I said last week I thought Ohio could beat Buffalo and Kent State, and OU more than proved it could beat UB and should have won that game. Take the offsides away on the final kick and OU wins it. Period. I came away very impressed with how close this team is to turning it around. This team is much, much better than what its record indicates. And it's about to show.
After seeing Kent State get simply obliterated last week, I feel even better about Ohio beating Kent State. The Golden Flashes have looked nothing like the predicted East champs they were picked to be. Yes, they had a tough non-conference schedule, but they barely got past a bad BG team - at home - and they looked awful last week. They have also been destroyed coming out of halftime the last two games, allowing 28 third quarter points to Buffalo and 27 third quarter points to WMU in back-to-back weeks. That's beyond terrible. Oh yeah, and there's the fact that they simply haven't been able to beat Ohio as they've lost 6....SIX....straight to the Bobcats. The bottom line is, Kent State simply can't find a way to beat Ohio. The proof has been in the pudding for years now.
Ohio "could" be 3-0 in the MAC. Kent State can't say that. What's more, if and when Ohio does beat Kent State, Ohio will pull even in the MAC East with the preseason East favorite and would own the head-to-head tie breaker. Think about that for a minute. Ohio still completely controls its own destiny, and has shown me a ton in its three MAC games this season. I believe they can beat anyone in the MAC, and they've already shown they can in the games they've played. Kent State's defense doesn't stand a chance against Ohio's running game and Ohio's defense will keep their offense under control as a couple other MAC teams have done. I think Saturday is going to make a lot of doubters start to believe in what this team is capable of doing, and that run is about to get started on Saturday. Watch and see.
This is simply embarrassing. No one in their right mind that has watched this team can think they're anything more than the 1-6 team they are.
Mark my words. After Kent wins, you'll see a noticeable drop in engagement from the players paving the way to 1-11. 1-3 in the MAC all but eliminates any hope of a miraculous turnaround.
Playing in empty stadiums on cold week nights ... with a 1-7 team ... "televised" on the internet. Yep. This is only going to get worse.
I'll be curious if Ohio ever recovers from the decision to hire Albin.
You're going to be very surprised come late Saturday afternoon. Ohio has been in EVERY conference game for the last 6 years. It has won a lot of those games, a number of them in blowout fashion, and yet has never been beaten by more than 7 by any....ANY.....conference foe. Which means, Ohio has been in EVERY single MAC game over the past 6 years - including this season. I'm willing to bet there are less than 5 teams in the country (including Ohio) that can say the same. If Ohio was getting throttled by MAC teams like say, how Kent State did last week to WMU, then I could understand the skepticism. But they're not, they're in every single game with a chance to win.
Losing by less than 7.
That's what we're building our program on.
Good sales pitch.
That'll get the fans excited.
How many MAC titles in that 6 year span? Title game appearances?
I love we've lowered our standards from winning a MAC title to just losing by less than 7.
And the little twist added this season is that we're beating ourselves by making stupid mistakes in key situations. It started with the Duquesne game with the safety. Same situation as the previous week vs Syracuse. Same situation, run the same play, get the same result. Without the safety there would've been no need to go for two on the last TD and we likely would've won.
Fast forward to MAC games. Three minutes to go vs CMU. After an incomplete pass we have a 4th and 2 at our own 33 with plans to go for it. Then somebody on the sideline who's not in game uniform starts MFing the ref over not calling pass interference. Nobody shuts him up and we get an unsportsmanlike penalty that forces a punt. We never get the ball back.
Three seconds left vs Buffalo. They miss a FG, but one of our guys jumps offside and they get a second chance from five yds closer with no time left. They make it. The punch line here is that even if they had missed it they would've gotten a THIRD chance because we were offside again.
It used to be that teams would have to beat us in close games. Now we're beating ourselves. It comes down to problems with discipline, organization and communication, something that hasn't been an issue with Ohio football for years.