ANN ARBOR, Mich. — With 8 minutes, 43 seconds left on the clock, Ohio State’s kickoff team huddled near its own 40-yard line. The 11 members of the unit stood in a circle, hopping up and down, spinning around and hooting and hollering out loud to themselves as the Michigan Stadium crowd was silent.
On the other sideline, huddled near the 30-yard line, the kickoff return unit of Ohio State’s arch-rival, Michigan, stood flat footed, looking like the life had been sucked out of it. The Wolverines looked defeated with no sense of hope whatsoever.
It was a lasting image in the 112th meeting between these storied rivals. The Buckeyes stemming with pride and exuberance; the Wolverines stunned with a look of despair.
This should have been the scene at this particular point in time. Ohio State had just scored on a J.T. Barrett 17-yard touchdown run minutes earlier to push its lead to a commanding 42-13 — the score at which the game would later finish. But what was going on down on the Michigan Stadium turf was symbolic of the Buckeyes’ total domination in the first matchup ever between Urban Meyer and Jim Harbaugh as the head coaches of these two historic programs.
“I’ve been very fortunate to be around some big-time games; very blessed,” Meyer said afterward. “From the bottom of my heart, I told our players, that might have been the best I’ve ever seen.”
It’s hard to find an adjective to describe Ohio State’s offensive output against a Michigan defense which entered Saturday as the No. 2-ranked defense in the country, allowing just 263.1 yards and 14.9 points per game. The Buckeyes were dominant, overwhelming, unstoppable. You name it, that's what it was.
Ohio State totaled 482 yards of total offense against the Wolverines, a stunning 369 of which came on the ground. Running back Ezekiel Elliott, a week after demanding more carries following a loss to Michigan State, carried the ball 30 times for 214 yards and a pair of touchdowns. His backfield counterpart, Barrett, was surgical and precise in his read-option game, gaining 139 yards of his own and three touchdowns on the ground on 19 carries.
Michigan’s defense, which came into the game allowing 100.2 yards per game on the ground, was simply overwhelmed.
“Crazy, huh?” Barrett said following the game. “It was definitely a team effort. It wasn’t offense, defense or just special teams, separate groups on the team. It was definitely a team win, a great win.”
Added Elliott: “That’s a great football team over there. The fact that we were able to bounce back from last week and the way we played last week and come out and execute the way we did today and dominate, just means so much for this team.”
Perhaps the most stunning part of Ohio State’s dominant performance was that it came just seven days after its worst. The Buckeyes gained just 132 yards of total offense in last week’s 17-14 loss at the hands of Michigan State.
Ohio State was so out of sync on offense against the Spartans, a performance like Saturday’s against Michigan didn’t even seem possible. The team which had won the national championship a year ago, the one with the dominant offense, hadn’t performed like it did against the Wolverines all season.
The Buckeyes opted to make a switch and move Ed Warinner from the sideline to the press box to call plays, but even how that would work out was unknown. There was no reason to think this would happen against that defense.
But it did.
“I feel like, as a team, this week was real hard for us,” said wide receiver Michael Thomas, who had a pair of catches for 50 yards in the game. “The only way that we could prove ourselves or take out our energy and show what we could do to bounce back and correct our mistakes was in this environment in this stadium.
“That’s the opportunity we had and when the opportunity presented itself, we dominated.”
Ohio State could have folded. It could have decided to pack it in after last week’s loss knowing it was a longshot for both the Big Ten championship game and College Football Playoff. Instead, the Buckeyes followed up their worst performance of the season with their best.
And as Barrett got under center with six seconds remaining and Ohio State in the victory formation, Thomas stood roughly 10 yards behind him, dancing, swaying back and forth, waving his arms in the air in celebration.
There was dancing all around all day long.
“I think we had to get that hurting feeling out of us,” left tackle Taylor Decker said. “The only way to do that is show up and dominate, especially in the rivalry game. This was just a huge game to get this feeling out of us after that tough less. That was the best way to get it out, to dominate over our rivals.”
