Ohio wins "Battle for the Bell" behind a 15-play final drive.
Nothing about Ohio’s win against Marshall emulated the romanticism of Saturday nights and college football.
In fact, the offense’s productivity was so barren at times that it evoked the lines “as idle as a painted ship, upon a painted sea,” from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 18th century poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”
Continuing with the poem’s allusions, Ohio’s 21-10 win over Marshall might be the team’s "albatross."
From a larger scope, the win for the last "Battle for the Bell" until 2019 made up for last year’s 44-14 embarrassment in Huntington, West Virginia.
But in present sense, it was Ohio’s last true offensive drive that broke away from offense’s motionlessness throughout the second half.
A 15-play, 85-yard drive, capped off with a direct snap to sophomore running back A.J. Ouellette, took nearly six minutes off the clock and took Marshall out of the game.
Finishing the drive with 2:05 remaining in the game, the Bobcats extended their 14-10 lead into an 11-point mountain, which the Thundering Herd couldn’t climb.
At a time when Ohio struggled in both the running and passing game, the Bobcats created a touchdown drive out of runs, passes, Marshall penalties and an emphatic fourth down conversion — even if the final few snaps were with a third-string quarterback.
“I think that helped both sides of the ball feel pretty good about contributing to the win,” coach Frank Solich said. “It was very much a low scoring game. We had some success running the ball earlier in the game and we kind of stuck with that. And then we weren’t as successful as the game went on.
“Give credit to coach (offensive coordinator Tim) Albin and (co-offensive coordinator Scott) Isphording and the guys on the offensive staff because they opened up a little bit more.”
Redshirt junior quarterback J.D. Sprague, who started the game a backup and was injured on Ohio's final drive, brought Ohio from its 15-yard line to its 40, before a Marshall unsportsmanlike conduct penalty set Ohio up on the Marshall 33.
From there, it was all Ouellette, who had eight carries over the next nine plays.
In the two series prior, the Bobcats had used senior Daz Patterson and redshirt freshman Papi White as the feature backs, giving time for Ouellette to recover.
“I was fresh,” Oullette said. “The defense came up to us right before that drive and they basically just pumped us up, got us ready. They said we have to do our job, and our job is to drive down and score. We took that to heart.”
Perhaps considering that drive Ohio’s "albatross" could be a bit overplayed, but it insured the Bobcats broke free from last year’s hiccup, which eventually led to the program missing its first bowl game in five years.
But in the present, the Marshall win leaves Ohio undefeated and with a returned victory bell to ring for another four years or so.
@charliehatch_
gh181212@ohio.edu
