All season long, Ohio's defense has been the team's backbone.
On Tuesday, the defense will have to come up tall once again.
Facing an Akron offense ranked No. 35 in passing offense with 266.5 yards per game, the Ohio secondary will have to step up in a big way if the Bobcats want to earn a trip to the Mid-American Conference Championship Game.
With Akron looking to reach bowl eligibility, Thomas Woodson and the Zips offense will come to Athens with the word "spoiler" on their minds.
Breakdown
Using this YouTube video, The Post looked at the Akron offense and how it might attack the Ohio defense. Woodson, the quarterback, was not available for this game against Kent State due to an injury. But the Akron offense didn't change with him out of the lineup.
Woodson has thrown for 18 touchdowns and six interceptions this season. He's also gone 146-for-242 for 2,079 yards passing on the year. Simply put, Ohio's secondary will have its hands full.
At the 1:56:48 mark, the Zips line up in a four wide set. The Golden Flashes counter with a 4-2-5 defense.
Note how wide out the receiver at the top of the screen is, just a few yards from the sideline. That is designed that way so it opens up the middle of the field for underneath and seam routes.
Kent State blitzes six, an Ohio trademark. With the Akron offense, it wouldn't be a shock to see the Ohio defense lay off blitzing, at least for a while, in order to reign in the passing attack.
Unfortunately for Kent State on this play, however, it forgot about running back Van Edwards.
As the receivers all run their routes deep and to the sideline, Edwards slips out of the backfield to find an open spot in the coverage right where the linebackers were. Quentin Poling and the Bobcat linebackers will have to be aware of this come Tuesday.
Edwards hauls in the pass, and with literally no one even on the screen, he waltzes into the end zone untouched for a touchdown. The Bobcat safeties and linebackers will have to come up big this week to shutdown those quick passes.
Judgement
With Ohio's strong run defense matched up against the weak running attack of Akron, it would be a surprise to see Akron try to come out and run the ball. The Zips are ranked 111th in rushing yards per game with 135.5.
Like most weeks this season, it will be up to the Ohio secondary to determine the success of its defense. The front seven has dominated teams almost all season long, so it wouldn't be a shock to see the Bobcats do the same Tuesday.
Akron throws the ball 52.46 percent of the time, 28th in the country. With that in mind, the success of the Bobcats' defense, and even the Bobcats as a whole, might be up to the secondary to stop the Akron attack.
