Going into the third quarter, De’Montre Tuggle’s season was off to a great start.
In Ohio’s 30-27 loss to Central Michigan, Tuggle managed to rush for 79 yards on 16 carries and was pushing the Bobcats downfield alongside quarterback Armani Rogers. The two were punching through the Chippewas defense with ease. Tuggle even put the Bobcats ahead for the first time Wednesday after returning a kick 93-yards for a touchdown.
What killed Tuggle’s, and ultimately Ohio’s, momentum were small mistakes.
“We had a lot of penalties for one, and turnovers,” Tuggle said. “My turnover, of course, was pretty critical. They got the ball in a really good position. Those are things that can easily be fixed.”
When Tuggle took the ball from Rogers early in the third, he managed to rush for six yards before disaster struck. Chippewa defensive back Willie Reid forced the ball out of Tuggle’s hands and snagged it from the air, putting Central Michigan within sight of Ohio’s endzone. In a matter of seconds, Ohio went from driving down the field to defending on its own 22-yard line.
Ohio knocked the wind out of itself. Any advantage it had immediately vanished. For the remainder of the game, Ohio’s offense continued to stall while Central Michigan overtook them.
“I'd like to think that we're a smart football team,” coach Frank Solich said. “But we're going to have to prove that in games coming up, because you know tonight we did not play smart football, and we need to get better at that and not hurt ourselves as much as we did tonight.”
That fumble knocked the confidence out of Tuggle. After Central Michigan recovered the ball, the senior only rushed for 18 yards for nearly two quarters. He knew as soon as he got off the field that as soon as possible he was going to fix what went wrong.
“We're gonna really focus on that and get it fixed,” Tuggle said.
Solich acknowledged that his team’s advantage was also hindered by its constant swapping out of quarterbacks. Both Rogers and Kurtis Rourke saw plenty of playtime Wednesday. While the two had their own strengths, it hurt the offense in the long run.
Tuggle saw the most action with Rogers. The graduate quarterback is strongest when running the ball, and Tuggle saw the most action when Rogers was under center. Rourke, however, was most confident using his arm. And as Rourke stayed in for most of the second half, Tuggle had fewer chances to make up for his fumble.
The running back, while kicking himself after the fumble, knows he can make up for it. One mistake won’t diminish an otherwise strong start to his senior season. A bad half doesn’t translate to imminent doom. Tuggle sees his best option is to learn from what went wrong and put his nose to the grindstone.
“I'm still really confident in this team,” Tuggle said. “I love this team. These guys. There's some fighters and, you know, I really feel like we're gonna be able to build off this and really grow from this.”
