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Ohio State’s Ryan Day played The Game safe, while loose, aggressive Michigan won again: Nathan Baird’s observations
ANN ARBOR, Michigan — Three observations from Ohio State football’s 30-24 loss to Michigan in The Game on Saturday.
1. Ryan Day lived up to his promise to play loose and aggressive in last season’s Peach Bowl playoff semifinal against Georgia.
We haven’t seen that personality since. Any chance of it peeking through in The Game appeared to go out the window after about five game clock minutes.
On OSU’s second possession, Kyle McCord’s third-and-10 completion to Xavier Johnson achieved only 9 yards. Facing fourth-and-1 from his own 46, Day sent the punt team onto the field.
That’s the safe, predictable decision most coaches make. (Some analytics models say it’s also the wrong, short-sited, motivated by human psychology decision.) Regardless of the math, Day missed an opportunity to light a spark under an offense that spent most of the season flickering on and off in first halves.
He missed an opportunity to play like Michigan — to play assertively, confidently and decisively.
After the game, Day also repeatedly defended his decision to run the clock down and attempt a 52-yard field goal at the end of the first half. With a timeout to use and trailing 14-10, he deemed potentially coming up short on fourth down and giving Michigan the ball at its own 34 with upwards of 30 seconds remaining too risky of an outcome.
Well, which unit has been more trustworthy this season — the defense, or special teams? More to the point, it was another chance to put the game in the hands of the playmakers OSU celebrates the other six days of the week.
Summoning that “loose, aggressive” identity at the Peach Bowl involved no risk. Ohio State played with house money that day after backing into the playoff. The team, and Day, had less to lose. The opposite pressure existed Saturday, and the gravity of those consequences seemed to weigh on so many of his decisions.
Meanwhile, acting Michigan coach Sherrone Moore seemed eager to let his hair down.
When Michigan went up 14-3, it did so on a drive which converted fourth-down tries at the OSU 39 and 29. When the Wolverines extended to a 10-point lead early in the fourth quarter, a Donovan Edwards halfback pass to tight end Colston Loveland gained 34 yards and put them in the red zone.
For that matter, no two words better describe Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy’s playing style than “loose” and “aggressive.”
When Day made that declaration before the Peach Bowl, it felt like the announcement of a new doctrine applying to all big games moving forward. He should revisit that statement one year from now in The Game. At this point, what does he have to lose?
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2. In four games since returning from injury, TreVeyon Henderson had ripped off 13 runs of 10-plus yards, including six explosives ranging from 20 yards up to 75.
Michigan did not allow him a run longer than 8 yards. It put on a gap integrity clinic, with a deep defensive line swallowing double teams and allowing linebackers and safeties to fill downhill.
Of Henderson’s 19 run attempts, eight went for 2 or fewer yards. It more closely resembled some of the team’s stagnant early season rushing performances. Except instead of an offensive line still searching for cohesiveness, Saturday’s culprit — at least in real time — appeared to be a Michigan defense simply rising to the occasion.
Postgame, Day remembered “one drive in particular when we were really rocking off the ball.” He likely meant the 12-play, 75-yard, third-quarter touchdown drive that tied the game 17-17. Henderson and Chip Trayanum carried nine times for 49 yards on that drive, rushing on the final eight plays.
For the game, though, OSU barely cracked 100 yards and averaged 3.8 per carry. Michigan wasn’t much better — 156 yards and 4.0. By running on nine of 12 plays on its final scoring drive, it ate 8:05 of clock and tacked on a field goal that left OSU no option but a touchdown. Many small victories built into the large one.
“I feel like when you go into the game you have to win on rushing yards,” Day said. “I don’t know what the final numbers are, but they had more than we did, and that’s a big part of the game. Certainly has to do with the last couple of drives. And then turnover battle.
“I’d like to say it’s more than that, but I’m not sure that it is.”
3. There are loud mistakes, and there are quiet mistakes, and both can be critically costly. You don’t get much louder than Kyle McCord’s first-quarter interception, leading to Michigan’s first touchdown. Yet Emeka Egbuka’s drop of a sure third-down conversion on OSU’s first possession, resulting in a three-and-out, also reverberated four quarters later.
Ohio State converted 4 of 8 third downs the rest of the game. Who knows what they do with the rest of that opening drive if Ebuka holds on? Maybe it at least starts a field position exchange such that OSU is not backed up when McCord throws that interception.
Quiet and loud mistakes combined, the Buckeyes only made a few. I’m not sure Michigan made any. That’s a tough disparity to overcome on the road.
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