Skull Session: Dwayne Haskins Was “Licking His Chops,” Tate Martell Packages to Remain, and Chase Winovich's Revenge Tour Ends

By Kevin Harrish on November 26, 2018 at 4:59 am
Hey, Michigan did more losing.
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Imagine honestly thinking – earnestly believing – that Michigan would win that game.

Folks were picking against a legendary head coach undefeated at Ohio State as an underdog, taking on a heated rival he's never lost to as the Buckeyes' head coach in favor of a quirky fellow in khakis.

Michigan had beaten Ohio State once in 15 years by one touchdown in a season where the Buckeyes didn't have a head coach and everyone thought the Wolverines were going to stroll into Columbus and dispatch the Bucks without an issue.

And then we got this:

ICYMI

Word of the Day: Subjugate.

 NOT OUR DAY. There's something almost poetic about one of the most lopsided Michigan losses in the history of the rivalry coming in a game where Wolverine backers were the most confident they've been in decades.

And by confident, I mean absolutely unbearable. If this week was even 10 percent of what it would be like to deal with an actual Michigan win over Ohio State, I'm not sure that's a world I can live in.

Thankfully, those fans were pounded right back into submission, along with their football team. Please just take a scroll through the responses to this amazing Tweet:

I don't even know how you could be a Michigan fan at this point. If a win over Ohio State hasn't come the past three year, it's hard to be optimistic it's going to come any time soon, because honestly, this is kind of as good as it gets.

At least when Rich Rod or Brady Hoke were running the show, you could complain and sincerely believe there was somebody better out there. But Jim Harbaugh is the guy. He's the third-highest paid coach in the country and was supposed to be the savior of Michigan football.

And he just became the first Wolverine coach to start 0-4 against Ohio State.

 "LICKING MY CHOPS." I completely expected Michigan's offense to look every bit as anemic as it did Saturday; that was not a surprise. I also expected Dwayne Haskins and the Bucks to be able to at least move the ball a little bit against Michigan, given enough possessions.

No sane individual expected Ohio State to drop 62 points on the nation's top defense, except maybe Haskins.

From Kyle Austin of MLive.com:

The Wolverines entered Saturday's game against the Buckeyes allowing just 123.2 pass yards per game, the best mark in the nation by nearly 20 yards. No team had passed for more than 209 yards all season, and that was back in September.

But the film said something different to Ohio State players when they sat down and watched it this week.

Multiple Buckeyes players said that they came away from film study on Michigan particularly confident in their capability to have a big day throwing the ball on Saturday against the Wolverines.

"I was licking my chops," Buckeyes quarterback Dwayne Haskins said. "I see the one-high covers and that's a quarterback's dream."

...

"I felt like we could do anything we really wanted on offense," Buckeyes wide receiver Parris Campbell said. "We had momentum, we were really rolling. I just felt like everything was open for us at that point."

My God, "licking my chops" is such an amazing way to describe himself watching the literal No. 1 defense in the nation. But it wasn't just talk, he went out there and sliced up Don Brown's defense like it was a Thanksgiving bird.

What did it feel like to be on the receiving end of that outright assault? I'm glad you asked!

Oh hell yeah, inject that straight into my veins. Some hero should look at the numbers on how many Michigan players since 2003 have never experienced a win against Ohio State. Because it's a lot.

 TATE PACKAGES HERE TO STAY. Saturday was awesome, but it would be inaccurate to say there weren't hiccups along the way, like Demario McCall's fumbled kickoff, the five defensive pass interference calls, or whatever the hell happened to the offense when Tate Martell came into the game.

But Urban Meyer doesn't appear to be walking away from any of those things – McCall continued to handle kickoffs in the second half, Ohio State will continue to have a secondary for the foreseeable future, and the Tate package is staying.

Look, I'm not anti-Tate or even anti-Tate package, but you just have to throw the damn ball at least once for it to do anything. The whole point is to open up the defense, but if you refuse to let him throw, it's no better than Haskins' one-dimension.

 SHAUN WADE KILLS MEN. Hey, in case you forgot, Shaun Wade absolutely destroyed multiple human beings on Saturday.

The first hit was on noted win-guaranteer Karan Higdon:

The other was on Michigan tight end Sean McKeon.

The best part is when he gets up and starts chasing down Wade after he got absolutely blasted in the midst of probably the most embarrassing loss of his football career. I'm fascinated to know what he thought he was going to say to him.

 REVENGE TOUR CANCELED. Chase Winovich's revenge tour came to a screeching halt this weekend.

Like I said earlier this week, I respect the hell out of Winovich. He's a fun player and the first worthy villain to wear the Maize and Blue in quite a while.

But he can hold this L. Four of them, actually.

 NORTHWESTERN ON DECK. This weekend's been Wolverine heavy, for good reason. But Northwestern is on deck, and standing in the way of the Big Ten title reserved for the Buckeyes.

It sounds like Pat Fitzgerald is going to have his team ready to play and has already done his homework. 

I'm going to be honest, I find it extremely hard to dislike anything about Northwestern. But unfortunately for the Wildcats, they find themselves in the way of a freight train. Sad to see.

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Prognosticating: Indiana

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