Chad Moore and Quentin Poling were some of the last players off the field at Wednesday's practice. They had some work to do.
“In practice, every time we miss one (an interception), we have to do 20 (extra reps) after practice," Moore said. "Blair missed two yesterday, Q missed his today, so we had to do our 20 after practice.”
It was helpful that the linebackers were out on the field late. They might have to carry the team on Saturday when the Bobcats travel to play Kent State (2-5, 1-3 Mid-American Conference) at Dix Stadium.
The Bobcats (4-3, 2-1 MAC) will head up I-77 with question marks at the quarterback spot –– to play a team with even more question marks at quarterback.
Kent State, depending on the health of original starting quarterback Nick Holley, might be forced to start running back Myles Washington at quarterback. But don't tell that to Ohio's defense. It doesn't matter.
“You prepare for everything," Moore said. "We’re getting all these different looks, we’ve got a running back and a quarterback. Preparing for scramble looks, but they have a lot of formations. You never know what you’re gonna get until you come out on the first play.”
Holley won Mid-American Conference East Player of the Week in back-to-back weeks before his injury. But even with the uncertainty as to who will start at quarterback for the Golden Flashes, there won't be much of a change in the run-first style of offense.
“Gotta be disciplined," Tarell Basham, a defensive end, said. "Whole lot of hustle plays, whole lot of re-trace type of plays, scrambling to keep the quarterback in the pocket. Going to take a lot of mental discipline. You need discipline to beat an option team.”
For Basham and Moore, the job of shutting down the Kent State offense will fall almost solely on them and their position group's shoulders. The Kent State offense runs the ball 37.7 percent of the time.
But that job takes on even more importance when looking at Ohio's own offense.
With solid play, yet uncertainty as to whom will be taking the majority of the snaps at quarterback, the defense might be forced to carry the offense this weekend. And as Moore said time and time again, that just involves giving the offense the ball back.
“If you look at stats from games, whoever wins the turnover and field position battle usually wins the game," Moore said. "We’ve been winning all of the turnover margins lately, but we lost field position and turnovers this last game. When we win those, we win the game usually. It’s a very high percentage. We’ve just got to win those.”
A win would put the Bobcats on a fast track towards the MAC Championship Game, who would have then beaten every MAC East team they've played.
A loss? Well that's not even on the table.
“It’s a really big game, it’s a must-win in order to go to the MAC Championship and win the MAC East," Basham said. "It’s just something we’ve got to come out and execute and get done.”
