Bobcat football team blown out at WMU, falls to 1-5
By Caleb Troop
October 6, 2008
The Ohio Bobcats faced a big test in their second Mid-American Conference football game Saturday at Western Michigan. They came away with a failing grade.
In front of 20,133 on homecoming weekend in Kalamazoo, the ’Cats fell to the Broncos 41-20. Ohio is now 1-5 for the first time since 2002.
“I was OK with how we battled in the first half,” Ohio head coach Frank Solich said. “I thought our kids played hard, played tough. We made way too many errors and way too many penalties that hurt us and didn’t allow us to get more momentum.”
In a slow-developing and ugly first half, the ’Cats found themselves down 11-7 at the break in an opening half that saw a safety on Ohio quarterback Boo Jackson and a Broncos missed extra point. But in the second half, the Broncos opened the floodgates, scoring the game’s next 16 points.
WMU quarterback Tim Hiller found running back Brandon West for a 45-yard strike early in the fourth quarter to push the Broncos’ lead to 27-7.
The two squads would trade touchdowns the rest of the final frame. Jackson’s 41-yard touchdown strike to tailback Donte Harden with 3:48 remaining cut the Ohio deficit to 34-20, but West pounded the nail in the coffin just over a minute later with a 26-yard scamper to finish the scoring.
Ohio turned the pigskin over three times, two of them coming on Jackson interceptions. The gunslinger felt pressure all afternoon and was sacked five times.
“There is only so many times you can ask your quarterback to escape,” Solich said. “They are very good at putting pressure on the quarterback and are big and strong up front, and we had trouble with that.”
The Green and White came into Saturday’s contest second to last in the MAC averaging 57 penalty yards per game. Against WMU, the ’Cats committed nine penalties for 98 yards.
“We didn’t give ourselves a chance on that end of it,” Solich said of the penalties. “We had a lot of penalties that occurred in that first half which just took the momentum away from us in terms of trying to put together a half of playing good football and trying to get a lead.”
Ohio’s defense surrendered 503 yards of total offense and allowed Hiller to throw for 347 yards and four TDs. The ’Cats played without multiple starters on both sides of the ball and suffered more injuries as the afternoon progressed.
“I don’t what it was today,” Jackson said. “Some of the guys — maybe it was the injuries that took us out of the game… I just don’t think our whole team was in the right mindset to play this game today.”
Ohio travels to Kent State (1-5, 0-2) for a game Saturday at 2:30 p.m. to take on the Golden Flashes. After the loss to WMU, Solich promised his squad will be ready to go this week.
“The guys are really down, but the idea of this game is to play the very best you can every time you step on the field,” Solich said. “We’ll get them going again. I just hope we get a few guys healed up and start to win some ballgames.
“We’ll get them in the training room, and try to get some guys some treatment tomorrow and then come Monday we’ll get back on the field and start practicing to win ball games,” he said.
Added Jackson: “We’ve just got to make some changes. We’ve got a lot of injuries on both sides of the ball, so a lot of young players are playing with not a lot of experience.
“It’s a horrible feeling inside because we all know we can play better than this,” Jackson continued. “Anybody who has watched us play knows we can play better than this. It’s a rude awakening for us.”
New Kicker?
Ohio’s struggles in the kicking game continued on Saturday. Senior kicker Barrett Way missed wide left on a 43-yard field-goal attempt midway through the opening frame. In the fourth quarter, he had an extra point blocked for the first time this season.
When asked if a change of kickers is in the near future, Solich said, “I don’t want to commit to it right now, but we’ll take a look at that.”
Way has been good on just five of 11 field-goal tries this year with a long of 34 yards in a week one win over Wyoming.
Ohio has two other kickers on the roster. True freshman Matt Weller has been listed as the backup, but Solich has indicated he would like to redshirt Weller. Transfer Paul Belany is another option for Ohio.
“We’ve had a few blocked,” Solich added. “There is enough going on there that we need to really assess that.”
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