Bowled over

Buckeye offense crushes Michigan

COLUMBUS - The frustration of years and championships spoiled came spilling onto the field Saturday as the final horn sounded in Columbus.

No. 7 Ohio State stomped on the demons of three straight defeats to No. 11 Michigan, winning 31-16 before 94,339 fans at Ohio Stadium to gain a share of the Big Ten championship.

As the final score rang from the public address system, thousands of Buckeye faithful swarmed the Ohio State players on the field to celebrate just their second victory over Michigan in the past 11 seasons.

The defeat denied the Wolverines (7-1 Big Ten, 8-3 overall) a trip to the Rose Bowl and sole possession of the conference title they laid claim to last week when they defeated Wisconsin. Instead, Michigan will share the title with the Buckeyes (7-1,

MARGARET MYERS/Daily Right: An Ohio State backer cheers for the home team as a Wolverine

10-1) and the Badgers, who defeated Penn State later Saturday afternoon. The Wolverines, who have one regular season game remaining in Hawai'i on Nov. 28, now must shift their bowl sights southward to Florida instead of the rosy prospects of Pasadena it previously anticipated.

"Ohio State has a great team," Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said. "We made too many mistakes against a great team. We have no excuses. We didn't play our best game."

Dominating the line of scrimmage in pass protection and in the running game, Ohio State executed the textbook offense it has shown all season, only this time the success came against Michigan's seventh-ranked defense.

The Buckeyes rolled to 462 yards of total offense and on the big-game stage, their star players lived up to the billing.

Ohio State quarterback Joe Germaine passed for 330 yards on 16-of-28 attempts, and played catch with wide receiver David Boston all afternoon boosting the receiver to a career-best afternoon.

The senior wideout, who was not a finalist for the Biletnikoff award as the nation's top receiver, dominated as much as a wide receiver could, catching 10 passes for 217 yards, while finding every possible hole in the porous Michigan secondary.

"If he's not an All-America football player," said Ohio State coach John Cooper, "I don't know what one is."

Though Tom Brady surpassed Germaine in passing yardage (a Michigan-record 375 yards,) most of Brady's tosses came during the catch-up mode as Michigan tried to emerge from a game-long deficit. To climb from the depths of three 18-point deficits, Brady had to throw a school-record 56 passes, 31 of which were completed.

Playing in the Horseshoe where they lost their previous game to Michigan State on Nov. 7, the Buckeyes dominated Michigan from the opening quarter, consistently rolling up yards and touchdowns with apparent ease.

Michigan's ground game, which was surging after two consecutive weeks of success, struggled Saturday to amass just four yards. While the total was damaged by the minus-29 yards Brady took in sacks, the only flashes of effective positive yardage came on a brief third-quarter series by Anthony Thomas.

Thomas and fellow back Clarence Williams, each who rushed for 100 yards in last week's 257-yard effort against Wisconsin, saw scarlet red shirts blocking every path Saturday.

"We shut their running game down to about nothing," John Cooper said.

The hostile environment of Columbus all week came to head at the Stadium on Saturday and the Ohio State players did little to dissuade the taunting. A sea of red engulfed the few Michigan fans in attendance as the O-H-I-O of the fans' cheers made their way around "the Horseshoe."

"Give credit to fans," Cooper said. "That's the loudest I've ever heard the Stadium."

stands silent

next to him.

11-23-98