There is no shame in losing to the Ohio State Buckeyes in 2019. By most accounts, they are the best team in college football and have a great chance to be the last team standing after the College Football Playoff dust settles. Michigan came out of the gate strong, but couldn’t sustain the pace that is required to keep up with this dominant force of a program. The rivalry is on shaky legs – if you can even call it one – after Ohio State ran it’s winning streak to eight over the Wolverines.

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Do you know what there is shame in? What does the following list of schools have in common?

Tulane – FAU – Cincinnati – Rutgers – Purdue – Northwestern – Nebraska

These are just a sampling of teams that have held Ohio State to fewer than the 59.0 points (avg) that Michigan has given up in “The Game” the past two seasons. There are plenty more, but I think you get the point. These aren’t teams who have the OSU game circled on their schedule all season. Teams who pour their hearts, souls, mental and physical preparation into this matchup. Schools who have a sizeable chunk of their identity baked into their hatred for that school down south. And most importantly, these schools aren’t on the same planet as Michigan in terms of recruiting and talent level. So why, then, does this look so easy for Ohio State?

Recruiting

Not many programs can match the level of talent that Ohio State brings in year-after-year. They are on a short-list of schools that consistently live in the top five of the national recruiting rankings. While Michigan has always been a magnet for four-star recruits, Ohio State holds a current 13-4 five-star edge over Michigan. That’s not insignificant. Talent disparity is perhaps the number one reason that this game, and this rivalry, has gotten away from Michigan. 

That being said, the talent gap isn’t 56-27 wide. Here is another list for you to mull over: Auburn – Oregon – Penn State – Clemson – and, wait for it…Ohio State.

This is a list of teams that Michigan actually out-recruited in the 2019 rankings, according to 247Sports. Though you wouldn’t know it, considering Michigan is looking up at all of these teams in the polls. While some of these players will be making more of an impact in the next 1-3 years, several were impact players for Michigan this season (Zach Charbonnet, Daxton Hill, Giles Jackson, Mike Sainristil). Michigan comes in as a borderline top-ten program in terms of talent level in the Jim Harbaugh era.

Michigan was an 8.5 point underdog in this game. If they came out and lost a competitive 7 or 10 point game, this would be much easier to pass off as a “not ready yet” type of situation. But they didn’t. They lost by 29 points, and there are questions. So we trudge along in our search for answers.

Self-inflicted wounds

If there was ever a game in which Michigan needed to play clean and disciplined football, it was this one. That didn’t happen, as they repeatedly shot themselves in the foot with back-breaking unforced errors. Highlights included a very-late hit from Cam McGrone on Justin Fields, two Michigan defenders flagged for untying J.K. Dobbins shoe (stay classy), the return of Shea Patterson’s fumbling woes, and an offsides penalty on an OSU punt leading to a first down and eventual TD. Just brutal.

In addition to these, the football gods smiled upon Ohio State in the first quarter when a Dobbins fumble bounced right back to him en route to a 34-yard run, not even needing to break stride. This is a maximum unlucky bounce, in a game where Michigan likely would’ve needed a few wacky things to break their way. A muffed OSU punt recovered by Michigan would have been returned for a touchdown…if it was the NFL, that is. Alas, this was a minor-league football game, where muffed punts cannot be advanced. Needless to say, Michigan did not score a touchdown on the drive, settling for a field goal to cut their deficit to 42-19 (good decision…NOT!).

Then there are the drops. Lots and lots of drops. My how far we have come this season. Once upon a time it was Shea Patterson (and offensive coordinator Josh Gattis) who was to blame for not utilizing the wealth of weapons at receiver, wasting this talented unit with his inaccuracy and inability to go through his progressions effectively. This is the second big game (Penn State) where it was the receivers who let Patterson down.

Don’t let Patterson’s 18 for 43 line fool you, he was as good as could have been reasonably expected in this game, against the #1 defense in the country no less. No team had passed for more than 218 yards against the Buckeyes this year. Patterson had 305. No team had thrown for multiple TDs against them either. Patterson would’ve had at least two, if not for a drop in the end zone by Donovan Peoples-Jones who, just like the Penn State game, was the single biggest culprit in the drops column. Remember when we were talking about five-star recruits earlier? DPJ is one of them, not that you’d know that from his play. He has left a lot of yards on the field this year. His talent will eventually get him an NFL paycheck, but he certainly has not fulfilled his potential at the NCAA level.

So the talent gap is the reason for the loss, and the mistakes inflated the final score. But that still doesn’t explain 56 to bleeping 27. Florida Atlantic played Ohio State tighter than this, and even outscored them over the final three quarters…on the road. This game was at the Big House, with Michigan playing it’s best football of the season heading in. Onward, in the search for answers.

Don Brown’s defense

Michigan defensive coordinator Don Brown has been running his side of the ball for four of Jim Harbaugh’s five seasons. Overall, the results look spectacular: Michigan has finished 1st, 3rd, 2nd, and (currently) 9th in terms of total team defense. They have allowed fewer than 300 yards per game every season with Brown at the helm. But you can throw all those accolades out the window when “The Game” kicks off. 

Not to relive bad memories, but Ohio State rolled up Michigan 62-39 in 2018, to the tune of 567 total yards and seven offensive TDs. Don Brown took this loss hard, and vowed to correct the crossing-route shredding that OSU sliced-and-diced Michigan with repeatedly last year, while keeping his trademark aggressiveness. Don’t let that final score fool you either, because the 2018 game included an OSU punt return touchdown. This year’s performance was worse. The defense actually found a way to give up more points, yards (577), and TDs (8) in 2019. That’s hard to do.

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Don Brown’s defenses are overwhelming when things are rolling. They are terrific front-runners, which leads to those impressive year-end stats. The problem is, when a team punches Michigan in the gullet, Brown has a hard time adjusting on the fly to correct the issue. Wisconsin ran all over Michigan to the tune of 359 rushing yards and five TDs. Michigan largely held Penn State in check, but was abused repeatedly via the deep ball. And for the second year in a row, Ohio State did whatever the hell they wanted, whenever they wanted. 

It might seem unfair to expect better overall results, but there is enough evidence at this point to say that the defense is going to be torched at least 2-3 times per season, thus capping them at that 10-win ceiling Michigan can’t seem to break-through. Does Brown deserve to be let go? That’s a hard sell, given the overall success. It all depends on whether 10 wins makes you all warm and fuzzy inside. It doesn’t do it for me, especially when they are realistically eliminated from conference title contention before Halloween.

Brown’s name is being floated around in rumors as the next Boston College head coach, so Michigan may not have to decide on his future. Personally, I’d be fine with a shakeup, but I’m not in the business of calling for people’s heads without a clear plan in place. It’s easy to have superior athletes on defense and just have them go out and wreak havoc on lesser opponents. When Brown’s defense is matched up against an equal, the foundation crumbles. It’s become a disturbing trend and shows no sign of correcting itself.  

So, the trail of bread crumbs has led us to some fascinating clues as to why Ohio State is boat-racing Michigan on the reg. We have the recruiting and talent disparity, sloppy and unforced mistakes, and the bipolar nature of Don Brown’s defense. Unfortunately, there is one khaki wearing fool that ties all this together, as his fingerprints are all over every aspect of this program. Welcome back to the hot seat, Jim Harbaugh. The seat should still be warm. Have you heard this song before?

Jim Harbaugh

Again, this isn’t about just losing. Charles Woodson is the only person who thought Michigan was going to win this game (but deep down, he knew). This is about reducing Michigan to a glorified fly buzzing around the horse’s ass that is Ohio State. A mild and harmless nuisance that can be easily swatted away. 

Jim Harbaugh deserves credit for his strong recruiting classes. He has proven he will do whatever it takes to woo a young man he is interested in, including sleeping over as soon as he’s legal, then following him to school the following day like a creeper. I mean, who else is that dedicated to their craft?

All kidding aside, he gets talented kids in the door. But that’s only half the battle, developing them is the other. This season looks like the newest chapter in the Michigan underachieving almanac. Do almanacs have chapters? Maybe I’ll ask the Allman Brothers. Or maybe Tracy Ullman.

When it comes to the mistakes, particularly the personal fouls, Harbaugh needs to own some of this as well. It needed to be baked into the players’ minds that Ohio State didn’t need their help moving up and down the field. Late hits and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties are so easily avoidable. They don’t require skill, just discipline, and focus. These are attributes that can often reflect the personality of a coach, yet it was the team with the 40-year-old rookie head coach who played with the poise and focus needed to win. 

Don Brown was not a holdover from a previous regime, he was hand-picked by Jim Harbaugh. He reportedly knew he wanted to hire Brown after their first meeting, and Brown was the only man he officially offered the job to. They are like-minded individuals, so Harbaugh also needs to be held responsible for the defense’s big-game disappearing acts. 

Then there are the things Harbaugh is in direct control of. Such as opting for field goals against a team you haven’t been able to keep out of the end-zone in two years. Even late in the third quarter, when it was clear that the defense was largely incapable of slowing down the OSU offense, Harbaugh elected to kick a field goal to cut the deficit to…wait for it…23.

But perhaps the most frustrating part was hearing Jim Harbaugh’s bogus coachspeak after the game. Earlier in the season, after the Wisconsin disaster, Harbaugh was quoted as saying “We were out-prepared, outplayed, outcoached“. It didn’t make the loss any easier to swallow, but at least it showed accountability. The same quote could have been repurposed for this game, but instead, Harbaugh opted for “I thought our team was well prepared…I thought our team was playing good football. I thought it was a good football fight.” That junk is like nails on a chalkboard at this point.

That’s not to say reporters and beat writers didn’t try to fish for some honesty. But that fish wasn’t biting today, instead opting to get all in his feelings by replying to simple and obvious questions with “I’ll answer your questions. Not your insults.” Weak sauce. 

You don’t have to throw the kids under the bus, since they are auditioning to one day make a living playing football. But don’t shy away from being critical of yourself and your coaching staff. That isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of self-awareness. When everyone knows the reality of the situation but you stubbornly refuse to admit it, you are basically begging the angry mob to light their torches and grab their pitchforks. It happened. It was ugly. Own it.

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