The best GIFs from Michigan-Ohio State feature a lot of long touchdowns, crowd reaction shots and Mike Sainristil heroics. But first, a breakdown of the special teams play that could’ve altered the entire outcome.
The Breakdown
Let’s revisit something my colleague Kevin Harrish wrote in the special teams section of our game preview:
Noah Ruggles and Jesse Mirco are both very good. Ohio State is actually even down to its backup long snapper (Mason Arnold), and he’s done perfectly fine, too. But these are easily the most poorly coached special teams units I have ever seen in my memory at Ohio State. It’s just stupid shit like leaping over a wedge, roughing the long snapper, or atrocious lane responsibility on kickoffs. I’m terrified that something like that is going to cost Ohio State in a crucial moment.
While few people noticed it at the time, Kevin’s worst fears came to fruition. We now pivot to Jim Harbaugh’s Sunday press availability, in which he revealed that Ohio State had Michigan dead to rights on a fake punt only to botch the execution:
We got so lucky. One of the fourth downs, they had a fake on. And they had us. I mean they had us cold.
We were prepared for it. We knew the fake was coming just by the personnel that was there. We had four practices, four meetings. And not one of us saw it. Nobody on the field saw it, and they had us cold.
I think their snapper snapped to the wrong guy, snapped it to the punter instead of to the faker, but it would have been a huge gain. We got extremely lucky.
They actually were going for it and would have pulled off a big fourth down conversion.
We’re kicking ourselves for not identifying it like we should have. We got super lucky.
It wasn’t difficult to find the play in question. Midway through the third quarter, the Buckeyes salvaged a fourth-and-six at the U-M 43-yard line after facing first-and-35. Day sent on the punt team despite the protests of C.J. Stroud:
The first time OSU lines up, they commit a false start. My guess is this is what causes the ensuing confusion about whether they’re running a fake.
We get a shot from the wire cam when OSU lines up again. Since Michigan has missed their cue about the potential fake — more on that later — they’re overloading the right side of the formation to go for the punt block. This leaves three U-M defenders with a lot of space to cover on the left side and OSU has the blockers to account for all of them:
This is supposed to be a direct snap to #34, backup tight end Mitch Rossi, who played some running back in high school. He’ll have #35, starting linebacker Tommy Eichenberg, sealing off the edge as the OSU players on the left side of the line block down.
It’s absolutely going to work. There’s one small issue:
The long snapper snaps it to Mirco, the punter, instead of Rossi. Mirco is already rolling out to sell the fake and does a spectacular job to save this play from abject disaster. Not only does he reach back to catch a snap he wasn’t anticipating, he gets the punt off even though U-M has three unblocked rushers bearing down on him.
But, man, look at this hole:
An unbelievable frame in so many ways:
Here’s the most unlikely touchback of the century in motion:
Oh, as for the tell? That didn’t take long to find, either. Special teams wizard Parker Fleming flipped the up-men so the snap would go to the former running back instead of the lifetime linebacker:
If only the Buckeyes had a starting linebacker who’d converted from running back and had experience running fake punts.
I can’t get over the conflation of events that led to this moment:
- Ryan Day takes his Heisman-candidate quarterback and All-World wide receiver off the field so he can give the ball to backup tight end Mitch Rossi.
- The tell for this fake is so amateurishly obvious that Michigan’s coaching staff and players have been working on snuffing it out all week.
- Somehow, Michigan totally fails to notice the tell.
- Ohio State’s first shot ends in a false start. Again, my assumption is that this is why the long snapper thought the fake wasn’t on anymore; now they needed Rossi to cover 11 yards and they’d shown their alignment.
- Michigan still fails to notice and the play is set up to perfection, except…
- …the long snapper gets the ball to the wrong guy.
The football gods are smiling down on Michigan this year.
The Best Reaction Shots
This is like watching Henry Kissinger console Richard Nixon midway through his resignation speech:
Delicious.
Here’s more from both sides of the aisle:
Mike Morris giving the stankface after a huge hit buy Mike Barrett is delightful:
I need a cigarette and we’re not even to the actual plays.
The Top Five
5. Idaho’s Finest
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
4. Toast
Turns out Michigan has receivers after all.
3. Goodbye and Good Day x2
2. The Trick That Worked
FRAMES OF THE GAME: SAINRISTIL SAVES
Mike Sainristil was a slot receiver last year. What a goddamn football player.