The start of the game for Ohio on Saturday against Ball State looked inspiring after graduate student quarterback Parker Navarro turned a broken play into a 44-yard scamper up the middle. Ohio looked poised to have another great day against MAC competition, but little did it know that it couldn’t overlook the defense it was up against.
The strong run by Navarro amounted to nothing due to a penalty that backed up and eventually led to a missed field goal. The Bobcats would get the ball later in the first quarter and once again started strong with a 29-yard run from redshirt senior running back Sieh Bangura, but were once again stopped after a face mask and a fourth-down stand by the Cardinals.
“Honestly, I just think we beat ourselves,” Bangura said. “They were a good defense. But I just think Ohio beat ourselves, there were too many mistakes that we made, and it was just too many things that we couldn't come back from.”
After a touchdown drive, Ohio would come out looking for more points, but failed to score. Ohio then converted an intentional grounding call on Navarro before its offensive line was decimated on two straight plays by Ball State defensive end Nathan Voorhis, who got to Navarro and forced a punt.
Unfortunately for Ohio, that was where the offensive highlights stopped. The first half totalled 257 yards, which looked to set Ohio up well for the second half, up 14-0. Ohio did not replicate this success at all in the second half, only gaining 100 yards, 43 of which were on the last drive of the game.
The offensive struggles started on the offensive line. They were allowing plenty of pressure to impact the play of Navarro, who had defenders in his face, deflecting passes, hurrying him into mental errors pre-snap, tackling him for short gains, and even sacking him in key spots. The impact up front disrupted this Ohio offense, and they could never regroup throughout the second half.
The Bobcats looked to mend the issue by going back to their offensive bread and butter, the run game. The Cardinals were ready for them, however, holding the Bobcats to 31 total yards on the ground from their running backs and putting more pressure on Navarro to make plays with his legs, but he could only muster 22 yards himself against the physical Cardinals defensive front.
Another big factor in the collapse was the number of penalties called on the Bobcats throughout the game. They had eight penalties for 90 yards, some of which ended offensive drives, and others extended drives for a tiring defense.
“There was not our best execution offensively,” Ohio head coach Brian Smith said. “There were some bad penalties, I felt that were some undisciplined things that we need to get better at and eliminate and grow from, that are definitely things that we consider Ohio beating Ohio.”
Ball State cut the lead to 14-7 after an 11-play drive that exhausted the Ohio defense. This was the opportunity for Ohio to recapture the momentum with a long drive and some points to cushion its lead. The drive started well with runs from Navarro and sophomore running back Duncan Brune, but a sack on fourth down ended this possession and called the defense right back to the field.
After a field goal from the Cardinals and a Bobcats punt, the Cardinals went on an eight-play drive ending in a punt. The ensuing punt was not fielded by Ohio and was downed at the one, putting the struggling offense behind the eight ball in the fourth quarter, holding a slim lead. The offensive line miscues, induced by some confusion by Navarro, resulted in a safety for Ball State.
“There were a lot where, especially up front with the O-Line, I felt like we weren't fully aligned in our communication and how we're targeting things,” Smith said about Ohio’s offensive execution. “So, whether it's doing a little bit less to help them or limiting some of the looks that we're running things at, we'll kind of evaluate and address those.”
Ohio would go on to lose this contest as the struggling offense kept forcing tired legs out onto the field, and eventually Ball State broke through for a game-winning score to cap off this second-half offensive collapse by Ohio.
Penalties and poor execution on the offensive side of the ball were some of the main reasons Ohio fell to Ball State, a team that was the underdog coming into the game.
With the bye week coming next week, Ohio will need to fix the offensive problems that resulted in one of the worst losses in the MAC this year.
