Bobcats back on track
By Zack Lloyd, Staff Writer
October 15, 2007 | 7:09 p.m.
After four consecutive losses, the Ohio University football team finally put it all together Saturday, defeating Eastern Michigan 48-42 at Peden Stadium.
The Bobcats had an offensive explosion, as senior running back Kalvin McRae and senior quarterback Bradley Bower led by example, helping Ohio end their four game losing streak and notch their first Mid-American Conference victory.
It was back to the basics for McRae, as he hit the holes hard, and finally found some running room, rushing for 170 yards on 32 carries and two touchdowns. It was the first game McRae surpassed 100 yards rushing since Ohio’s first game of the season against Gardner-Webb. However McRae was quick to downplay his individual effort and give credit to his teammates.
“Well it was more the fact of getting the win,” McRae said. “We had been kind of slow on the running game these last couple of weeks. I think we really came out and gave the offensive line some confidence. They did a great job, along with the fullbacks, tight ends and receivers. It was really on them.”
Not to be outdone, Bower had arguably his best game as a Bobcat, completing 18 of 29 passes for 232 yards and three touchdowns. The timing could not have been better for Bower, as it appeared his stronghold on the quarterback position was weakening coming into this game. His strong performance should be enough to silence the rising number of Theo Scott supporters for at least one more week. However a quarterback controversy was the furthest thing from Bower’s mind after the game.
“I didn’t hear anything, I didn’t read anything,” Bower said. “You have to focus on what you’re doing and stay mentally sharp and that’s all that matters. I’m just happy that we put all facets of the game together. Obviously it makes things easier when we get everything clicking and everybody on the same page.”
While Bower was as impressive as ever, Ohio Coach Frank Solich said Bower’s strong performance would not affect the quarterback situation because, contrary to many media outlets, no such quarterback controversy existed.
“It’s not a deal where we’re looking to get into a quarterback controversy,” Solich said. “We’ve been pretty consistent in how we handled that situation and we’re not going to jump back and forth. I don’t think you ever want to do that. What we’re trying to do is to have two quarterbacks really ready to go at any moment. We’ll probably try to use a second quarterback at some point in time in the game but we’re never guaranteeing anybody a certain number of snaps, that’s just not the way we operate.”
While the Bobcat offense gained all the attention for putting up over 500 total yards and 48 points, the Ohio defense also deserves some credit. The defense surrendered 425 yards of Eastern Michigan offense and allowed the Eagles to hang 42 on the Peden scoreboard. However, the most telling statistic was Eastern Michigan’s fourth down success rate, 0-4.
On three separate occasions, Eastern Michigan Coach Jeff Genyk opted to go for it on 4th down and 1 inside Ohio territory. And on each of those occasions the stingy Bobcat defense did not give an inch, forcing a turnover on downs and giving the ball back to Bower and the Ohio offense.
“I don’t know how many fourth down opportunities they had, but I can recall a fair number of stops on fourth down,” Solich said. “When you get a high percentage of stops on fourth downs you’re doing something right.”
The offensive production of Bower and McRae and the fourth down defense weren’t the only things for the large Homecoming Weekend crowd to cheer about. Two of the plays that got the Ohio faithful the most riled up did not involve Bower, McRae or the Bobcat defense.
The first occurred on a first-and-5 play from the Eastern Michigan 22 when Solich reached into his bag of tricks, calling a wide receiver reverse halfback option. Wide receiver Taylor Price was handed the ball on the reverse and then threw to a wide open David Carter in the back of the end zone for the touchdown.
“Carter made a great catch, I told him I was going to throw it to him no matter what,” Price said. “It’s been working like that in practice too. Even practice guys are biting on it. He was open, I just had to put it up for him.”
The other play involved the charismatic kicker Michael Braunstein. Entering Saturday’s game, Braunstein had converted on 17 consecutive field goal tries. Near the end of the first half, the Bobcats were faced with the decision of throwing a hail mary, or allowing Braunstein to attempt a 54-yard field goal. For Solich the decision was a simple one.
“He was ready to go,” Solich said. “He keeps telling me that he’s ready for 50-yarders in practice all the time, so we were going to give him a shot at it.”
While the always confident Braunstein lined up for the 54-yard attempt, the Bobcat fans were on their feet, encouraging the Ohio kicker for the unusually long field goal attempt. Unfortunately, holder Josh Febus fumbled the snap, and Braunstein was unable to put his streak on the line with the 54-yarder.
However, the Bobcat kicker did manage to put two other kicks through the uprights during the game, extending his consecutive field goals made streak to 19, the longest in the country.
While the offense was finally clicking and the defense held its ground against the Eagles, the most important thing for Ohio was getting back in the win column. After four losses, they have finally built some momentum going into the heart of their conference schedule.
Currently Miami is in control of the MAC East, posting a perfect 3-0 record. Following Miami, Buffalo (3-1), Akron (2-1), Temple (2-2) and Bowling Green (1-1) are all at or above .500 in conference play. In order for Ohio to become relevant in the chase for the MAC East Championship, they must win out and hope that Buffalo and Miami stumble along the way.
That said, with conference games against Bowling Green, Temple, Akron and Miami ahead, if Ohio runs the table, they could be in a position to defend their MAC East title. As Coach Solich likes to say, the Bobcats will just have to take it game by game, and everything else will take care of itself.
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