Junior quarterback Kyle McCord (6) cocks back to throw during the fourth quarter of Saturday’s game against No. 3 Michigan. No. 2 Ohio State lost 30-24 at Michigan Stadium. Credit: Caleb Blake | Photo Editor
Football is a game of momentum, and in seemingly every quarter on Saturday, that momentum shifted between Ohio State and Michigan.
In the end, Ohio State simply ran out of momentum — and clock.
“It hurts,” junior quarterback Kyle McCord said. “To work that hard for that opportunity and just to come up a few plays short, it hurts.”
In the first half, everything that could go wrong for the Buckeyes seemed to, and the momentum was hand-delivered to Michigan via a McCord interception at 7:32 of the first quarter, leading to the Wolverines’ first touchdown.
Poor punts from Jesse Mirco and the defense’s inability to make the big stops they needed left Ohio State behind 14-10 despite only a 12-second differential in first-half ball possession.
Then, with just over 30 seconds to go in the first half, head coach Ryan Day made the decision to run down the clock, call a timeout and attempt a 52-yard field goal instead of going for it on fourth down – which resulted in a miss by kicker Jayden Fielding.
It provided one more swing in momentum and a move that will haunt Day.
“Whether it was the end of the half or if it was 8 minutes to go in the second quarter, I would have made the decision to kick a field goal,” Day said. “I just wanted the clock to run down so we are out of the half.”
Coming out of halftime, Michigan’s first two plays each gained the Wolverines 20-plus yards and ended with a 50-yard James Turner field goal to take a 17-10 lead.
It also milked 4:17 off the clock.
An Ohio State drive of nine rushing plays and a score tied the game 17-17 with 5:35 left in the third quarter and seemed to put the Buckeyes back in the driver’s seat, but that feeling lasted only until Michigan’s starting right tackle Zak Zinter suffered a debilitating leg injury and was carted from the field.
The momentum then shifted yet again.
The next play turned the tempo towards the Wolverines. Junior quarterback J.J. McCarthy drove his team down the field for a third touchdown. Combined with another field goal, Michigan extended its lead to 27-17.
Despite another Buckeye touchdown, Ohio State’s hope of avoiding three-straight losses to its arch rivals was quashed.
“The biggest thing is that games like this come down to one or two plays, and you prepare all offseason, you prepare all year long,” McCord said. “Your season really comes down to a handful of plays, whether you make them or you don’t. And I think that just goes to show the margin of error, especially in games like this ,are so slim.”
With a Wolverine drive starting at 8:05 in the fourth and ending at the one-minute mark, Ohio State’s defense, ranked No. 3 in the nation, could not get the stop it needed. That allowed Michigan to regain and maintain the momentum once and for all, using McCord’s second interception of the game to stifle a last-minute Buckeye drive and claim the win.
