The result of "The Game" is what many Michigan football fans expected. It's how the two teams got there that was surprising.
Michigan fans expected the Wolverines to put up a fight. For much of the game, they did. They just couldn't do anything against what is clearly the best defense in college football.
You have to tip your cap to the Buckeyes. They knew they were going to win this game. They walked the walk and talked the talk. I'd be surprised if they didn't win another national title.
The 27-9 win showed the wide gap between the two programs. Yet, Michigan did have a bigger lead than any team has had on the Buckeyes this season at 6-0. After the Jyaire Hill interception, Michigan needed a touchdown, but Jordan Marshall went out on that drive and never returned after four runs for 61 yards.
Michigan football also didn't have Ernest Hausmann, Justice Haynes, Rod Moore, and Hogan Hansen. The Wolverines also didn't have a healthy Max Bredeson, and it showed in this game.
Ohio State still would have won. But this game would have been different with those guys on the field. Still, the Wolverines need to work on closing the gap, and they have a year, but mostly a few weeks before the tranfser portal opens to start doing it.
Before we go too far down the road of the offseason, there is one more game to play, and here are five things we leared about Michigan football in Saturday's 27-9 loss to Ohio State.
Michigan got beat in the trenches
What's always been true about this game is still true. The team that controls the trenches will win the game. Michigan ran for 108 yards. But the running game wasn't the same without Marshall. The Buckeyes defensive front was ready for it, too.
Ohio State had more rushing yards (186), and Julian Sayin was as clean as if it were 7-on-7. I don't know if he was hit once. Bo Jackson is a hell of a back, but the offensive line was the most impressive thing about the Buckeyes on Saturday.
The defensive line was solid, too. Yet, Bryce Underwood didn't do his offensive line any favors.
Bryce Underwood wasn't ready for "The Game"
The truth is that Bryce should have been doing what Julian Sayin was doing as a freshman: sitting and watching. Sayin is a really good quarterback. He might win the Heisman Trophy.
However, imagine if he were the starting quarterback last season in "The Game." Will Howard, who was drafted, threw two interceptions and struggled. That's the kind of defense Underwood faced on Saturday, so I wouldn't be overly concerned about the statline, as ugly as it was.
Lots of Michigan fans made fun of Matt Patricia. I didn't. He was an excellent defensive coordinator with the Patriots. And with talent, it was easy to foresee that he would succeed. It was the Mike Macdonald move for Ohio State.
Genius.
Ohio State fans laughed when Michigan football made that move. Well, the Buckeyes got the last laugh because Patricia had Bryce so confused he barely threw downfield. Michigan was checking the ball down on third-and-10.
So it's hard to have issues with the play-calling. On one third down, Andrew Marsh was in single coverage, beat his man off the line, and probably scores a touchdown if Bryce just sees him.
Instead, he locked on Donaven McCulley. It wasn't the only time he missed Marsh either. But quarterback development is difficult. People saying Bryce didn't make any progress this season have to be joking.
Ohio State made Bryce look like a freshman. They did the same to Arch Manning and Demond Williams. Even Luke Atlmyer struggled against Ohio State.
Underwood threw nine touchdowns and ran for five. Would fans feel better if Michigan had made a point to throw a few goal-line touchdowns instead of just handing the ball off? Even prime J.J. McCarthy had 22 touchdown passes in 15 games.
Michigan won't throw inside the 10 if it doesn't need to. That doesn't mean the quarterback play isn't good. Bryce looked like a freshman on Saturday. But he will grow from that experience and overall, he was solid this season, with one important game (for him) to go.
In nine Big Ten games, he accounted for 201 total yards per game (177 passing) with a 62.1 completion percentage to go along with 10 touchdowns (three rushing) and five interceptions.
Michigan can still run on Ohio State
If Jordan Marshall and Justice Haynes were healthy, this game would have been different. Again, not saying Michigan wins, but I wonder if a healthy Haynes scores a touchdown on the first run.
Marshall also would have made a difference in the run game. He's elite at getting yards after contact, plus, he was a top-50 recruit for a reason. Both backs were. Bryson Kuzdal was fine, but against Ohio State, you need stars.
Ohio State's are usually the QB/WR. Michigan's are the OL/RB/TE. The offensive line was solid in the run game, but Michigan couldn't overcome having both of its star backs out.
Even with all that, Michigan still ran for over 100 yards. With Savion Hiter coming in, with three redshirt freshman starting on the offensive line with two five-stars waiting in the wings, plus guys like Evan Link, Nathan Efobi, Brady Norton, and Avery Gach, this offensive line room is loaded.
One thing Michigan can feel confident about going into "The Game" next season is that it can still run the ball on Ohio State.
Michigan needs a new DC before its too late
Michigan's defense improved after the USC game, but the Wolverines still gave up 20 points to Michigan State and 22 to Northwestern, although the offense helped.
The defense gave up a bunch of chunk plays to the Wildcats, after Michigan got a two-touchdown lead, instead of getting a stop to close out the game.
The coaching staff rotates players too much. It was happening on Saturday, too. There are starters and backups for a reason. Obviously, guys need to rotate but Michigan was shifting guys in and out all season and it hurt the defense.
Coaching is putting your players in a position to succeed. It's hard to do that when the best players aren't on the field. Defensively, it feels like things are stale. Not with the scheme but with Wink. He doesn't run the same defense as Jesse Minter. Wink loves to blitz, but it feels like teams have it figured out, and it never works, which isn't good, because it's what he loves to do.
Maybe it's time to go back to the Harbaugh's for an up-and-coming defensive mind to call the plays, and hire some new assistants, because that side of the ball wasn't good enough.
The next game will tell us where the Rivalry is headed
This rivalry is always about patterns and history often repeats itself. This recent run from 2021-2024 was very similar to the 1995-1997 run. Michigan pulled off a massive upset, although it had two in that earlier run, plus won a top-five game on the way to a national championship, which Michigan football did in 1997 and 2023. The Wolverines also beat Ohio State in 1999 to go to the Orange Bowl.
Then, Jim Tressel changed the tenor of the rivalry in 2001. The Buckeyes upset Michigan in Ann Arbor, before winning a 13-9 game the next season on their way to the national championship. Much like Meyer, Tressel owned Michigan, losing just once to the Wolverines (2003).
Ohio State dominated the series for two decades. The question now is will it go back to that? Michigan should have a team, pending what happens this offseason, capable of going head-to-head with Ohio State in 2026 and 2027.
If the Buckeyes win in 2026, though, the pressure shifts back to Michigan and Bryce Underwood, so next year's edition is critical. Will this series go into a back-and-forth era, sort of like the Ten Year War? Or will it be Ohio State dominating like it did for most of the 2000s.
2026 will tell us a lot. Michigan football has 364 days to get ready.