Ohio State's Spectacular Collapse Ends Regular Season In Crushing Loss To Michigan

The Buckeyes had a chance to put the Wolverines away early in the game, but let them hang around and the defense completely crumbled in the second half.

The last 365 days have been awfully tough on the Ohio State Buckeyes after they heard from every corner of the college football world that they weren't a tough football team.

Unfortunately, the next 365 aren't going to be much easier.

While OSU played a more physically impressive game against the Wolverines in the first half, but Michigan picked apart the Scarlet and Gray where they were most vulnerable: in the back end of the defense.

J.J. McCarthy led Michigan to a 45-23 victory on Saturday, ending the Buckeyes hopes for an undefeated season and a Big Ten championship. Now their College Football Playoff future is in the hands of the national selection committee.

Today's win marks Michigan's first victory in Ohio stadium since 2000.

Michigan racked up 222 yards on four passing plays, three of which went for touchdowns and the other set up a field goal and the Buckeyes couldn't stop the bleeding.

When Ohio State had finally scored for the first time in the second half to bring the margin back within eight points, Donovan Edwards took the first play from scrimmage 75 yards for a touchdown. One possession later, Edwards went untouched 85 yards for a touchdown to ice the game.

The Buckeyes also had nine penalties for 91 yards, including two pass interference calls, two holding infractions and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

C.J. Stroud finished the day (and presumably the home portion of his Ohio State career) with 349 yards on 31-of-48 through the air. He completed a fabulous touchdown pass to Marvin Harrison Jr. in the second quarter that gave OSU a 20-17 lead at halftime. Stroud also found Emeka Egbuka for six points on the opening drive of the day. Those two receivers combined for 16 grabs and 225 yards.

But he made a rare, critical error when he tried to underhand a pass to Xavier Johnson with 4:19 to go in the game and that essentially ended Ohio State's comeback hopes.

Plenty more to come from Ohio Stadium after Ryan Day's postgame press conference.

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