Despite Miami entering the game with an undefeated Mid-American Conference record, the Bobcats treated their rivals as if they resided on the opposite side of the standings.
Ohio pounded the RedHawks on the ground all day and forced five turnovers en route to a 34-13 win at Yager Stadium in Oxford Saturday.
The Bobcats (5-3, 4-1 MAC) won their fourth consecutive game and the Battle of the Bricks for the fifth consecutive year. The win was also Ohio's seventh-consecutive conference win on the road, and the Bobcats moved into first place in the MAC East Division.
(The win) is very important
quarterback Boo Jackson said. It was their Homecoming. It's a rivalry game. It's Miami. It's a big game. So it was definitely great to pull a win off at Miami.
Donte Harden ran for 62 yards and two touchdowns, including a 48-yard scamper in which he was barely touched. Vince Davidson added a career-high 103 yards and a touchdown.
Quarterback Boo Jackson entered the game tied for the school's all-time career passing touchdown record. He didn't set the record, but was not asked to do much, as the rushing attack and defense took care of the Redhawks (4-4, 3-1).
The Bobcats ran for 222 yards.
Today showed a lot of people that (we're) not just a passing team and (we) can run the ball Davidson said. The offensive line opened up the holes and we took care of things.
The beginning of the game was almost a disaster for the Bobcats. Miami took the opening kickoff and drove 80 yards down field for a score. Quarterback Zac Dysert found plenty of space in Ohio's secondary as he completed four passes on the drive and capped it with a touchdown pass to Armand Robinson.
Ohio lost a fumble on the ensuing kickoff and Miami had the ball at Ohio's 12. But the defense sacked Dysert, forced a penalty and stuffed a wide receiver reverse that caused Miami to lose 36 yards and punt the ball.
Defensively we knew we had to do something big
said cornerback Travis Carrie, who had two sacks and a forced fumble in the game. We knew we had to do something to get us in the game...We came out and we executed and it led to some good things.
After the Bobcats took over, Davidson took a handoff after a fake to Phil Bates and ran untouched for 56 yards and a tying score. Ohio would not look back after that as a combination of Davidson, Jackson and Harden on the ground helped the Bobcats dominate possession.
Jackson ran for two touchdowns as all five of Ohio's scores came on the ground. The Bobcats held the ball for almost 11 more minutes than the RedHawks.
I was worried about (time of possession) because they have a very good short passing game
coach Frank Solich said. But that turned out to be something that worked in our favor...We have some big play guys so if we get enough plays
hopefully we have opportunities to make big plays
and we had some of that in this game.
The Bobcat defense intercepted Dysert four times and sacked him four times.
The most important thing out coaches harped on this week was really the short game and getting pressure on the quarterback
Carrie said. We had a couple complications in the beginning of the game...but we stopped the short game and in the second half we came out and did some big things.
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