Written by Bart Doan at Bloguin
Sometimes, you just get your arse kicked in.
All year, the story of Michigan had been one of improvement. Some of it, probably, was assumed to be a wider gap than it really was, just because of the natural assumption that Jim Harbaugh was not Brady Hoke. Everything Michigan did well flowed from the belief that the Wolverines were suddenly that much better; everything they still weren’t good at was the product of the cupboard not being fully stocked with elite players.
Saturday against Ohio State, the Wolverines got their butts handed to them, 42-13. They lost their quarterback, and they lost the momentum they’d built from a season of turning around issues that have plagued them for the better part of a decade, such as inconsistent quarterback play and feebleness on the road (4-1 this season).
There’s something about Ohio State, though, particularly when you tell the Buckeyes they suck, as everyone other than Michigan seemed to be doing during a grave-dancing week that followed a home loss to Michigan State.
The Buckeyes taught the Wolverines just how far the gap is between simply improving and being pretty good to being truly great. This is about the Michigan side of things, one that won’t be forgotten anytime soon, even though the desire to drink this one away has to be there for everyone owning any measure of Maize and Blue clothing in their closets.
It wasn’t just that Ohio State won. It was how the Buckeyes won, and how salty of a contrast there is between these two programs when it matters. Late in the game, after OSU was piling on points just for the sake of piling on points because that’s what you do in a rivalry, a camera shot of several OSU fans in Ann Arbor dancing, holding up a massive “Welcome Home Coach Harbaugh” banner, made its way on television.
Salt, meet wound.
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