Party crashers, Part Deux

Old Bo, he would have loved this business. The Big House, snow coming down all squall-y on an iron gray afternoon. Michigan vs. Ohio State. The Wolverines hitting the Buckeyes in the mouth like this were, say, 1970, and not 2021.

Beautiful stuff, if you were old Bo. You watched the Wolverines line up and fire off the line ... you watched Hassan Haskell take it straight through the Buckeyes' grill time after time ... and you knew a spectral Bo was in Jim Harbaugh's ear, saying "Here, dummy. THIS is how you beat Ohio State."

And so Michigan 42, Ohio State 29 -- first win over the Buckeyes in a decade, and the first win for Harbaugh against them in six tries. Apparently you really can't lose 'em all.

This one they won, finally, without bells, without whistles, without a lot of winking chrome or spinner hubcaps. No, sir. Michigan's stat line for this one was your daddy's sensible Buick: 297 rushing yards on 39 attempts, with Haskins lugging it 28 times for169 yards and five touchdowns. Haskins gashed the Buckeyes for six yards a tote; the Wolverines averaged a gluttonous 7.6 yards per rush as a team.

It doesn't get much more elemental than that. And it again reminded us what a wonderful, crazy thing college football is, because every week's a new page and what happened on the previous page regularly don't mean nuttin'.

I mean, how many of us geniuses out here were saying, after Ohio State turned Michigan State into a smoking crater last week, that it was going to be the Buckeyes and Georgia for the national title, no question about it?

("You?"  you're saying)

Well, yes. Me. Just the other day.

("Try yesterday," you're saying)

OK, so yesterday, then. When I wrote I didn't think the Buckeyes were "beatable by anyone but Georgia right now."

That sound you hear is 111,156 people in Michigan Stadium saying "Ahem."

And now it's Michigan vs. Iowa for the Big Ten title, and if the Wolverines win they're in the CFP. And Ohio State, with two losses, suddenly not only will not be playing Georgia in the national title game, they won't be in the playoff at all. 

Cincinnati will, if it beats Houston next week. Notre Dame -- 11-1 after putting away Stanford 45-14 last night -- might, if Oklahoma State loses to Baylor in the Big 12 title game and Alabama loses to Georgia in the SEC title game.

That would make both the Cowboys and the Crimson Tide two-loss teams. And considering the Crimson Tide almost became a two-loss team yesterday, rallying from 10 points down in the second half and needing four overtimes to beat Auburn in the Iron Bowl ...

No. The Blob will not go there. It will not make that mistake again, assuming one page holds the key to what happens on the next page.

Lesson learned.