No. 1 Ohio State put a bow on its perfect regular season and snapped a four-game losing streak to No. 15 Michigan with a dominant 27-9 win Saturday. The Buckeyes also secured their first Big Ten Championship Game appearance since 2021 and their first 12-0 record since 2019, coach Ryan Day’s first full season leading the program.
It wasn’t always pretty for Ohio State. Michigan opened the game with a 36-yard rush from running back Jordan Marshall and turned that into a 45-yard field goal from Dominic Zvada. The Wolverines then cashed in another field goal off of a Julian Sayin interception to take a quick 6-0 lead, which is the largest deficit Ohio State has faced all season.
But Ohio State took over from there. Sayin dominated for the rest of the game as he completed 19 of his 26 passes for 233 yards and three touchdowns, all of which came after his early interception.
Ohio State’s defense also stifled Michigan at every level. The Wolverines scored just three points after the first quarter and they had 39 total yards of offense in the second half.
Michigan also possessed the ball four times in the third and fourth quarters. Three of those drives ended in punts and the other — once the game was well out of hand — ended with a Bryce Underwood interception thrown to Ohio State cornerback Davison Igbinosun.
Next up for Ohio State is a meeting with No. 2 Indiana in the Big Ten Championship Game. Michigan, which fell to 9-3 and out of the playoff race, will learn its postseason fate when the bowl selection process plays out.
Ohio State has now won its last 16 games in a row following last season’s loss to Michigan, including a national title. This was Michigan’s first loss at home this season. The Wolverines were previously 5-0. Ryan Day has an 82-10 record as Ohio State’s coach, which is the best record by a coach in the AP Poll era (minimum of 50 games)