As Ohio walked out of Peden Stadium Saturday after its 21-6 victory over Morgan State, the takeaway from the game was clear: the Ohio defense once again showed how good it can be.
Holding Morgan State to just 6 points Saturday was an impressive feat, with the defense not allowing a touchdown despite four red zone visits from the Bears. The defensive unit was especially needed on a day when the offense couldn’t seem to find a rhythm with either Parker Navarro or Nick Poulos playing quarterback for Ohio.
Navarro started the game well, throwing a 19-yard touchdown to Anthony Tyus off of a trick play. After that opening spark; however, Navarro would throw three interceptions, putting the defense on the field in tough positions, but the Ohio defense stood tall all afternoon.
“We had an outstanding performance by our defense,” Ohio coach Tim Albin said. “Obviously, offensively, with the turnovers (putting) our defense in a tough spot, they didn't flinch, didn't blink an eye.”
The Navarro interceptions never phased the Bobcat's defense, allowing just 3 points off turnovers all day.
The second interception saw Morgan State get great field position, starting its drive at Ohio’s 35-yard line, and after an unnecessary roughness call on Ohio, Morgan State had the ball inside the red zone on the 12-yard line.
The defense would yet again step up under tough circumstances, with Kadin Schmitz bursting across the Morgan State offensive line for a huge sack that would ultimately force a Morgan State field goal instead of a touchdown.
With so many players on the defensive side of the ball banged up, it was guys like Schmitz and Marcel Walker-Burgess making huge plays alongside fellow linebackers Blake Leake and Shay Taylor.
“I’ve said it time and time again, we have guys that can play football in the linebacker room. It doesn't matter whether it's the starters or the last guys off the bench,” Leake said. “Everybody in that linebacker room knows how to play football, and is going to come and bring it every play.”
Leake is certainly one of those guys that can play football, and at a very high level at that. The Bucknell transfer had a career day against Morgan State, leading the team in tackles with 12. While Leake had a stellar day with eye-popping numbers, he contributed his success to the rest of the defensive unit, in particular the defensive line.
“(The) defensive line played their butts off tonight, and really just cleared up our gaps,” Leake said. “Playing linebacker, you have an assignment you do your job, and without the (defensive) line, that job gets really tough. But tonight they made it very easy for me. So all credit to the (defensive) line.”
When the Ohio defense is playing as a unit, with each level of the defense benefiting one another, it is nearly impossible to have offensive success against it.
Morgan State was just 2-13 on third downs and 0-2 on fourth downs, including a game-sealing stop near the goal line in the fourth quarter. Ohio had 11 tackles for loss, two sacks and one interception to stuff the stat sheet for its dominant performance.
The defense will have to come up big yet again next week as Ohio travels south to face arguably its toughest opponent all year in Kentucky.
