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COLUMBUS, Ohio – Jim Harbaugh squats his hands to watch the Ohio State offense set up in the red zone of Ohio Stadium for the final game of the regular season, as he did it two years ago.
Like two years ago, Harbaugh jogged on the field surrounded by a police escort as Ohio State students tumbling down the field slowed down enough to remind the visiting coach his record against the Buckeyes. A few minutes later, Harbaugh moved into the same interview room in the Horseshoe area, where two years earlier he had said he thought his team should have won.
The Wolverines head coach then felt this close to bridging the gap between his team and the machine that Urban Meyer built in Columbus.
Two years later, Harbaugh and his team could not have felt any further.
Usurping the state of Ohio seems to be far behind an unprecedented 62-39 loss on Saturday afternoon and given the vulnerable state in which the Buckeyes have entered the game of annual rivalry this year, it's hard to imagine how Harbaugh & Co. will ever get there.
"I feel the same," Harbaugh said Saturday night. "Just motivated to come back and make sure it does not happen again."
This plan has not worked yet. The defeat of this year brought Harbaugh to 0-4 against the main rival of his alma mater. He ended Michigan's No. 4 hopes of making his first playoff appearance under the coach he hired to win championships. That put an end to the Wolverines' chances of playing for a Big Ten title for the first time in over a decade. This put an end to any doubt about the supremacy of Urban Meyer in the Big Ten and Harbaugh's stance, at best, second violin.
The first three rounds of what many were hoping to be a return to the glory of one of college football's best rivalries, have left reason to believe that Harbaugh could possibly pull Michigan even with the league's best program. In these games, the talent gap was pronounced, suggesting that once this was done, the Wolverines would compete. The game of 2016 was a coin. Michigan remained competitive at home in 2017, despite a quarterback.
This time, Michigan had the best team on paper. The Wolverines have the difference at quarterback. They have an improved offensive line. They have a mature and athletic defense – the No. 1 unit in the country on the total yards allowed to enter this week.
The Buckeyes' defense fought explosive games throughout the 2018 season. They crossed Maryland a week ago and lost to Purdue a few weeks earlier. Meyer looked beat and disengaged at times in frustrating November. And despite all this, the state of Ohio has embarrassed Michigan in all three phases of a record series. Mentally, physically and strategically, Meyer's team got the better of Harbaugh's.
"We did not know we would have to endure so much pain throughout the game," said the Michigan captain. Tyree Kinnel said. "It was hard to cross."
Part of the problem was that sense of the same. The Michigan offensive attempted to fight its way through the Buckeyes defense in the same way that the rest of the conference was beaten to a 10-1 record. He did not attempt to exploit a junior high that allowed as many long broken games as any league team this season. As the Buckeyes' advance increased and a path was opened in the defense, Michigan did not change course.
Ohio State, on the other hand, did not stop. He divided Michigan's defense when it opened with roads that intersected. When Michigan defense coordinator Don Brown adjusted to end the games, Meyer and assistant Ryan Day moved on.
"We made a half-time adjustment," said Kinnel. "We tackled the problems we had in the first half, then they came out and beat us with something else in the second half."
Kinnel, a native of Ohio, is behind the four defeats suffered by the state of Ohio at the time Harbaugh. He said he was surprised by the result today. This year, the situation was different after the win against Wisconsin, Michigan State and Penn State. He said he and his teammates felt like they would go to Indianapolis to win the Big Ten title. Ohio State and Meyer reminded them Saturday that the biggest hurdle for Michigan would always be the end of the regular season.
A few minutes before Harbaugh arrives to talk to reporters on Saturday night, running Chris Evans and wide receiver Nico Collins were seated to answer questions. They were asked how they could put into words what happened on the ground. Several seconds of awkward silence followed before Evans leaned forward, exhaled into the microphone and shook his head.
The answers were hard to get for Michigan this weekend. It's hard to say why things went so bad for the Wolverines in Columbus. It's harder to say when – or if – these answers might come. At the end of a year that seemed so long geared towards something different, everything seemed identical.
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