Ohio defeats Ball State in the season's home finale and prepares to face Northern Illinois next week.
Ohio has been in several contests this season in which injuries have depleted the team early in the game.
Never, however, had the team answered as well as it did on Tuesday.
With its starting quarterback and running back on the sideline for most of the contest, the Bobcats pieced together their greatest offensive output in 18 years, defeating Ball State 48-31 in the season’s home finale. Ohio finishes the season 5-1 at Peden Stadium.
“We just executed,” redshirt junior quarterback JD Sprague said. “The offensive line did a great job in our deep balls, and I felt about as comfortable as you can get. One guy can make a play fall apart, so when we have all 11 guys clicking, it just shows how good of an offense we can be.”
Sprague got the start for the first time all season on Tuesday, and grasped the reins firmly with both hands from the first drive. Sprague was able to sit back in the pocket and deliver timely strikes downfield throughout the game, finishing with 275 yards on 15 completions and a career-high three touchdowns.
Sprague was starting in place of redshirt senior Derrius Vick, who has battled injuries throughout the season and exited last week’s game against Kent State early for what was believed to be a resting opportunity, but now seems to have been injury-related.
It wasn’t just the passing game, however, that was thriving in the wake of injury issues. Senior Daz Patterson was helping pace the offense nicely throughout the first quarter, including a smooth touchdown on an end-around reverse (how often do we see those actually work?) in which he shimmied off a pair of defenders on his way to the endzone.
Unfortunately for the Bobcats, Patterson was forced out of the game late in the first quarter with a left leg injury, opening up the gate for sophomore A.J. Oullette and essentially whomever else coach Frank Solich decided to toss into the backfield.
Oullette picked up the brunt of the workload for the evening and eclipsed the century mark for the first time this season, gaining 121 yards on 22 carries and scoring a pair of touchdowns. The combination of Sprague, redshirt sophomore Dorian Brown and redshirt freshman Maleek Irons supplied an additional 171 yards rushing on 28 carries combined. The team totaled 332 rushing yards.
{{tncms-asset app="editorial" id="e9a9e688-8da6-11e5-a5c8-ff3d897477f3"}}
The game was important not just for showing off the depth of the offense, but also for proving that Ohio is ready to march past its recent poor November run.
Dating back to 2012, the Bobcats entered the past two contests 4-8 in November games. Back-to-back wins have players hoping that reputation is changed.
“I definitely feel like we can break this November spell we have going on,” redshirt junior wide receiver Jordan Reid said. “I feel like as a team, we’ve been expected to start off the year good and finish off not as well. As players, we take that to heart, and we want to finish strong no matter who we line up against.”
The final November challenge Ohio faces will be one of its toughest of the season. Ohio will close out their regular season on the road at Northern Illinois next week, a team fighting Toledo for the top spot in the Mid-American Conference West division.
If the Bobcats needed an encouraging sign, however, they certainly got it Tuesday night. In addition to the depth it got on offense, it was the first time this season that linebackers redshirt sophomore Quentin Poling and redshirt senior Jovon Johnson made it through a game without getting injured and needing to take multiple series off.
The secondary dealt with injury issues in the second half, but if it can heal up along with its leading-tackler, redshirt junior Blair Brown, Ohio could head to NIU as strong on defense as it has been all season.
aw987712@ohio.edu
@_TonyWolfe_
