The Ohio football team had an upset within vision but could not finish it and lost, 30-23, in overtime at No. 16 Northern Illinois Saturday.
Despite losing starting quarterback Fred Ray and running back Stafford Owens in the first quarter, Ohio (1-4 overall, 0-2 Mid-American Conference) trailed only once during regulation. The Bobcats led 13-9 at the half and were ahead 23-16 with less than two minutes remaining.
(It) was a game where their experience and some of their older players really showed the champions they may be
Ohio coach Brian Knorr said. I give a lot of credit to our players. I thought they played with tremendous pride and tremendous effort all game.
Ohio shut down the Northern Illinois running game early, holding Heisman candidate Michael Turner to 42 yards rushing. Turner accounted for all of the Huskies positive rushing yards in the first half.
After we stopped them on the running game they started doing screens on us linebacker Dennis Chukwuemeka said. After last week's game
we had a heavy dose of screens
so screens really weren't the problem. It was just the timing of their screens was kind of bad. They got us a couple times when we weren't looking.
The Huskies (5-0, 1-0 MAC) turned up their passing game, though, and the Bobcats, clinging to a seven-point lead late in the game, could not stop it in the final minutes. Northern Illinois quarterback Josh Haldi connected with split end P.J. Fleck in the corner of the end zone for a 15-yard touchdown on fourth down with 1:42 remaining in regulation. The diving catch knotted the game at 23 and sent it to overtime.
Fleck then snared a 23-yard pass on the first play in overtime to set up Haldi's one-yard quarterback sneak for the eventual game-winning points. Ohio failed to move the chains on its drive, and the game ended when Ohio quarterback Ryan Hawk was sacked by Huskie linebacker Kursten Strothman.
Hawk played the majority of the game after Ray suffered a shoulder sprain in the game's first five minutes while scrambling and setting up Ohio's first touchdown.
Owens left the game later on that same drive with a sprained ankle. Freshman Chris Jackson stepped in and put Ohio on the board first with a 17-yard run on the first of his 19 carries. Place kicker Greg DiMarino missed the extra point attempt.
Guys get hurt and when they get hurt
the people who are going to come in and step in have to do the job
Hawk said. I commend those other guys (who stepped in) for doing it too. We tried; we just fell a little short.
The Huskies tied the score at six with two field goals by Steve Azar but could not push past a solid Ohio defense until the third quarter, when tight end Brad Cieslak caught a pass in the end zone from Haldi to take a 16-13 lead.
The Bobcats answered with a 40-yard field goal by DiMarino, despite almost ending the drive on their own 43 on fourth and six. Matt Miller faked the punt and ran for 14 yards to keep the drive going.
We are always looking for opportunities
and that's something we felt like we had all game
Knorr said. It made it a little easier to call at midfield.
In the fourth quarter Ohio cornerback Dion Byrum added another big play for the Bobcats. He intercepted a pass just outside the end zone, protecting the Bobcat lead at 23-16. But the Huskies got the ball back in time to set up Fleck's tying touchdown.
Statistically, Ohio had its best game of the season, controlling the ball for more than 37 minutes, its longest time of possession for the season, and recording no turnovers. The Bobcats had turned the ball over 13 times in the first four games. They also recorded their most yards rushing for the season with 244 compared to Northern Illinois' 36 yards for the game.
We just like to keep control of the ball
keep our time of possession up so we can keep our defense off the field so we can get them rested
Hawk said. That's just how we play every week
