Wolverines go for it all, come up short

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Michigan coach Brady Hoke took the gamble of his career.

Quarterback Devin Gardner will have nightmares about it the rest of his life.

Gardner had just thrown a touchdown pass to Devin Funchess with 32 seconds left in the game, cutting Ohio State's lead to 42-41. Most coaches would have kicked the extra point and gone into overtime, especially at home, but Hoke had a different idea.

"We weren't doing a very good job of stopping them, and we play to win," Hoke said. "I thought about it, and I decided to go win the football game."

Urban Meyer called a timeout when Michigan lined up for the two-point conversion, and Hoke decided to make sure his players were OK with the decision.

"He asked the seniors if we wanted to go for it, and every one of us said yes," offensive captain Taylor Lewan said. "We're Michigan, and we want to win games."

The Wolverines stacked three receivers wide right and then put Drew Dileo in motion to the same direction. With everyone expecting Gardner to roll out -- something he'd done effectively all afternoon -- he instead took a two-step drop and fired a quick pass to Dileo, who was slanting across the middle.

The plan was simple. With Michigan overloading their receivers to the right side, Dileo would be able to dart into the center of the field and get away from the traffic for a few key seconds.

Instead, Ohio State nickelback Tyvis Powell stepped in front of Dileo and intercepted the pass. Gardner crumpled to the ground in disbelief, lying motionless on the field for several moments.

Forty-five minutes later, his mood hadn't improved.

"I threw an interception that cost us the game," he said during a postgame press conference. "That's what I will remember."

Gardner had limped into the press conference with a protective boot on his left ankle and spent most of the time staring blankly into the distance. He answered questions with single sentences, in a voice that barely carried past the edge of the platform.

"We fought today, but we always fight," he said. "I fight every game, just like I did today. Nothing changed."

Gardner acknowledged that he had been injured during the game, but refused to give any details and brushed aside a question about his health over the last month.

"I haven't been hampered by anything," he mumbled. "I'm fine."

The defeat crushed Gardner's spirits on a day when he should have been celebrating an outstanding performance.

For the first 59 minutes, 28 seconds, he led an offensive resurgence that kept Michigan in the game against a unstoppable Ohio State rushing attack. He threw for 451 yards -- the second-highest total in school history behind the 503 he had last month against Indiana -- and accounted for five touchdowns between his legs and his arm.

After a season that had seen the Michigan offense slide into ineptitude behind a power-rushing scheme that didn't fit the roster, Gardner lit things up against the Buckeyes. He completed 32 passes, mostly screens and quick hitters, and his ability to scramble created some big plays through the air. It also opened up the running game, which put up 152 yards.

"We looked at Ohio State on film and thought we were going to be able to take advantage of the way they come hard up the field," Hoke said. "We had some plays designed to get to the edges, and we thought we could get our screen game going and use some misdirection.

"We had a good plan and we executed. It was just that simple."

The up-tempo attack had the Ohio State defense reeling for much of the game. Michigan scored on its first three possessions, putting up more yards in the first quarter than it had in all of last week's loss to Iowa. The Wolverines then scored three touchdowns in the fourth quarter to get back into the game.

They finished with 603 yards of offense, an amazing total for a team that has struggled to do anything in the last month.

The only problem was that they couldn't stop Ohio State's running game. Every time they scored, the Buckeyes came right back behind Braxton Miller and Carlos Hyde.

Miller and Hyde combined for 379 yards rushing, and Miller added two touchdown passes, giving Hoke plenty of reasons to want to end the game in regulation.

"Give them credit," Hoke said. "They have two great runners. You've got a great athlete in Miller and a true running back in Hyde.

"But we've got to do a much better job of getting off blocks. That was a huge negative from today. We weren't even close to doing an acceptable job against their running game."

At the end of the day -- as Gardner hobbled out of the interview room and back toward the Michigan locker room -- it was clear that for all the good things that had happened, Saturday was nothing more than a glorious failure at the end of a bad regular season.

After a 5-0 start that included close calls against underdogs Akron and Connecticut, the Wolverines lost five of their last seven games and won't have a glamorous destination for bowl season.

"We have goals, and the first goal every season is a Big Ten championship," Hoke said. "We didn't get that.

"We have 42 of them, and that's more than anyone else. But we want No. 43."