In a season of unexpectedness, the only weekly commonality has been Ohio’s control over the games its won and lost.
Tuesday night, though, its fate rested in the hands of Akron wideout JoJo Natson.
With Ohio leading 9-3 and 28 seconds remaining, Akron had the ball on 3rd-and-10 from the Ohio 25. Akron quarterback Tyrell Goodman found Natson all alone in the corner.
Natson dropped the ball.
“Glad it happened, obviously,” Ohio linebacker Quentin Poling said.
Following the play, Natson lied injured in the endzone. Any shot of an Akron comeback seemed just as hampered.
The fourth down pass wasn’t threatening — cornerback Bradd Ellis, who hadn’t broken up a pass all season entering the game — coolly batted the ball down.
Ohio won 9-3 at Peden Stadium, and for the first time since 2011, claimed the Mid-American Conference East Division.
“That was a beautiful win,” coach Frank Solich said. “Sometimes you’ve got to win that type of game that kind of way.”
Maybe Solich found the game picturesque; others found it a scrappy fight between two struggling offenses and, at times, clumsy defense.
The right foot of Louie Zervos was the Ohio offense, scoring all nine of the team’s points. The last time Ohio won without a touchdown came in the 1970s.
“No, not a chance,” Zervos said if he expected his kicking to be the only form of offense.
Though if anything was assured, it was the significance of Ohio’s defense in influencing the final score.
In Ohio’s (8-4, 6-2 MAC) now-six conference wins this season, five were decided by a touchdown or less. While Poling and Solich didn’t think the game would be as close as it came, both acknowledged it went along with the 2016 script.
“If we lost today, it’s completely on the defense,” Poling said.
So when Akron took possession on its 24 with 2:54 remaining, it was the defense’s task to stop an Akron offense one last time.
But then the Zips started moving. Two yards, then 22, then nine. Soon, Ohio had forced a 4th and 1 on its 43, but the Zips zapped past on a 19-yard run.
“Come on D,” quarterback Quinton Maxwell remembered thinking. “Do what you’ve done all game.”
It was after that conversion that set up the final Akron heaves toward a win — each denied, just as the Ohio defense had denied previous conference opponents throughout the season.
“I don’t think there was a game that was easy and we didn’t have to battle or work for,” Solich said. “To be able to do that for a whole season, it can be tough on your football team. So for them to respond in the way that they did after the game shows me that there is something special about them.”
While the late defensive stop saved the game, it also saved the season.
Had Akron scored a touchdown and taken the lead, Ohio would have missed the MAC Championship Game. Miami beat Ball State 21-20, just minutes after Ohio ran off the field victorious. Had Ohio lost, the Bobcats would have needed a Miami loss to ensure a trip to Detroit on Dec. 2.
But none of that mattered Tuesday. All that mattered was Zervos converting all three of his field goal attempts, Natson dropping the ball and the defense once again stopping an opponent.
It was an ending that left Solich in a smile.
“Is that called ugly football?”
