No. 1 OSU routs Michigan; Big Ten title game on deck

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Ryan Day can rest easy. Julian Sayin and No. 1 Ohio State dominated The Game on Saturday. Sayin threw three touchdown passes, including a 35-yarder to Jeremiah Smith on a fourth down in the second quarter, and the Buckeyes beat No. 15 Michigan 27-9 to give Day a sorely needed victory in one of college football's biggest rivalries. With Day on the sideline, Ohio State had lost four in a row to Michigan. Not so much this time around, not with Sayin and Bo Jackson powering the offense, and the defense shutting down Bryce Underwood and the Wolverines. "Nobody wants to win this game more than me," Day said. "To win this game, it's just a great moment. It's one of those moments that you want to just grab on for a while and just enjoy it." The defending national champion Buckeyes (12-0, 9-0 Big Ten, No. 1 CFP) likely earned a first-round bye in the College Football Playoff. They can keep their top seed with a win against No. 2 Indiana (12-0, 9-0, No. 2 CFP) in the conference championship game Saturday night in Indianapolis. It was quite a performance by Ohio State a year after it was a big favorite for The Game and ended up losing to Michigan in Columbus. That upset sparked speculation that Day might lose his job. "It's a great win when you think about the point where we were at last year," Day said. As much as Day tried to redirect the focus to his players, they knew the win meant a lot to him. "I could see the joy on his face," said Jackson, a freshman who rushed for a season-high 117 yards. The Wolverines (9-3, 7-2) started strong with two field goals and an interception on the first three possessions of the game, but couldn't generate pressure when Ohio State wanted to pass. After throwing an interception on his second snap, Sayin took advantage of the time and space he had to throw. Sayin was 6 of 6 for 68 yards with two touchdowns on third and fourth down in the first half, including a four-yard throw on third down to Brandon Inniss with 16 seconds left that made it 17-9 at the break. He finished 19 of 26 for 233 yards and threw for at least three touchdowns for the sixth time this season. Like a savvy veteran, Sayin gave credit to his offensive line. "All season long they've just had an edge them and played nasty," he said. "We hand it off, we get 7 yards. You see guys getting thrown on the ground, it looks like carnage out there." His clutch throw to Smith early in the second stirred some controversy. Smith bobbled the ball as he went into the end zone and Fox's officiating expert, Mike Pereira, questioned the call during the TV broadcast. "They said that he had control of it — didn't look like he had control of it," Michigan coach Sherrone Moore said. "They told me that it was inconclusive." Michigan might have gotten a break early in the game when edge rusher Jaishawn Barham was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct, but wasn't ejected, after appearing to make contact with an official. "The official grabbed him and he shouldn't have reacted," Moore said. In the end, the calls were moot because Ohio State put together a convincing performance. Sayin helped the Buckeyes pull away with a perfect pass to Carnell Tate for a 50-yard touchdown in the third quarter, lofting a ball over the receiver's shoulder after he got past Michigan's secondary. That put the game out of reach for the Wolverines, who couldn't catch up after being relegated to kicking three field goals in the first half and failing to get their defense off the field in the second half. The Buckeyes removed all doubt with a field goal midway through the fourth, capping a 20-play, 81-yard drive that took nearly 12 minutes off the clock. Underwood, the nation's No. 1 recruit a year ago, was 8 of 13 for a season-low 63 yards with an interception late in the game. The Wolverines ran for just 100 yards on 24 carries against the nation's top-ranked defense. "It's got to be better," Moore said. "I put it on me." The takeaway Ohio State: Day improved to 2-4 against the Wolverines, quieting any critics that were not convinced by the national championship he won. "To tell you that the last four years have been easy is not true," said Day after beating Michigan for the first time since his debut season in 2019. Michigan: Underwood's uneven season as a passer proved to be costly because it limited big-play potential against a defense that didn't give up a touchdown for the fifth time this year. "We just couldn't get a rhythm," Moore said. Up next The Buckeyes will face the Hoosiers for the first time since beating them 38-15 a little more than a year ago.