Michigan shocks No. 2 Ohio State with a 13-10 victory, leading to a huge p… read more…

The Wolverines stunned No. 2 Ohio State 13-10 on Saturday to deal a crushing blow to the Buckeyes’ Big Ten title chances and hopes of a first-round bye in the College Football Playoff.

Dominic Zvada kicked a 21-yard field goal with 45 seconds to go to give the Wolverines the lead for good. Ohio State had a chance to tie or take the lead with no timeouts but failed to get a first down.The fracas appeared to be broken up until a Michigan player was celebrating with the flag again and Ohio State’s Jack Sawyer ripped the flag from his hands. That reignited the shoving as coaches, police and security personnel had to break up the conflict.

“I don’t know all the details of it but I know these guys are looking to put a flag on our field and our guys weren’t going to let that happen,” Day said in his postgame news conference. “So I’ll find out exactly what happened but this is our field and certainly we’re embarrassed with the fact we lost the game but there’s some prideful guys on this team that weren’t just going to let that happen.”

The defending national champions entered the game as 19.5-point underdogs and have now beaten Ohio State in four straight games. All four of those have come with Day as the Buckeyes’ head coach after Ohio State won seven straight games over Michigan in Urban Meyer’s tenure. Day’s only victory against Michigan came in 2019.

It’s the first four-game winning streak for Michigan since Ohio State won in 1992 to end a streak for Michigan that had dated back to 1988. Sawyer and other Ohio State players had been outspoken about their desire to beat Michigan before closing out their careers. Instead, the Buckeyes simply couldn’t do anything on offense.

Not only did Ohio State fail to get a first down on its final drive, the Buckeyes failed to get a first down the entire fourth quarter. OSU’s last first down gained came with 5:59 left in the third quarter when Will Howard hit Emeka Egbuka for a 6-yard gain on third down. OSU kicker Jayden Fielding also missed two field goals inside of 40 yards.

It was an ugly offensive display for both teams. Each QB threw two interceptions and three of those four picks came in the red zone. The most egregious was thrown by Michigan’s Davis Warren, when Sawyer picked him off at the goal line.

The two offenses combined for 486 total yards and 29 first downs. Michigan threw for just 62 yards on 16 attempts and rushed 42 times for 172 yards. Howard was just 19-of-33 passing for 175 yards and Ohio State mustered 77 rushing yards on 26 attempts.

A mistake that potentially cost Ohio State time

Ohio State could have had far more than 45 seconds remaining after Zvada’s field goal if it wasn’t for a personnel blunder.

The Buckeyes called their first timeout with 1:55 to go and Michigan facing a third down. After the timeout, Ohio State didn’t have the right defensive personnel on the field and Day tried to call a second timeout. But college football rules now prevent coaches from taking consecutive timeouts.

The ensuing illegal substitution penalty gave Michigan a first down and allowed the Wolverines to run over a minute more off the clock than they would have been able to if Ohio State could have stopped UM on third down.