1998 Game
Ohio St. 31
Michigan 16

Record before game

It started with Ohio State on the attack, and ended before it was over.

But Michigan Lloyd Carr knew the score. With 27 seconds left, the Buckeyes holding the ball at midfield with a 31-16 lead and thousands of fans on the field already celebrating Ohio State's first win over Michigan since 1994, Carr conceded. He marched across the field to shake hands with OSU coach John Cooper.

The 94,339 fans in Ohio Stadium and a national television audience had just witnessed an Ohio State- Michigan game like no other. It was intense as usual, but this one was an air war unparalleled in the previous 94-game history of the series.

"We made plays, absolutely," said Cooper after watching his team grab a share of the Big Ten title with Michigan and Wisconsin. "We didn't sit back and wait on stuff to happen. We tried to force the issue. We came out smoking from the get-go."

Thus, he and his coaches seized upon the modern formula for beating the Wolverines: When in doubt, air it out.

They turned the game over to senior quarterback Joe Germaine and junior receiver David Boston, and they delivered. Germaine had his seventh 300-yard passing day of the season, hitting 16 of 28 for 330 yards and three touchdowns.

Two of those touchdowns, 10 of those receptions and 217 of those yards belonged to Boston, who broke his own year-old school record for catches in a season, upping his total to 74. His yardage was the most ever by a receiver against Michigan.

On the flip side, Cooper set loose a defense that turned usually run-minded Michigan into a Purdue-like unit that threw an uncharacteristic 56 passes trying to stay in it. On a day when the big scoring play was the currency of record, the Wolverines could not keep up.

Therefore, Michigan (8-3, 7-1) won't be going to the Rose Bowl, Wisconsin is. Ohio State (10-1, 7-1) won't know where it's going until the Bowl Championship Series ratings play themselves out in two weeks. Mathematically, the Buckeyes are still in the running for the title game in the Fiesta Bowl, and also are strong candidates for the Sugar and Orange.

Certainly they made themselves more attractive by their thrashing of the Wolverines. Junior tailback Michael Wiley set the tone when he ran 53 yards for a touchdown on a perfectly blocked play at 12:20 of the first quarter. He was on his way to 120 yards on 12 carries in the game.

When Germaine came back with a 16-yard scoring pass to senior receiver Dee Miller three minutes later, after a botched punt by Jason Vinson of Michigan, the message was clear.

"All week we'd been talking about how the last four or five years (against Michigan) we haven't had anybody offensively make any big plays," Miller said. "We knew we were going to throw the ball, and Joe just threw a good pass to me. It was just a great pass and a great catch."

Credit offensive coordinator Mike Jacobs and his staff with the game plan. Germaine had a feeling it would work the first time he laid eyes on it Tuesday.

"Right from there, I was kind of excited about it," Germaine said. "And I think overall we did a real good job of executing it."

The plan was to stay on the attack, to keep lobbing bombs, slants and outs while mixing in just enough running plays to keep the Wolverines honest.

"The approach is to win the game," Jacobs said. "If we could mow 'em down and win, we'd do that."

In the hard-hitting chess game, Wiley's touchdown run was a bold, early move. It told the Wolverines the Buckeyes were capable of running the ball effectively, even if running the ball a lot was never the plan.

"The good thing was our rushing game was successful enough to keep them honest somewhat," Jacobs said.

Michigan's was not. The Ohio State defense was No. 1 in the country against the run going into the game. It allowed only two of 10 previous opponents to top 100 yards, and held the others to 79 or fewer.

The Buckeyes held Michigan to 4 yards on 28 attempts. It got so bad the Wolverines basically quit trying to run.

Trailing 21-10 at halftime, Michigan came out in a shotgun formation its first series of the second half. The Wolverines used the shotgun to drive 80 yards just before halftime to their only touchdown of the day, a 3-yard lob from Tom Brady to Tai Streets over cornerback Ahmed Plummer.

"We knew they were going to come right back to what they did right before the half," Plummer said. "They had success with it, they were able to come down and score, so it would be stupid for them not to come back with that.

"At halftime we made adjustments to that and were able to apply it and do well."

The Wolverines put together the makings of a drive, too, until senior linebacker Jerry Rudzinski made a diving interception, finally getting ahold of the ball as he lay on his back at the OSU 46.

Four plays later, Germaine hit Boston on a 43-yard bomb -- they also hooked up for a 30-yard score in the second quarter -- to up the Buckeyes' lead to 28-10.

OSU fans rightfully could start thinking this wasn't going to be like the last three years. Their team was playing to win.

"They played with a passion," Michigan linebacker Dhani Jones said.

That went for the OSU defense, too. The closest the Wolverines got to another touchdown in the second half was the 13-yard line. Brady threw for 375 yards, but was sacked seven times by a defense led by strong safety Damon Moore (12 tackles), cornerback Antoine Winfield (10) and linebacker Andy Katzenmoyer (10).

They all took the personal approach against an opponent that had whipped them three straight times, an approach Rudzinski preached all week.

"In the past, I think maybe we focused too much on winning for the fans or winning for the coaches or winning for the media," Rudzinski said. "But this time it was, `Let's go win for ourselves.' "

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