The Bobcats were out-played Saturday and struggled on offense.
After two straight wins, Saturday was a step backwards for Ohio.
Despite the lineup changing due to injuries at the skill positions on offense, Ohio’s 28-10 loss to Central Michigan isn’t something that has left them satisfied.
JD Sprague again this week was the first to take the blame for the loss, as he continues to be his largest critic.
“We just didn’t execute,” said Sprague, who was kept out of the end zone. “I’ll take full responsibility, on most of those plays I could’ve done something different to make the play better.”
He struggled early getting on the same page with his receivers, which was exemplified when he missed a wide-open Chase Cochran during the second quarter.
After the first quarter, Sprague completed one pass on six throws for one yard and Ohio (3-3, 1-1 MAC) was outgained 467-187.
With under 30 seconds to play in the first half, Tarell Basham stripped Cooper Rush for the first fumble recovery of the year for the Bobcats. A recovery, return and a penalty on Central Michigan gave Ohio the ball at the six-yard-line, down 14-0.
Sprague and the offense failed on three straight attempts at the end zone and they were forced to settle for a field goal.
Sprague, along with coach Frank Solich, pointed out all week that the redshirt sophomore quarterback needed to work on his deep-ball throws.
Sprague said that’s something that continues to be an issue, along with a lot of mishaps by the offense.
“There’s a lot of things that happened that game that we had to overcome,” Sprague said. “Whether that’s me scrambling around to make a play, I scrambled around a couple of times and missed throws.”
The Bobcats were missing running back A.J. Ouellette, who didn’t play due to an ankle injury suffered last weekend against Eastern Illinois.
“We can’t beat a MAC team if we’re going to play like that,” Sprague said.
The fault didn’t sit all on Sprague’s lap, though. The offensive line, including three freshman rotating in the group, seemed to have troubles covering Central Michigan’s defensive line.
Central Michigan’s (3-3, 1-1 MAC) defensive tackles Leterrius Walton and Jabari Dean forced pressure on the Bobcats’ backfield and limited Sprague to just a 33 percent completion rate.
“We needed to execute at a higher level to be able to sustain anything against these guys,” Solich said. “We were not able to establish any kind of a running game on them and they did a lot of movement that put pressure on our quarterback, where we weren’t able to establish a throwing game either.”
The defense may have kept the team in the game for the most part, but Ohio’s secondary was unable to contain Central Michigan wideout Titus Davis, as he torched the defensive backs with four catches for 109 yards and two touchdowns on the Chippewas’ first two drives.
Redshirt senior safety Josh Kristoff said the plays run early in the game by the Chippewas were schemes the Bobcats certainly weren’t ready for.
“We were just a little confused on what the coverage was,” Kristoff said. “They showed us a couple different looks that we weren’t ready for.”
In addition to the passing game, University of Michigan transfer running back Thomas Rawls put the Bobcats on their heels for the entirety of the game.
Rawls — who Solich addressed as being a “very physical back” — rushed for 229 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 40 attempts.
“This team won’t go down on itself,” Sprague said. “We’ll keep fighting with effort and energy. It just didn’t go our way today.”
@Alex_Busch91
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