Ohio State’s attack is modernizing. Michigan’s should do the same.

What makes Bo Schembechler a legend at Michigan is the “those who stay will be champions” promise that he fulfilled over a 21-year run in which the Wolverines never went more than three years without winning a Big Ten title.

After Saturday’s 62-39 debacle, Jim Harbaugh will not be able to say the same, because he lost to Urban Meyer’s Buckeyes for the fourth time in four years.

This was one of the most crushing rivalry losses in the history of, well, rivalries.

The Buckeyes had been stumbling through the B1G with a 10-1 record but one ugly win after another. Meanwhile, Michigan had gone on a dominant “revenge tour” after losing close to undefeated Notre Dame. The Wolverines were favored by four in Columbus, and it seemed they’d never have a better chance at finally flipping the rivalry. What’s more, there was a Big Ten East title and easy path to the Playoff on the line.

So when the Wolverines crumbled during the third quarter and watched the game slip to 27-19, then 34-19, then 41-19, you could see all the air coming out of the program. Now the Buckeyes are once again poised to win the Big Ten while Michigan heads back to the drawing board and questions once more its place in this league.

The Buckeyes’ game plan went back and forth between one-RB/one-TE personnel and four-wide spread sets, much like every other game. They don’t have the big, man-eating outside targets that you often see from a run-centric spread team, instead built around the mesh play that Ryan Day installed last year to turn J.T. Barrett into a passing machine.

From those sets, Ohio State tends to be about hitting speed in space with the inside run game nominally as a starting point but often more of a constraint.

Michigan’s plan on offense included a much larger variety of personnel packages, with two of their three main TEs (Zach Gentry, Sean McKeon, Nick Eubanks) on the field more often than not. Michigan’s game is about ball control and creating matchups in the passing game with their TEs. When Michigan was pushing the ball outside and down the field, it drew five defensive pass interference calls, while their TEs had a very quiet day.

Under those conditions, Ohio State’s ceiling in a high-scoring game was destined to be higher. When the Wolverines’ offense is humming, they tend to pick up yardage in bits and pieces, whereas the Buckeyes regularly field two or more players who can score from anywhere on the field. Five different Ohio State WRs had 20-plus-yard plays, while Mike Weber added a 29-yard run. Michigan had half as many players contribute explosive plays.

Urban Meyer’s spread run game was ahead of the curve when he brought it to Ohio State in 2012. Now as the rest of the league has caught up, Ohio State is moving ahead again with a spread passing game that had Dwayne Haskins at 20 of 31 with 396 yards at 12.8 per throw with six TD passes and zero interceptions.

Michigan’s defense is designed to counter the spread by attacking it. They play extensive man coverage and regularly bring five pass rushers from a base nickel. But Ohio State kept throwing crossers at them, forcing the Michigan backfield to hold up in man coverage against rubs.

One of the best examples came in the second quarter, when Ohio State came out in a 3x2 set from which they ran mesh:

The intent from Michigan is to match up across the board with a safety in the deep middle while they blitz from different angles. With the man coverage and pressure, the offense is supposed to be robbed of an easy read and then taken down by the pass-rush. Instead, Michigan’s skill players are outclassed.

The Buckeyes are not going to stop having big, athletic freaks across the OL nor speedy wideouts who can burn you in space. Their 2019 class will be relatively small but so far includes 5-star OL Harry Miller and 5-star WR Garrett Wilson. Nor are they going to stop putting extra prep time in to maximize for beating the Wolverines.

Michigan DC Don Brown’s assumption is that a spread team is going to throw if you give easy advantages and otherwise will run. Ohio State is evolving into the kind of spread team that spreads you out in order to hunt matchups in space, not to clear lanes for the run. Against that, a defense has to flood passing lanes with athletes in something more like a dime package and either present no matchup problems or else have the speed and angles to bracket multiple wideouts.

Without significant adjustments, next year could look the same.

Oregon State, TCU, Penn State, Indiana, Minnesota, Purdue, Nebraska, and Maryland had more yards per play against Ohio State than Michigan’s 5.14. Shea Patterson was 20 of 34 for 187 yards at 5.5 ypa with three TDs and one INT as lead back Higdon had 15 carries for 72 yards at 4.8 ypc.

What’s more, they lost the matchups that provide the basis for their ball control style. In particular, their TEs had a bad day against both the Ohio State DEs in the blocking game ...

... and then Patterson struggled to find those TEs against the safeties in the passing game.

Michigan targeted its three main TEs on 10 passes, gaining all of 20 yards. There were windows on their TE routes, but Patterson had a horrendous day and missed nearly all of them.

The Michigan tackles who were eaten alive by Notre Dame’s defensive ends showed up again. The Buckeyes inflicted three sacks and regularly chased Patterson off his spots and flustered him at key moments.

The Buckeyes played their normal man coverage outside, and the Wolverines had success when throwing that way — much of Michigan’s offense was from those matchups — but their plan was designed to control the game in the middle of the field.

But in a game of spread spacing and matchup hunting, the Buckeyes won ALL of the decisive matchups, and the Wolverines struggled to connect on any areas of advantage. That reflects very poorly on Jim Harbaugh’s staff, Patterson’s field generalship, and Michigan’s struggle to update its approach.