COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Early in the third quarter of a 12-point game on Saturday, Michigan’s Cameron McGrone hit Ohio State’s Justin Fields after the quarterback went out of bounds on the sideline after a scramble.

Ohio State right tackle Branden Bowen did this.

Bowen is the 6-foot-7, 315-pound No. 76 running over to confront the 6-1, 232-pound McGrone. That moment stood out to me as much as anything that happened in The Game, which the Buckeyes won 56-27. It was simple, yet complex. It was nothing, but it was everything. It mattered because it might show the difference between winning and losing, not in a play, but in an approach.

It was about being tough in a rivalry, but tough the right way. As he ran over after the play, Bowen admitted he was tempted to deliver a retaliatory shot to McGrone. But instead he gave himself an internal clock to make his point verbally (he called his words NSFW, or Not Safe For Work) and then get out of there in about three seconds before he risked a flag.

“Especially in that moment, we have a saying here, ‘Just press pause,'" Bowen explained after practice Wednesday. “Just really think about the moment, think about the consequences. We were driving to go score a touchdown, we just got a huge penalty for us, and me fighting would just have completely wiped that out.”

The score was 28-16 and the Buckeyes were marching to open the second half. Fields’ second-and-7 scramble from the 10-yard line lost two yards, which would have made it third-and-9. But a Michigan holding penalty on the play cost the Wolverines 5 yards. The personal foul on McGrone’s late hit moved the ball to the 2-yard line. Three plays later, Ohio State scored to go up 35-16.

But letting the late hit slide wasn’t an option, either. Bowen noticed what happened in the fight between the Browns and Steelers three weeks ago. He appreciated the idea of Pittsburgh center Maurkice Pouncey standing up for Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph. But he wanted to have his quarterback’s back without going too far.

“You’ve always got to protect your quarterback,” Bowen said, “whether it’s right or wrong. Not necessarily by being dumb and getting a penalty or trying to swing at a guy or really taunt him and get a penalty. But you’ve got to let him know it’s not OK, and come back the next play and hopefully he gets what he deserves.”

Not every team manages to do that. Michigan took off running back J.K. Dobbins’ shoe after a run, an odd moment that cost the Wolverines a 15-yard penalty. They hit Fields late. This isn’t to say the Buckeyes are perfect. Every team commits silly penalties of emotion at some point. And this isn’t entirely intended to be held up in contrast to the way the Browns and Steelers let their emotions get the best of them three weeks ago.

We’ve all seen football players take those penalties, and often we understand it.

This is an appreciation of standing up for your quarterback, showing your team’s toughness and doing it without going too far in the biggest game of the year. It’s the kind of thing that winning teams do.

“I think it was perfect,” Bowen said of how he handled it. “I let him know that stuff is not gonna fly. You can’t do that to our quarterback."