but I'm not disappointed in how the Bobcats played today. They fell behind early, but after that the defense grew up a lot, I think, and they were tough. After about 10 minutes, Kentucky had 171 yards, and Ohio had 13. After that the game was very even, 205 yards to Ohio, 227 to Kentucky.

After Kentucky's first two drives:
Kentucky had 65 plays for 245 yards, average of 3.77 yards/play
Ohio had 52 plays for 210 yards, average of 4.04 yards/pay
Towles was 13-23 passing for 107 yards, 4.65 yards/attempt
Ohio was 14-29 passing for 149 yards, 5.14 yards/attempt
Kentucky had 42 rushing attempts for 140 yards, 3.33/attempt
Ohio had 23 rushing attempts for 56 yards, 2.43/carry

Actually, Ohio's defense wasn't that bad the second possession, even, except for one play where Kentucky caught Ohio in a defense with no safeties back, and got a seam and a 53 yard TD run.

We knew coming in that the defense was supposed to be good, and that the offense needs to gel. We saw both of those things. The offense fought hard, and kept coming, but just couldn't get points on the board. Ohio started in a hole, and while they couldn't dig their way out of the hole, they never gave up. Also, despite Kentucky running a lot more plays, and having a lot more time of possession, Ohio appeared to get stronger as the game went on. Ohio out-gained Kentucky in both the 2d and 4th quarters.

My biggest disappointment was in the number of dropped passes today. Daz dropped on on a wheel route that would have been a huge gain, if not a TD. I remember drops by multiple other receivers as well, and if Ohio catches those, they keep a few more drives alive, and give the defense more time off the field.

Other than being pleased with the defense, I was also impressed with the offensive line. There were a at times 3 true Freshmen out there, and they held up pretty well. There weren't a ton of sacks, and while the running game wasn't super effective, there were more and more gains later in the game.

I continue to believe that this is a team that will improve each week, and I will enjoy watching them.

I like Daz but he is not big enough to break tackles, and move the pile. 

On 3rd down of the first drive he did not get the first down, subsequently we had an incomplete pass on 4th down.  A bigger back might have gotten the first down .

a bigger back, you mean like Tim Edmond, 235lbs, who carried the ball 3 times for + 5, -4, and -4 yards for a net of -3 yards? that kind of big? the problem with the run game today wasn't the size of the backs, it was the effectiveness of the OL.

With credit to the Kentucky def front.

The answer is that the offensive line was not generating any push. They were doing an adequate job of pass protection, but the only effective runs were misdirection type plays and not straight ahead power plays. When Kentucky expected a pass, the runs were sometimes effective, but in a pure running situation, I don't see that Ohio had the power to make it any better than a 50-50 shot straight ahead, and they had about the same 50-50 shot passing.

I see nothing wrong with the call, other than the fact that it didn't work on this particular attempt. I almost wish they'd have taken a shot deep instead of a slant, though. If they were going to run it, I'd have tried an option play, or QB bootleg, probably, not something up the gut.

As for Daz, I have been more impressed with him than I expected. Once Ohio is playing lines that are more even matches (i.e., Ohio's line gains experience, and goes against MAC lines instead of SEC lines), Daz will do very well. I still think that this year Ohio will eventually shift to using Dorian Brown a lot more.

How many times are we going to open the MAC this year?