Ohio ran a program-record number of plays Saturday, but couldn't finish drives with points in its 31-13 loss to Bowling Green.
Taking a glance at the final statistics, it appears Ohio dominated Bowling Green on Saturday.
The Bobcats ran a program-record 110 plays, outgained the Falcons 513 to 355 yards and possessed the ball for almost three entire quarters.
However, Bowling Green was able to find the end zone and the Bobcats simply couldn’t during their 31-13 loss in front of a Homecoming crowd.
“We know we need to score points in order to win,” quarterback JD Sprague said. “The defense played a pretty good game, but we can’t put the ball in the endzone if we’re shooting ourselves in the foot.”
Ohio (3-4, 1-2 Mid-American Conference) never led against Bowling Green, which scored the game’s first touchdown in the opening two minutes of the first quarter. The Falcons (5-2, 3-0 MAC) scored four touchdowns and a garbage time field goal, as they cruised to victory to remain perfect in MAC play.
For the second straight week, the Bobcats trailed by two possessions in the first quarter.
“We need to work on not giving up freebies coming out of the game,” redshirt cornerback Ian Wells said. “We were frustrated because we felt we played a good game.”
Although they set a new program record for plays in a game — and were just five away from an NCAA record — the Bobcats struggled to finish drives. They fumbled on their opening and closing possessions, and turned the ball over on downs four times.
Ohio punted just four times compared to Bowling Green’s eight, but the Bobcats committed 16 penalties for 153 yards. Senior running back Tim Edmond, who scored Ohio’s lone touchdown, wasn’t pleased with how the referees called the game but knows they need to execute more offensively.
“I just feel like it wasn’t a fair game — to be honest — with the refs,” Edmond said. “You’ve just got to play, you’ve got to stay poised.”
Edmond scored a touchdown for the second straight week and finished with 20 yards on the ground. Neither team was able to establish a running game, though.
Sprague completed 27 of 56 passing attempts for 325 yards. He also led the Bobcats with 49 yards rushing, but was unable to lead multiple touchdown drives — Ohio’s first six points came from a pair of field goals by redshirt junior kicker Josiah Yazdani.
Sprague left the game with an injury and missed a pair of snaps in the second quarter, before then not playing the game’s final drive. Fellow redshirt sophomore quarterback Greg Windham completed seven of his eight attempts for 61 yards as a backup.
Despite the offense’s struggles, the Bobcats defense was strong throughout the contest, but allowed a handful of big plays that resulted in scores for the Falcons. Bowling Green’s offense would run at least two or three plays per minute, on average, and the Bobcats defense struggled to keep pace at times. But Ohio allowed just 19 first downs, compared it its offense’s 29.
The Bobcats have now lost two MAC games and are no longer in control of their own destiny. Although five weeks remain, coach Frank Solich wants to see more scoring from his team.
“We were able to move the ball,” Solich said. “At the end, we didn’t finish drives off and we weren’t able to put points on the board.”
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