Ohio's defense held its offense to under three yards per play during Saturday's spring game.
With Ohio's offense driving down the field at the end of the second quarter of its annual spring game Saturday, the unit hoped to grab points at the end of an ugly first half.
At that point, Ohio's defense was simply dominating Ohio's offense.
Starting the drive down 43-2, the offense came within scoring position with time running out.
Then, senior receiver Sebastian Smith, typically the most sure-handed of all the Bobcats' offensive weapons, got open at the first-down marker and dropped what would’ve been a first down.
It was a microcosm of the entire day for the offense.
A dominating defensive performance ended in a 62-18 victory for the defense at Peden Stadium on Saturday. The scrimmage used an "adjusted scoring system" consisting of 80 plays in four 12-minutes quarters and a running clock as the Bobcat defense and offense went against each other.
“Tough day, man, we just didn’t execute at a high level,” quarterback Greg Windham said. “Little things in the O-line, the receivers, we made bad throws. All around we didn’t have a good day.”
Windham went 6-for-12 for 49 yards and a touchdown on the afternoon.
The defense held the offense to only 193 yards on 68 plays — under three yards per play. They added three sacks, five pass breakups and a forced fumble.
“I thought the defense as a unit looked good. Their effort was really good, but I can’t say the same for the offense,” coach Frank Solich said. “I think our offensive line looked poor today. I thought our receivers dropped way too many balls today.”
The defense utterly dominated the contest throughout, only allowing two points in the second half.
They accomplished that with two young safeties, redshirt freshmen Javon Hagan and Mayne Williams.
“Coming from the sideline, watching every Saturday night, (I was) just wishing I could be out there,” Hagan said. “Being able to come out with my team and make plays together felt great.”
Hagan tied for third on the team with four tackles during the afternoon.
“Like my coach from high school said, ‘It’s college, when you make it to this level, we’re all the same age because we’re all on the same field,' " Hagan said.
A young defense or not, the offense couldn’t get off the ground in Saturday’s demolition.
“When one side of the ball doesn’t look good, that’s probably because the other side of the ball has something to do with it too,” Solich said. “But, all in all, coming through camp, we showed signs of coming together as a group (as an offense), but today we took steps back.”
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With poor performance by the offense on the day, Windham said the unit will use the game as motivation to work over the offseason.
“We have to stay even-keeled in any moment," he said. "Going into the offseason, we have to work on timing, just the little things. It wasn’t great today. Left a bad taste in my mouth and everybody else’s mouth.”
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