A Sad State of Affairs for Buckeyes, Cooper

Michigan forced three second-half turnovers and Tom Brady threw two touchdown passes as the No. 10 Wolverines rallied and beat Ohio State, 24-17, Saturday.

The victory gave Michigan, 9-2 overall and 6-2 in the Big Ten, an excellent chance of landing a berth in a Bowl Championship Series game.

The Buckeyes (6-6, 3-5) won’t play in a bowl for the first time since 1988, when they were 4-6 in John Cooper’s first year as coach.

A team must have a winning record to qualify for postseason play.

“Going to a bowl game is something you expect when you come to Ohio State,” Buckeye defensive end Rodney Bailey said. “I can’t even really conceive it right now.”

Said Brady: “You’ve got to give a lot of credit to those [Ohio State] guys. It took us a lot of time and our defense sure stepped it up to give our offense an opportunity to score. We capitalized on some their mistakes and we were just fortunate enough to win.”

Ohio State out-gained Michigan 368 yards to 252, but the Buckeyes drew 13 penalties for 115 yards.

“Hopefully, none of us at Ohio State will ever have to go through a year like this again,” said Cooper, who fell to 2-9-1 against the Wolverines, including 0-6 in Michigan Stadium.

Brady, who led the Wolverines’ comeback win the previous Saturday at Penn State, completed 17 of 27 passes for 150 yards, including an eight-yard touchdown pass to Shawn Thompson and a 10-yarder to Marquise Walker.

Michigan’s Anthony Thomas rushed 31 times for 111 yards, including a one-yard touchdown. It was the fifth consecutive 100-yard game for Thomas and his seventh of the season.

Ohio State’s Steve Bellisari completed only eight of 20 passes for 84 yards. He had two touchdown passes but also two costly interceptions.

A fumble recovery by Cato June in the fourth quarter set up a 77-yard drive that gave Michigan its first lead, 24-17, with 5:01 remaining. Brady, who was five of six for 51 yards in the drive, finished it with the touchdown pass to Walker.

It was the third Ohio State turnover that the Wolverines converted into points in the second half.

“We wanted a big game,” Michigan linebacker Ian Gold said. “That’s exactly what happened. We knew coming in that Ohio State would be like a caged animal.”