ANN ARBOR, Mich. – It was the strangest element to watch in an Ohio State football game during the 2003 season. The Buckeye defense struggled to contain a dominating Michigan Wolverine offense Saturday.
Entering Michigan Stadium, OSU boasted the nation’s best rushing defense, giving up 50.5 yards per game. In 11 games the defense had given up only 17 touchdowns. That all changed when the Buckeyes were faced with Michigan’s balanced offense and charging running back Chris Perry.
“We did not do the things that you need to be Big Ten champions,” OSUcoach Jim Tressel said. “(Michigan) stayed away from turnovers and were able to run and pass.”
In the first half of competition, the OSU defensive line and secondary looked out of their league as the Wolverines found the end zone three times with one rushing and two passing touchdowns. By the time the rivals retreated into their respective locker rooms to work out the kinks, Michigan had already racked up 73 yards rushing. Perry had 53 of those yards and tacked on another 30 yards in receiving.
The Wolverines were also working it through the air against the Buckeyes. After losing its leading receiver on his first reception, Michigan spread things out to a plethora of men. Braylon Edwards led the way with 130 total yards and two touchdowns.
“When you add in Edwards, we spread that defense so much that it opens up some holes that (Perry) could run through,” Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said.
Problems existed for OSU as the cornerbacks and safeties could not defend the deep pass when up against Edwards. Chris Gamble boasted the biggest accomplishment for the defense in the fourth quarter when he intercepted a John Navarre pass, but the Buckeye offense came up with nothing from it.
“We didn’t convert when we needed to (after the interception),” OSU wide receiver Michael Jenkins said. “That was tough – we needed to get a field goal; we needed something.”
Safety Will Allen continually missed or couldn’t convert on tackles in the first 30 minutes. One of those was on a 64-yard pass to Edwards which resulted in a touchdown. Allen was covering Edwards on the play and could not bring the Wolverine down. Coming into the competition, Allen had a total of 33 tackles throughout the season – 32 of which were awarded to him as solo acts. Allen’s play picked up, ending the game with 14 tackles as the Buckeyes kept the Wolverines to only two touchdowns in the second half.
Holes continued to open up in the OSU defensive line giving Perry opportunities to gain the first down by ample margins. It was almost as though a path was tread for the running back, who was used to gaining at least 100 yards in a competition. The two second-quarter touchdowns came courtesy of Perry picking apart the entire Buckeye defense for 30- and 15-yard runs. He finished the night with 154 yards.
“We knew he was a great back, and he’s been running over teams all year,” OSU defensive end Will Smith said. “We knew that if we played our defense he wouldn’t get too many yards, and we really didn’t play our defense. We didn’t fill our gaps, and a lot of things went wrong.”
Problems were furthered when the Buckeyes were unable to put the pressure they needed on Navarre. He was left with time to find an open man and go for the touchdowns. There was not a single time OSU was able to bring Navarre down in the backfield.
Smith led the Buckeyes in sacks with 10.5 for the season but could not find a way to get to the Michigan signal caller. In his final regular season appearance for OSU, the defensive end only made one tackle.
