You’re Nuts: What was your biggest takeaway from The Game?

Ohio State was able to restore order to the universe on Saturday when it earned a 27-9 win over Michigan in Ann Arbor, snapping a four-game losing streak to the Wolverines. The win was the first by the Buckeyes over Michigan since 2019. Even though Ohio State won the national championship last year, for some, the season was tainted because the Buckeyes lost to Michigan in Columbus. What will be interesting is how fans view this season if Ohio State fails to win it all.

Before turning our attention to Indiana and what might await the Buckeyes in the College Football Playoff, we are going to bask in the win over Michigan for a little bit longer. Saturday’s game is one that Buckeye Nation won’t forget for a long time. There was a lot to take in from The Game. There was the rocky start, taking control in the second quarter, and then the Buckeyes putting their boots on the necks of the Wolverines in the second half.

What we want to know is what the biggest takeaway from The Game was. It could be the performance of a certain player, or it could be from an entire unit. Then there were some significant differences in coaching from past editions of The Game. Maybe the demeanor of one team compared to the other was something that stood out more. With so many people watching the annual rivalry, there’s no doubt that every aspect of what we saw on Saturday will be covered.

Today’s question: What was your biggest takeaway from The Game?

We’d love to hear your choices. Either respond to us on Twitter at @Landgrant33 or leave your choice in the comments.

Brett’s answer: Officiating in college football keeps getting worse

I know it’s probably crazy to be crying about the officiating after Ohio State beat Michigan. That should tell you just how bad it was on Saturday in Ann Arbor. I’m still flabbergasted at how Michigan defender Jaishawn Barham wasn’t ejected in the first quarter after appearing to headbutt an official. While I know college football has a system where two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties lead to an ejection, I would think that making contact with an official would supersede the two unsportsmanlike foul system they have in place. I’ve seen players in the NFL ejected for lighter contact made with an official than what Barham did on Saturday.

Then there was Jeremiah Smith’s touchdown in the second quarter to give the Buckeyes the lead for good. To anyone watching the game at real speed, the sensational sophomore receiver undoubtedly scored a touchdown. There honestly was no need to review the touchdown. I would have understood if Smith had actually dropped the football while heading into the end zone, and then there was a question if he picked it up before it went out of bounds or not. That wasn’t the case, though.

All Smith did was bobble the football while it never actually left his hands. It definitely wouldn’t have been in the spirit of the rules of the game if Smith’s score had been ruled a touchback. A good comparison is when they use VAR in soccer to determine if a player was offside by what turns out to be three hairs on a players head. At some point, we have to start using common sense again when it comes to some of these reviews and interpretations of rules.

In the end, these two things didn’t end up deciding the game, but imagine how they would have been seen had the game been a lot closer than 27-9. Somehow, Michigan was only called for one penalty in the game, which is pretty wild considering some of the things they were doing on the field. Unfortunately, since it’s football, there’s not a whole lot that can be done when it comes to the quality of the refereeing we are getting, so my suggestion is for the Buckeyes to keep dominating their opponents so any missed or blown calls by the refs end up not affecting the game.

Matt’s answer: Michigan Men are a bunch of bums

From throwing shoulders in the tunnel to head-butting refs, from trying to provoke fights to embellishing meaningless contact, from protecting the M to disrupting OSU’s wireless communication, we got a healthy dose of what being a Michigan Man really means on Saturday.

From even before the game started, it was clear that the Wolverines realized that the only way they could possibly win was to attempt to provoke outrage from the Buckeyes and take them emotionally out of their game. We saw wide receiver Andrew Marsh throw a shoulder in the tunnel pregame to Ohio State tight end coach Keenan Bailey, and we saw linebacker Jaishawn Barham doing the same to multiple Buckeye players. Even before the game started, TTUN was proving that their pompous, holier-than-thou act is nothing but a bullshit facade to mask their massive inferiority complexes.

We saw it during the game when Barham decided it was a good idea to literally headbutt an official in the first quarter, and somehow, that official decided to err on not having an oversized impact on the game, and declined to eject him, despite the fact that every officiating expert in the country said he should have.

We saw a personal foul penalty waved off because a Michigan player flopped after extremely minor contact from a Buckeye, and we saw Corn and Blue players pushing and getting extra mouthy after practically every play, despite the fact that they were getting embarrassed on nearly every snap for three straight quarters.

Then, in the second half, mysteriously, the Ohio State wireless communication system stopped working. I’m sure that was just a coincidence, and no one associated with the Michigan program would ever do anything untoward involving technology during a football game. Fortunately, Ryan Day had “an inkling” that something could go wrong with the team’s comms while at the Big House, so they prepared backup hand signals and wristband calls, just in case.

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Then there was their faux display of machismo after the game, where they stood at the center of the field to defend their M, just in case OSU players wanted to plant a flag, as they did at The Horseshoe last year. I know it’s been said a lot, but they spent more effort defending midfield after the game than they did defending their end zone the whole game.

I find it absolutely comical that the players likely had a conversation before the game about what they would do if they lost. They assumed that everyone was as big of dicks as they were, so they spent time planning what they would do if/when the Buckeyes won the game. Just absolutely dimwit, douchebag behavior.

Fortunately for all involved, Day had been preaching to his team to win with humility — a hallmark of his program over the past year — and he reinforced it after the game by imploring Sherrone Moore to do the right thing and get his players off the field before the situation escalated into something more than it already was.

Ohio State and its players are far from perfect, but I thank Woody above every day that I wasn’t born into Michigan fandom. Hail to those, well, you know the rest………..