Why The Buckeyes Lost To Michigan - And What They Should Do About It

Ohio State turns out skill position NFL players at an impressive rate, but they might not be equipped to win traditional Big Ten football anymore.

It's a rainy, miserable day in Columbus that seems to reflect the mood Ohio State fans are feeling. Over on campus, the Buckeyes have some serious soul-searching to do.

I shouldn't have to start by stating the obvious to Ohio State fans, but perhaps you are reading this and you're not a die-hard Buckeye: beating Michigan is the only thing that matters when you play for the Scarlet and Gray.

The only thing.

There is no choice. There is no other option. It's not a game, it's a way of life for Ohio State fans. 

You have to beat the Team Up North. Period.

Jim Tressel understood that, Luke Fickell understood that (although he got dealt a bad hand) and Urban Meyer unquestionably understood that. That's why fans were gathered around the Fox Big Noon Kickoff set after the game, where Meyer is an analyst, and they were chanting "We want Urban" loud enough that the conversation actually stumbled a bit on set.

I've been thinking a lot about that in the aftermath of the Buckeyes' disastrous performance on Saturday, a loss punctuated by four touchdowns of 69 yards or more. In my heart, I think Ryan Day understands the gravity of this rivalry. He wasn't born into it the way some of his coaching predecessors were in Columbus, but I do believe he gets it.

So how could that outcome possibly have happened on Saturday? How could you spend every single day the entire offseason, reliving what happened last year, training for the chance to write a different story and as a team you put together that performance? Whatever was done over the last 365 days either wasn't enough or addressed the wrong problems.

It was a collective failure: conservative play-calling in instances that Ryan Day has almost always been aggressive, bad tackling, blown coverages and turnovers at costly moments.

I don't necessarily always like to judge the success or failure of a game based on statistics. It's part of the equation, but it doesn't tell nearly the whole story. For most of the game, Ohio State competed really well. They weren't overmatched by a more talented team. They got beat by a Michigan team that wanted to play an entirely different style of football than what Ohio State currently thrives under.

And I think that just might be the biggest problem that Ryan Day has to address going forward.

Day is a Chip Kelly disciple and has had a fabulous career so far. By all accounts, he's an offensive guru and there is no better coach in the country at developing quarterbacks. But maybe that style of football alone isn't enough to win in the Big Ten.

Ohio State has the talent to win the national championship. They have the speed, they have the size, they have the big-play capability that can flip a game in a moment's notice. They're going to win the vast majority of their games because they are more talented than almost every team they play. They can cripple you in a hurry. 

But Ohio State was exposed in a brutal way Saturday for its inability to play traditional Big Ten, smash-mouth football.

Jim Harbaugh - as weird and crazy as he might be - went back to his roots when he was almost run out of Ann Arbor two years ago and now the Maize and Blue play power football. They're the bullies of the conference now and there's no debate to be had on the topic. They aren't physically more talented than the Buckeyes, but they are equipped to beat Ohio State for years to come if Ryan Day doesn't change his philosophy and bring in guys that know how to play old-fashioned, Big Ten football.

In essence, Michigan threw out the playbook on the new era of college football because it couldn't beat Ohio State that way. But now they've got the Buckeyes scrambling because the Wolverines have turned back the clock and it's working really well.

Day called the 11-2 season in 2021, which featured a Rose Bowl victory, a failure. Those were his words. They didn't accomplish any of the three goals they set out for themselves. There is a pretty nervous wait for the Buckeyes, who I think have a slightly-better-than-outside chance to still make the College Football Playoff (although I don't think they deserve it anymore).

Who knows, it's still possible that these two teams could actually play a second time in the CFP. If that happens, maybe the outcome would be different. Maybe the Buckeyes make some stylistic or schematic changes and perhaps they beat Michigan. The thought of that possibility doesn't sit right with a lot of fans, who don't like the way college football's landscape is changing. 

But in the more likely scenario that they play in the Rose Bowl, whether they finish this season 12-1 with a win in Pasadena or 11-2 with a loss, this season will have been internally defined as a failure too.

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