Michigan, in blue jerseys and blue pants, controlled their rivals from the South throughout most of the game. They opened up the game going 75 yards and scoring on the opening drive to take a 7-0 lead behind 16 and 17-yard runs by running back Hassan Haskins. Then the Michigan defense showed their presence, forcing Ohio State to go 3 and out. And just like that, the tone was set.
The Buckeyes got on the scoreboard on their second drive with a field goal but not before the Wolverine’s defense got a key sack from Aidan Hutchinson and stopped Ohio State in the red zone.
OSU took the lead briefly 10-7 in the 2nd quarter on a 25-yard touchdown pass from CJ Stroud to Garrett Wilson. But the Wolverines responded with a one-yard touchdown run from Haskins, his first of five touchdowns on the day. The Wolverines defense then came up big again holding Ohio State to another field goal before the end of the first half and taking a 14-13 lead into halftime.
The Buckeyes started with the ball first in the second half of play but again went three and out as the Michigan defense stood tall. Then Haskins added another two touchdowns in the third quarter to put the Wolverines up 21-13 and then 28-13 and the maize and blue never looked back.
The Buckeyes would score again early in the fourth quarter but they couldn’t stop the running game and Michigan’s Haskins as he added his 4th touchdown with 9:14 left in the game to give Michigan a 35-20 lead. Ohio State’s TreVeyon Henderson would add a touchdown with just under 5 minutes left in the game but Haskins wasn’t done, he ran for a total 60 plus yards on 4 different carries during the last Wolverine’s drive to run the clock down even more and score his 5th touchdown of the game giving Michigan a 42-27 lead.
Ohio State ran out of answers and ended up turning the ball over on downs with less than a minute remaining and the home team Wolverines could start the celebration.
After the game, Michigan Quarterback Cade McNamara said “This is everything I dreamed of” and “Anyone that comes to Michigan comes for this” referring to beating the rival Buckeyes. McNamara finished 13-19 for 159 passing yards. Haskins ran for 169 yards and 5 touchdowns. Hutchinson finished with 3 sacks in the game setting a new single-season sack record for Michigan.
The victory was sweeter than could be imagined, as Michigan ended an 8 game losing streak to Ohio State, as well as snapping the Buckeyes’ 29 game win streak vs Big Ten teams. Not to mention giving Jim Harbaugh his first win over Ohio State as the Michigan Head Coach. Michigan improved to 11-1 on the season and will take on the Iowa Hawkeyes (10-2) next week in the B1G Championship game in Indianapolis.