ANN ARBOR — Similar to the painful status this once competitive rivalry has descended into, Saturday’s border battle was quite predictable.

Ohio State did what it almost always does — force turnovers, exact patience, pound the football, and minimize mistakes. It’s not revolutionary or wildly entertaining football, but who is going to dispute its results?

A calculated plan was mastered once again by the Buckeyes who defeated Michigan for the sixth straight season 21-10 before a crowd of 110,922, of which an usually high amount sported scarlet or gray.

Forcing five turnovers by Tate Forcier and posting 251 rushing yards, the Buckeyes (10-2, 7-1 Big Ten) clinched an outright Big Ten title. OSU has won five straight titles, three of them outright, while also posting five consecutive seasons of at least 10 wins.

UM, oppositely, finishes at the bottom of the

Big Ten with Indiana, whom the Wolverines (5-7, 1-7) defeated in September before dropping seven straight conference games.

In leading the program to back-to-back losing seasons for the first time since 1962-63, could UM coach Rich Rodriguez be in jeopardy of losing his job?

Rodriguez said after the game he has not been informed of his status but believes he’ll return for a third season. A university spokesman told reporters that UM athletic director Bill Martin said yesterday Rodriguez’ job is safe. It’s unknown how much impact Martin — who has announced his retirement — has on making such a decision.

Dropping to 0-2 against UM’s top rival won’t help Rodriguez’ case, but days like these against the Buckeyes have been the norm since Rodriguez was still coaching West Virginia. OSU coach Jim Tressel is now 8-1 in the series and will prepare his players to play an undetermined Pac 10 team in the Rose Bowl.

“Michigan played their hearts out,” Tressel said. “It was a heck of a hard-fought game. We weren’t comfortable until there was a minute left and we had the ball. It was a hard fought game, like all these great rivalry games are.”

A much maligned defense stepped up for UM and easily avoided the 39 points that would have broken the mark set last year for the most points given up in a single season.

On this day, it was the offense that needed to shoulder most of the blame.

When he was not turning the ball over, Forcier played decently. But five possessions ended badly.

Forcier’s fumble on UM’s opening drive of the game was recovered in the end zone by Cameron Heyward, and his second of three fourth-quarter interceptions was thrown directly to OSU’s Devon Torrence in the end zone from the 6-yard line. A touchdown would have cut the deficit to 21-17, and a field goal would have made it a one-possession game with most of the fourth quarter remaining.

“I lost that game,” Forcier wrote in a text message to the Associated Press about an hour after the game. “This offseason, I’m gonna make sure myself and every single person on this team works the hardest we have ever worked.”

The game’s other quarterback, Terrelle Pryor, posted a day absent of both spectacular plays and costly mistakes. His 74 rushing yards were third on the team to Dan Herron’s 96 and Brandon Saine’s 84. Nearly all of OSU’s 251 rushing yards came during the final three quarters.

Saine extended OSU’s lead to 14-3 in the second quarter on a 29-yard misdirection run in which Pryor acted as if he was going to take off from the shotgun before handing the ball off.

“In every game, you want it to be a running game,” Saine said. “And at Ohio State, where you’re known for having a strong running game, you want to make sure you are a big part of it. It felt good to get in there and get a bunch of carries, and to see us running the ball like we did.”

Pryor’s 12-yard touchdown pass to Herron was a thing of beauty. As two rushers approached, Pryor used the proper amount of arch to lob a ball over two more defenders attempting to cover Herron. The rest was easy as Herron rolled into the end zone untouched to make the score 21-10 with 4:46 left in the third.

“Michigan was attacking, and I thought Terrelle did a great job on his reads,” Tressel said.

Rodriguez can only hope Forcier will learn from his costly gaffes. He was picked off twice by safety Kurt Coleman on deep passes down the sideline, one of which ended a drive at OSU’s 6. Thaddeus Gibson picked off Forcier in the flat for the Buckeyes’ fourth interception, which effectively ended the game.

“Ohio State’s not that good of a team,” UM punter and senior captain Zoltan Mesko said. “We beat ourselves today. It’s the team that made the fewer mistakes that won.”

Forcier was 23 of 38 passing for 226 yards and an 18-yard touchdown pass to Vincent Smith.

Contact Ryan Autullo at:rautullo@theblade.comor 419-724-6160