you can’t drop balls that hit you in the hands. That was a big blow to the offense in the second half as Michigan needed to get points.
- The call on running a wildcat on a crucial fourth down in the fourth quarter is another poor decision by offensive coordinator Josh Gattis. While the wildcat did get them to score early in the fourth quarter, the times he has called it for most of the season have not been good. The play needs to get thrown out of the playbook.