Reality sinks in…Kyle McCord ponders the moment following his second interception of the game that sealed the deal for Michigan. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Sonny Fulks)
They didn’t win, and the consensus afterward was no one knew exactly why. Except…that Michigan played better at big moments than the Buckeyes. It was a hard day!
Ann Arbor, MI – Kyle McCord aimed his final pass at Marvin Harrison Jr. And why wouldn’t he.
Many have hailed Harrison Jr. as the best player in college football, and McCord, it seemed, was leading the Buckeyes on another game-winning drive Saturday afternoon.
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But on a day when too many plays broke the wrong way for the Buckeyes on both sides of the ball, and they simply weren’t good enough at critical times, the football never made it to Marv. McCord couldn’t step into the throw and the football fluttered into the diving arms of the enemy with 25 meaningless seconds left.
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State football and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
With that interception, No. 2 Ohio State’s chance to beat No. 3 Michigan for the first time since 2019, and its championship aspirations, evaporated into the hazy, gray November skies above the Big House in a 30-24 defeat the Buckeyes will grieve for a third straight year.
Harrison Jr. stayed on the ground for a few seconds after the interception, stung by reality.
A third straight loss to Michigan. No Big Ten championship. No unbeaten regular season. Probably no shot at the four-team playoff. And quite possibly his last play as a Buckeye.
“At that point the game is over and everything you worked for this year, goals that you had, you’re not going to accomplish,” he said.
Emeka Egbuka takes a monster hit from Michigan’s Benjamin Hall during the third quarter of Saturday’s loss in Ann Arbor.
The 365-day mission to beat Michigan, do it on their turf, make Jim Harbaugh feel the pain all the more because the Big Ten wouldn’t let him in the stadium to do anything about it, must start all over again. Head coach Ryan Day talks about this game every time he’s asked. He mentions it when he’s not asked.
The past two years the Buckeyes were shoved aside in the second half and had no chance late. This time, after a 37-yard Michigan field goal, the Buckeyes had their chance, not to erase the past two years because those defeats are in the record books, but to prove they are the better program.
They got the ball with a minute left and 81 yards away from dissolving the pit that was forming in Day’s stomach.
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With no timeouts left, the hoped-for march to victory, and a thrilling chapter in the legend of The Game, began with McCord’s 22-yard completion to Harrison Jr. to the 41. Then Julian Fleming caught another pass over the middle that created more tense moments.
Fleming took two steps after the catch, but he fumbled when the ball was punched out from behind. Emeka Egbuka pounced on the fumble and the Buckeyes were at the 37. Michigan wanted the play overturned on review as an incompletion, but the call stood with 34 seconds left.
Marvin Harrison, Jr. eyes one of his five catches on the day.
The season ended on the next play when Michigan’s Rod Moore scooped McCord’s fluttering pass just before it hit the turf. Michigan went to a knee for the final play, and the Buckeyes felt like they’d been kneed in the gut.
“Hard to describe,” Day said about the raw emotions he felt 10 minutes after the game. “Just sick.”
The sick feelings of losing the game you put everything on happens when you don’t play as well as you believe you can. There were unseen and hard-to-see things and a few forgotten plays that could have made a difference like missed blocks, bad angles to the ball on defense, missed reads, dropped passes, etc. But the chances to make big plays that didn’t happen, and turnovers most of all, bit the Buckeyes over and over.
McCord’s first-quarter interception put the Buckeyes down 7-0, and they played uphill the rest of the afternoon. They never led and were tied only once at 17-17 in the third quarter.
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The interception was a slant play to Harrison Jr. that Will Johnson jumped and returned 18 yards to the Ohio State 7. On fourth-and-goal from the 1, Blake Corum scored for a lead the Wolverines didn’t relinquish.
“If I could have it back, obviously, I’d just want to burn that one into the ground,” McCord said.
They ran the ball better in the second half…TreVeyon Henderson scores in the third quarter from three yards out, finished with 60 yards on 19 carries.
The bookend interceptions, McCord’s fifth and sixth of the season, were too much to overcome. To overcome them, the Buckeyes, in Day’s opinion, needed to rush for more yards than Michigan. The Wolverines outgained the Buckeyes 156 to 107.
“In this game, you got to win the rushing yards and you got to win the turnover battle,” Day said. “We did neither of those things. If that’s not going to happen, we’re not going to win this game.”
But the Buckeyes had their moments. On their third-quarter drive that tied the score 17-17, the Buckeyes ran consistently in a way they hadn’t all season. McCord went under center at one point and handed off to TreVeyon Henderson and Chip Trayanum eight straight plays starting at the Michigan 46.
Henderson eventually scored from the 3. The message: We’re running the football. Stop us. It was one of three trips to the red zone that ended in touchdowns. But Michigan started doing the same thing after the Buckeyes stuffed its running game for 34 yards in the first half. And they didn’t commit a turnover.
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Michigan rushed for 122 yards in the second half and scored every time it got the ball until the final kneel-down. Corum’s 22-yard touchdown run and three field goals were all the Wolverines needed to make their 14-10 halftime lead stand up.
Ohio State’s final touchdown, a 14-yard pass to Harrison Jr., came with 8:05 left and cut the deficit to 27-24. Surely the defense could help the offense as it has all season, force a punt and give McCord plenty of time to engineer a winning drive.
They chased Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy, but only caught him once.
But Jim Knowles’ defense, which to its credit didn’t give up the kind of explosive plays to Michigan that were common the past two seasons, couldn’t stop Michigan soon enough. The Wolverines did what they do best and melted the clock to 1:05 on a 13-play, 56-yard drive for a 30-24 lead.
“We just didn’t get stops when we had some guys in position,” Knowles said. “You always wish you had made the plays in critical moments.”
McCord and Harrison Jr., who were high school teammates in Philadelphia, will carry good memories of their time together at Ohio State. But the near misses Saturday that resulted in game-changing interceptions will hurt for a long time.
“Hurts – it’s really the only word for it,” McCord said. “To work that hard for that opportunity and just to come up a few plays short, it hurts. There really aren’t a lot of words to say in a moment like this.”
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Harrison Jr., the only other Buckeye to speak to the media after the game, had little to say about the devastating defeat. But he had plenty to say about his quarterback who completed 18 of 30 for 271 yards and two touchdowns.
“Through good and bad he’s going to continue to fight, and that’s the motto of our program,” Harrison Jr. said. “He’s done a tremendous job of just handling what comes with being the starting quarterback at Ohio State. There’s so much pressure, and I’m super proud of him. I say this all the time – before he’s my quarterback he’s my friend. So I’m going to support him through the ups and downs and will always be by his side.”
Lineman Mike Hall wrapped up McCarthy for the lone Buckeye sack of the afternoon.
That might be from a distance next season. Harrison Jr. is expected to enter the NFL Draft in April and be a high first-round pick. He wouldn’t commit one way or the other after the game to next season or a non-playoff bowl game.
“It’s been an incredible run,” McCord said. “Obviously, I’d love to get another chance to play with him here. I hope this isn’t the end of it. But if it is, I think he cemented himself as one of the best players ever to come through this program. He’s a special dude.”
Now with three straight losses to Michigan – the only Big Ten losses under Day – the Buckeyes must await a weekend of conference championship games and the College Football Playoff committee’s decision.
Last year the Buckeyes lost this game and still got invited as a one-loss team. They need help for sure.
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“Last year we got a second chance at life getting in the playoff, and we came ready to play motivated,” McCord said. “The worst part is that it’s out of our control.”
Saturday at Michigan the Buckeyes had control of many moments but never quite the game.
And now, no matter what the postseason holds for them, they have another 365 days to figure out how to beat Michigan…again!
Painful to watch…painful to describe in the post-game press conference. Ryan Day will have to live with three in a row for the next 365 days.