OU's bowl hopes in limbo

The mid-season letdown has caught up to the Ohio football team. Making it through the league schedule unblemished seemed unlikely, but the Kent State loss Saturday at home came at a surprising time for the Bobcats.

Before Saturday's 20-11 defeat to Kent, Ohio's season had followed the script, and the Bobcats were ready to become bowl eligible and maintain their post atop the Mid-American Conference.

All that has been put on hold.

The loss drops Ohio (5-3, 3-1) out of first place in the MAC-East, and creates an uphill battle for the Bobcats to play for a league title. Yet even with the stumble, Ohio's expectations for a league title and bowl bid remain unchanged.

"We've been looking at those lonely posters in the corner of the (Peden Stadium) end zone - the GMAC Bowl and MAC-East - since 2006, and it's 2009," defensive back Julian Posey said. "We definitely want it."

For the first time this season, Ohio has to regroup after losing a game it was expected to win. The loss hurts Ohio in its hunt for a MAC title, but the Bobcats still have a legitimate shot to win the four games remaining on the schedule, which would get Ohio back to a bowl game.

"Our outlook is taking it day by day," running-back Chris Garrett said. "We're not looking down the road saying we need to win every game. We're saying we need to win our next game, and that's Ball State."

The Bobcats' focus is on the Cardinals, but like many students on campus, the football team has needed to prepare for players coming down with the flu. Last weekend, quarterback Theo Scott played sick (though he did not display flu symptoms) and Garrett was out with the flu. The illnesses appear to be isolated, and concerns about the flu have not altered the team's routine too much.

"Some of our number-one guys can't get the reps that they want because of sickness, but other than that it hasn't really affected our team that much," Garrett said.

Garrett returned to practice on Tuesday, and is expected to play against Ball State after missing the last two games because of an ankle injury and the flu.

Before his injury, Garrett had emerged as the number-one running back, and the Bobcats' offense looked like it was coming together. But Saturday against Kent State, the offense took a step in the wrong direction.

Ohio had its worst offensive performance of the season, and had a negative nine rushing yards. The minimal ground effort, along with three turnovers and a poor performance at quarterback from Scott and Tyler Tettleton, contributed to the lackluster performance by the offense.

"If you're not getting really consistent play, really good play from your quarterback, then you need to get a ground game going, and we weren't able to get that done," head coach Frank Solich said. "So a lot of problems there."

The play of the wide receivers has been a strong point for Ohio all season, but they went under-utilized against Kent. For the offense to have success, the receivers need to get involved.

"We didn't get the ball to our receivers, give them a chance on man coverage to go up and get it," Solich said. "We've been so good at that through the course of the year. We missed opportunities by not doing that."

With limited contributions from the receivers, Ohio failed to record an offensive play longer than 25 yards. Part of the problem with the passing game came from a lack of protection by the offensive line, which allowed seven sacks after a stretch of five games without one.

This Saturday the Bobcats will travel to Muncie, Ind., to play Ball State (1-7, 1-3), which picked up its first win of the season last week against Eastern Michigan. The Cardinals have struggled this year, and Saturday's game looks like another one the Bobcats should win.

But after last week, the Bobcats know not to look past anybody.

"Their record isn't too impressive, but you can't focus on that," Posey said. "Last week, Kent State's record wasn't too impressive, and we definitely let them get the best of us."