Ohio (3-3 overall, 1-1 Mid-American Conference) fell on the road to underdog Ball State (2-3 overall, 1-0 MAC) after another sloppy performance from the Bobcats.
“Honestly, I just think we beat ourselves,” running back Sieh Bangura said. “They were a good defense, but I just think (we) beat ourselves today. It was too many mistakes that we made, and it was just too many things that we couldn't come back from.”
It was a tale of two halves throughout the day. The first half was controlled by Ohio before the game did a complete 180 as Ball State dominated the second half. Despite the success early, there were signs Ohio wasn’t on its A-game.
The first drive started with a bang, as senior quarterback Parker Navarro took a carry up the gut for a 44-yard run on the first play from scrimmage.
The offense wasn’t able to capitalize after a holding penalty from Jordon Jones led to a 49-yard field goal missed by kicker David Dellenbach, who was getting his first start since the Rutgers game.
The next drive, the Bobcats were able to put together another impressive drive. This time the drive ended with a turnover on downs as Bangura was stopped short of a first down on fourth and two.
“I would have loved for us to finish more drives and be able to extend our lead and force them have to throw a little bit more than they did,” Ohio head coach Brian Smith said. “Poor execution offensively let them hang around longer than we really wanted them to.”
Ohio found the end zone. The first time with a 1-yard score from running back Duncan Brune after a 38-yard catch from junior receiver Chase Hendricks set Ohio up nicely on the goal line.
The second touchdown came through the air, as Navarro made up for air-mailing a wide-open Mason Williams by finding junior receiver Rodney Harris II on 3rd and 15. Harris II caught the ball at the sticks before dragging Ball State defenders as he stretched the ball over the goal line for his first career touchdown.
Ohio was up 14-0 after that, but the Ball State offense was able to hang around, even without scoring in the first half as the offense progressed throughout the game. The Cardinals only had one first down in the first quarter, before getting six in the second quarter.
The last true positive for Ohio came right before the half as the defense made a goal-line stand after Ball State got down to the 1-yard line. The stand meant a shutout half for the Ohio defense as they had all the momentum going into the half.
Things switched heavily after the half, as the Bobcats' offense looked like Ball State’s in the first half.
Ohio didn’t score a point in the single half. Except for the final drive where it was pushing for a Hail Mary as Ball State was in prevent defense, the Bobcats had just 50 yards of offense in the second half.
There were times when the offense seemed out of sync as snaps and ball control became an issue, with a mishandled snap leading to a huge safety for Ball State.
“Especially up front, with the whole line, I felt like we weren't fully aligned in our communication and how we're targeting things,” Smith said. “So whether it's doing a little bit less to help them, or maybe some of the looks that we're running things at, we will kind of evaluate and address those.”
Another special teams blunder led to Ohio being backed up on its own goal line, leading to the safety.
Issues like fumbles, bad snaps and special teams blunders in general have been occurring all year, even last week in a solid win over a good Bowling Green team. This week, Ohio wasn’t able to get by with its mistakes, as the defense that forced sacks and turnovers last week weren’t able to force any against Ball State this week.
“We just gotta make the play,” safety DJ Walker said. “The ball gets ticked up, everybody needs to be flying to the ball. I think we had a couple of opportunities that we could have punched the ball out, caught a couple picks, but we got to keep playing.”
Ball State was the team that controlled the ball, moving it well with dual-threat quarterback Kiael Kelly. He finished with 195 yards and a touchdown through the air to go along with 96 yards and one touchdown on the ground.
His ability to run the ball kept Ohio off-balance all day, and his kill-shot came with under a minute to go in the game as he found receiver Qian Magwood deep down the left sideline for a great catch and run to score the go-ahead touchdown.
The Bobcats’ offense was left with 57 seconds to score a touchdown, but the Hail Mary attempt from the Ball State 30-yard line found the turf, ending the hopes of a miracle play for a last-minute win.
Ohio now falls to .500 in the MAC, making the road to the MAC title game a bit more difficult. In the short term, the Bobcats thankfully have their bye next week for a chance to get things figured out before the rest of conference play.
