Michigan Journal

Issue date: 11/25/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Free Press

A rivelry bigger than the Yankees vs. the REd Socks or the Celtics vs. the Lakers is that of Michigan vs. Ohio State.

With all the hype surrounding this game, Michigan and OSU?fans alike were keeping their fingers crossed for another great game between these two teams.

Thirty minutes before kickoff, both teams met at mid field as they were heading into the locker rooms after pre-game warm ups.

The teams stopped and had a few choice words to exchange before the game kicked off.

The game started Saturday morning at approximately 11:30.

The first quarter was a defensive battle for both teams. Michigan had a spark of life on OSU's first drive, getting an interception taken back into the Buckeye redzone.

The Michigan offense had four chances to score, but unfortuntalty loss yardage on their first three downs and then K.C. Lopata pushed a field goal wide. This left the Wolverines with no points on what could have been a very successful turnover.

Both defensive went back and forth, forcing the other to punt for almost all of the first half until Ohio State broke one play up the middle that went for the games first score, then a few drives later OSU answered again going up 14-0.

Michigan answered with a long drive that took up almost all of the second quarter. The Wolverines went 14 plays down the field and capped off the drive with a short touchdown run by Brandon Minor.

Ohio State would again answer and went up by a score to keep a small margin over the Wolverines.

At the half the score was 14-7 things weren't looking so bad for the Wolverines.

Their confidence was up since the projected outcome was supposed to be in Ohio States favor.

That confidence soon diminished as the second half began. Ohio State took no time letting Michigan know who was boss in this game.

Michigan tried to regain some ground but the offense couldn't get anything going.

Ohio State would score again on a long rush play, a great punt return that gave them excellent field position, and a muffed punt by the Wolverines.

With all of those things going against the Wolverines there wasn't much chance to get back in the game.

The game ended 42-7 in favor of OSU and any other way wouldn't have been Michigan's fashion. This season has been a story of missed opportunity for U of M?and that didn't change Saturday.

They beat themselves and had a little help from Ohio State but being un able to keep possession and not get any production out of the offense will lead to games like these.

Rich Rodrieguez and his staff have a long way to go before next season starts, and a lot to fix before fans start to have faith in this spread offense system which had failed misserabley all year.

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