Observations on the double overtime loss to Ohio State, 27-30

Michigan converted six red zones for 27 points; Ohio State converted six red zones for 24 points. The Buckeyes scored 14 points off 3 Wolverine turnovers; Michigan couldn't not score off one Buckeye miscue.

Offense netted 310 yards, but only 91 on the ground, and was 10 of 20 on 3rd and 4th down conversions with 16 first downs, but only 5 in the second half. Wilton Speight was 23 of 36 for 219 yards and 2 TDS; however, he fumbled in the red zone for one turnover, and threw two interceptions, one for a TD for 3 turnovers that kept Ohio State's hopes alive. Khalid Hill pounded for 3 yards in 3 carries for a TD, and scored another TD on an 8 yard catch. DeVeon Smith ran 21 times for 60 yards, and caught 2 screen passes for 21 yards. Amara Darboh had 8 catches for 68 yards and a TD. Jake Butt had 5 catches for 58 yards. Grant Perry had 4 catches for 49 yards. Jehu Chesson caught 2 for 11 yards, and ran two jet sweeps for 14 yards. We built time of possession advantage by nearly 3 minutes, but the turnovers negated the advantage as the Buckeyes ran 3 more plays than us. When we needed the offense to possess the ball in the 4th quarter, they couldn't get the job done; Ohio State held the ball for over 11 minutes in the 4th quarter which not only wore out our defense, but provided them the two scores to tie the game in regulation. When the offense had a chance to take time off the clock on the final drive, we went "3 and out." In fact, we had four "3 and outs" compared to the Buckeyes three "3 and outs." Jabrill Peppers was a non-factor on offense, and only ran 4 times for 4 yards. Raekwon McMillan had 16 tackles, and Jerome Baker had 15 stops to lead the Buckeye defense.

Defense played a great game, but wore down at the end as they couldn't stop the Ohio State offense in overtime. The Buckeyes rolled for 23 first downs, 330 net yards with 206 on the ground, and were 5 of 19 in 3rd and 4th down conversions. J.T. Barrett hit 15 of 32 for 124 yards with an interception, but carried 30 times for 125 yards and an overtime TD. We sacked Barrett 8 times, but he kept getting up, and running again unfazed. Curtis Samuel scored the winning TD, and had 7 carries for 54 yards plus 4 receptions for 32 yards. Noah Brown caught 3 passes for 40 yards, and Marcus Baugh caught 3 for 27 yards. Ben Gedeon led the defense with 10 tackles, Taco Charlton had 9 tackles including 3 sacks, and Michael McCray also had 9 tackles with a sack and two pass break ups. Jabrill Peppers was very sloppy on defense, and it cost us on several critical plays; Barrett watched where he was going, and went opposite. Peppers also missed a lot of tackles as did several members of our defense; however, he did get an interception and had 7 tackles.

Kenny Allen came up big with 7 punts, 3 inside the 10 yard line and two others inside the 20 plus he hit two field goals; he outkicked both Johnson and Durbin on the day. Jabrill Peppers ran a kickoff 44 yards to set up great field position on the last drive of the half, and Jourdan Lewis ran back a 45 yarder on the last play in regulation. Tyler Durbin missed two field goal attempts, but came through with a tying field goal just before the end of regulation. Cameron Johnson punted 6 times for 46.7 yard average one inside the 10 that resulted in the only score for Ohio State. Grant Perry ran into the punter, Johnson, but we stopped the Buckeye drive so it didn't hurt us. Ohio State tried a fake punt with Johnson and it failed as Jordan Glasgow came up with a big stop, and the offense converted to give us a two score lead in the 3rd quarter, 17-7, but we couldn't hold it as the Buckeyes rallied back after converting on turnovers and our worn out defense. We also took a lot of dumb penalties that cost us especially when the screen pass by DeVeon Smith went for the big gain in the 3rd quarter, and Mason Cole was flagged for an unsportsmanlike conduct for hands in the face on a block. In all, we took 7 penalties for 59 yards; the Buckeyes were flagged twice for 6 yards.

We could have won the game, but didn't. We led most of the way in regulation; when the Buckeyes got the interception to go ahead, 3-7, we came right back on the next drive to make it, 10-7. We built a 17-7 lead only to lose the advantage with a second left in regulation. After we lost the lead in overtime, we came back to tie it on a 4th down TD conversion, and regained the lead with a field goal; unfortuntately, our defense got a bad spot by the referees on the 4th and 1, and then the Buckeyes took advantage with the final play. It was a great team effort, but they came up short. We gave them +2 in turnovers, and let them back into the game as a result. We let them gain 206 rushing yards with 3 rushing TDs, two in overtime. We executed a great game play to some extent, but not in stopping the Buckeye run game and being forced into costly turnovers turned the tide. Well, it looks like it is either that we are voted into the Top 4 teams for the playoffs for the Fiesta or Peach Bowl against Alabama, Clemson or Ohio state; if not, we will probably go to the Orange Bowl against perhaps Oklahoma, Florida State or USC. Ohio State is in the playoffs for sure; Wisconsin probably beats Penn State to earn a Rose Bowl trip. The biggest question is can we hold off Washington and Wisconsin to be the #4 ranked team behind Alabama, Ohio State, and Clemson. Our wins over Wisconsin and Colorado could help us make the playoffs. Go Blue!!!

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