COLUMBUS, Ohio — Urban Meyer struggled to find the words. The Ohio State coach was so overwhelmed by his team's 30-27 double-overtime victory that all he could remember from the field-storming was the sound of “that Neil Diamond song.”

Sweet Caroline, good times never seemed so good.

Jim Harbaugh, meanwhile, found a host of words with which to vilify the game officials. Five times he spoke of being “bitter” or “bitterly disappointed” by them.

“Two penalties called all day [on Ohio State],” he said. “Multiple holding penalties let go, multiple false starts ... an official on my side was supposed to be watching that. He's concerned about whether our coaches are on the white [line]. ... Their coaches were on the field, practically in the huddle, at times.”

You can make a case that Michigan outplayed Ohio State, that the Wolverines would win a five-game series. But they lost Saturday because Wilton Speight, for all of his precise passing and guts in suiting up two weeks after injuring his collarbone, turned the ball over three times. One came on a failed center exchange inside the Ohio State 2-yard line.

The game contained 161 max-effort plays, but Harbaugh focused on the one immediately before Curtis Samuel's perfectly blocked 15-yard touchdown run that ended it.

With the Buckeyes trailing 27-24 in the second overtime, Meyer passed up a 33-yard field-goal try on fourth-and-1, reasoning: “My AD at Florida [Jeremy Foley] used to tell me, ‘If you can't get that far, you're not a championship team.'?”

Meyer ordered J.T. Barrett to keep the ball, and the quarterback pushed ahead, landing on a teammate as he neared what was ruled a first down.

Did Barrett think he got the yard?

“I wasn't 100 percent certain, to be honest with you,” he said.

Neither were the Big Ten officials, who ordered a replay review and buzzed the coaches.

“That stopped the heart for a second,” Meyer said.

Michigan fans will howl for eternity that the call should have been flipped. But you don't end an all-time classic, the first overtime affair in the 113-game Michigan-Ohio State series, on something so subjective. Replay exists to correct obvious blown calls.

“There were some outrageous calls,” Harbaugh said, “including the one that ended the game. The ball doesn't make it to the line.”

Thanks to Harbaugh, the lore of The Game now has The Spot.

Harbaugh also termed a pass-interference call during the Buckeyes' drive for the tying field goal “a gift,” saying Barrett's pass was uncatchable. And he criticized the official who slapped him with an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty for ranting about a Michigan offside penalty that appeared valid.

“They could have been watching the game [rather than being concerned] that you throw a hat, you throw your script,” Harbaugh said. “That's a penalty? [The official said,] ‘Well, it would have been a technical in basketball.' Well, this isn't basketball.”

No, it was a football game so spectacular and intense, Meyer joked about losing brain cells.

Said Barrett: “I've been part of some crazy football games here. That's No. 1.”

The Buckeyes (11-1, 8-1 Big Ten) entered the day No. 2 in the College Football Playoff rankings and strengthened their case for a final four berth by beating the third-ranked Wolverines (10-2, 7-2).

Detractors will point out Ohio State did not even win the Big Ten East; Penn State (10-2, 8-1) earned that distinction by beating the Buckeyes in State College.

But if Harbaugh wants to take up a cause, he could push for the inclusion of two Big Ten teams in the CFP.