No MAC game is a gimme, but it terms of difficulty the rest of the way home...I see it like this:

1. @ BGSU - We're going to need everything we got and then some to win this one up there.
2. Kent State
3. @ Akron - This game makes me really nervous this year for some reason.
4. @ Buffalo - Always a struggle when playing in Western NY.
5. Central Michigan
6. Miami - Miami is bad this year and we have this game circled big time...going to a rough day for the 'Hawks.
7. @ EMU
8. UMass

This will be the 4th "At Buffalo" game we've played since I've lived in Buffalo. 2 have been on Saturdays, 2 (counting the upcoming game) have been week night games. We've lost both of the Saturday games, but are unbeaten in the (1) weeknight games.

Here's some nuggets to think about Ohio's performance against Kent State the last 4 years.

- Ohio is 1-3 against Kent State
- Ohio ha been outscored 86-40.
- Ohio did not score an offensive TD in the 3 losses.
- The final scores for the 3 losses were 20-11, 28-6, and 28-6.
- Ohio's lone win was 17-10 in 2011, in Athens.
- Kent State's record is 5-7, 5-7, 5-7, 11-3.
- Ohio's record is 9-5, 8-5, 10-4, 9-4.
- The loss in 2010 prevented Ohio from going to Detroit. Miami went instead.

The Kent game is the week after BG and will be the MACtion blackout game. We can't have a let down regardless of what happens in BG.

That was the worst day for me as a Bobcat fan, and I imagine for others too. That same day, the basketball team got throttled by Kansas in Vegas.

I was in Vegas that day watching the football game with a bunch of posters at Ceasars Sportsbook. Following that debacle, we headed over to the Orleans to watch the "game" against Kansas.

As an aside, the Best part of the night was my (now) 90 year old Grandmother telling the obnoxious Kansas fans behind us that Kansas was the dirtiest team shes ever seen in all her years watching basketball when they took out Tommy and DJ.  She still refers to the Kansas basketball fans as classless. ha ha

Can't we just rank this as BG, then everyone else? Because really, every other team on the schedule has looked downright awful at some point:

Akron - Yeah, that mirage that happened up in Ann Arbor was nice, but let's not forget they only beat James Madison by two. And got throttled by UCF in the opener. And just lost by five, at home, to ULL.

Buffalo - These guys were my pick for possible MAC East buster, with guys like Khalil Mack and Branden Oliver back. So they played OSU tough, big deal. The next week Baylor took them to the woodshed. And then it took five OTs to score a whopping 26 points and get a win over, wait for it...Stony Brook.

Kent State - As others have noted, it all depends on the status of Dri Archer. Without him, their offense is borderline non-existent. Not sure how they scored 22 on BG in the first half of that game, but whatever Clawson said at halftime worked, because BG shut em out. Given that performance, they still only beat Liberty  17-10 and got absolutely worked by LSU and PSU. I know Archer is an amazing player, but I still don't think this Kent State team is anywhere near last year's.

Miami - The Redhawks are awful. And suck. And we lost last year, so we should be ticked off about this one. Need I say more?

UMass - I'm attributing last year's close win to the travel and getting a big head by beating PSU and Marshall and starting the year 4-0. This year shouldn't be close. UMass still has an FCS-level roster and it shows.

Central Michigan - Well they went to a bowl game last year, but that's about all the good I can say about the Chips. I would say if this game was in Mt. Pleasant that I would be slightly worried for a letdown. But it's home and it's homecoming, and we don't lose many of those under Frank. (7-1 by my count)

Eastern Michigan - It shouldn't be hard to win a game in front of 1,500 fans. Especially knowing half of them will be ours. I thought Ron English was on his way to turning this team around, but last week's drubbing by Ball State proved that wrong.

I agree. But, I would hope we'd be able to score enough to outgun their terrible offense.

Looking back over the last 4 years Ohio is 23-9 in conference play. Unlike Temple who couldn't beat a winning team, Ohio's biggest problem seems to be losing games we have no business losing. Here's a list of our losses over the last 4 seasons-

2009 (7-1)
L 20-11, Kent State (5-7)

2010 (6-2)
L 20-13, Toledo (8-5)
L 28-6, @Kent State (5-7)

2011 (6-2)
L 38-37, @Buffalo (3-9)
L 23-20, Ball State (6-6)

2012 (4-4)
L 23-20, @Miami (4-8)
L 26-14, Bowling Green (8-5)
L 52-27, @Ball State (9-4)
L 28-6, @Kent State (11-3)

We've already mentioned the horrible Kent State losses, including the one in 2010 that prevented a trip to Detroit, but how about the other loss that season, at home to Toledo. Ohio had 4 turnovers, including 2 INTs within our own 25. Toledo scored 2 TDs, one was a drive that started on our 5yd line, the other one started on our 2. Just terrible.

Then there's @Buffalo (3-9) in 2011 and @Miami (4-8) in 2012. Their only other wins were against an FCS team, a 1 win Akron team, and for Miami, a one win UMass. Awful.

Add to that an inexcusable loss on homecoming in 2011 and a sharknado level of destruction of our kicking game against Bowling Green last year and you've got about 6 or 7 losses in the last 4 years that make absolutely no sense.

if history tells us anything its that we should expect at least one dumbfounding loss again this year.

Looking ahead to next year....

8/31 Bye Week
9/6 @Kentucky
9/13 @Marshall
9/20 Idaho
9/27 Eastern Ilinois

Home MAC games- Akron, Buffalo, Bowling Green, MAC West crossover
Away MAC games- UMass, Miami, Kent State, MAC West crossover

Not much in terms of home opponents. Maybe we'll get NIU for a home MACtion game. Stinks that one of our bye weeks is wasted with a week 1 bye. Hopefully it will be productive with a new QB1 under center.

I'm locking this thread.  The only game that matters is the next one vs. 'kron.