ANN ARBOR — The ultimate grind-it-out offense won Saturday’s game with explosive plays. Michigan defeated USC 27-24 in a thriller at Michigan Stadium in the Big Ten opener, leaving the Trojans wishing just a few plays had gone differently.

It would be easy to say that Michigan, a Big Ten legacy program, was the more physical team than the conference’s newcomers from California — the better, stronger team at the line of scrimmage. Maybe that was true, but USC head coach Lincoln Riley wasn’t buying that story.