It wasn't a secret: Ohio State had this one circled on its calendars as the one that truly mattered.
Everyone did.
"I think people are still unsure of what we got and this is a statement game," running back Ezekiel Elliott said Wednesday after practice. "It's a game we've been waiting for all season and it's a game against what other people will recognize as good competition."
Michigan State entered Ohio Stadium 9-1 Saturday afternoon with a banged up quarterback in Connor Cook, a stout defensive front seven, but young secondary that had been decimated by injuries.
Still with a chance to earn a trip to Indianapolis and the Big Ten Championship, Mark Dantonio's club needed to eek out a victory over the defending national champions without their NFL-caliber signal caller and in a driving rain storm.
Ohio State, winners of 23 straight, paid homage to a senior class that included stalwarts and captains Braxton Miller, Taylor Decker and Joshua Perry. A national television offense waited anxiously to see if this was finally the weekend the Buckeyes would put together a complete performance, and what better way to do it against the most formidable opponent they'd seen all season.
“We've got a couple games left still. You never know what's going to happen, but you really do have to go to work. You have to take a good look in the mirror and see who we really are.”– Joshua Perry
Ohio State fans left Ohio Stadium cold, wet and silent, as Spartan kicker Michael Geiger nailed a 41-yard field goal as time expired to give his team a 17-14 victory.
Opportunity missed — badly.
"I've been down this road before, where you do good," Urban Meyer said. "I just love the group of guys down there. And we have to do better."
Ohio State's offense only managed a meager 132 yards and five first downs Saturday. A refusal to open the playbook and take some shots down the field prevented Elliott, a Heisman contender, and quarterback J.T. Barrett much room to run all afternoon.
A driving rainstorm coupled with dropping temperatures didn't help either, but once the heavens closed and the precipitation halted, nothing changed.
"We lost the line of scrimmage," Meyer said. "And obviously you start loading up the box in those kind of situations and we were — the passing game was just, it was not there."
Barrett only threw it a handful of times down the field, as Meyer, offensive coordinator Ed Warinner and quarterbacks coach Tim Beck instead opted for conservative rushing plays on numerous third downs.
"I think we just didn’t execute tonight, that was the main thing," Barrett said. "They didn’t do anything crazy, out of the ordinary; they did what they showed on film."
It didn't matter regardless what the wind, rain or Spartans were doing. The Buckeyes played not to lose Saturday, and 10 consecutive games of doing so while relying on a terrific defense and enough production from Elliott finally caught up to them.
The star running back said he was hospitalized for three days earlier in the week with an infection on his lower right leg that stemmed from a cut. Postgame, Elliott insisted he was 100 percent even though a sizable cyst had to be protected by a leg sleeve.
"Offense had a rough day. I'm disappointed. I'm disappointed in the play calling," Elliott said. "I'm disappointed in the situations we were put in and I wish it all played out differently."
Elliott said there was "no way" he was returning to Ohio State for his senior season, part of why he was so emotionally distraught following the loss. He said he lobbied with Meyer for more touches and opportunities to give his team a boost offensively, but they never came.
Not even after he ran eight times on a 32-yard scoring drive that ended with his 1-yard plunge into the end zone to give the Buckeyes a 7-0 lead early in the second quarter.
"You guys saw that on the drive. We had a lot of momentum on that drive. Honestly, we didn't see those plays at all the rest of the game," Elliott said. "Those plays weren't called anymore. I asked for those plays to be called and they weren't. It hurts a lot."
Such chances for Elliott — even if he hadn't practiced much this week — could have given the Buckeyes a better chance at moving the ball with consistency against Michigan State. Both their touchdowns came off Spartan miscues, with the aforementioned drive coming after a Sam Hubbard sack and strip of Damion Terry and a muffed punt that put the Buckeyes at Michigan State's 6-yard line.
Barrett tossed a pass to Jalin Marshall on the very next play to push the Buckeyes out front yet again, but even a stellar defense began to wear down once the Spartans utilized a rested L.J. Scott late in the fourth quarter.
"When I look at the defensive stats, they obviously rushed for too many yards," Perry said. "You can't win a game doing that, for sure. Especially at the end of the game, you gotta bow up at some point."
Scott ran the ball 10 times for 50 yards in the game's final 8:43 — including six times on the final drive to set up Geiger's boot as time expired. The Spartans had the ball for 38:10 in the game.
"I'm going to try and sit and evaluate everything," Meyer said.
Ohio State was left with more questions than answers Saturday.
The man with three total national titles and now four losses at Ohio State needs to figure out the issues quickly, as the Buckeyes travel to Ann Arbor to take on arch-rival Michigan next week. They need a win and a Michigan State loss to Penn State to back their way into the Big Ten Championship Dec. 5.
Ohio State's chance to prove to the national pundits it really belonged in 2015, however, came and went with Saturday's ugly showing in the final home game of the season.
"We've got a couple games left still," Perry said. "You never know what's going to happen, but you really do have to go to work. You have to take a good look in the mirror and see who we really are."
The Buckeyes will take a drop in the College Football Playoff rankings Tuesday, but Meyer isn't worried about that. There are more pressing issues at hand.
"We've got to get a couple of first downs and start finding a way to complete a pass and beat our rival," Meyer said. "That's certainly not any conversation … A lot of things happen, but we've gotta fix some obvious problems."
