One thing that helps us is the two most important East games Buffalo and Akron are both at the end of the season and in Peden Stadium. I think 8-2 going into those games is possible. The best remaining team on that stretch is NIU and offensively at least they don't look too good. Buffalo has to get through Army, Toledo and Akron before they get to us so there is a chance they may fade a bit as the season goes on.

I’m hoping this is true.

We seem to be improving and unlike other years I’m not sure the injury bug will affect us that much. Unlike other years we seem to have more depth than usual.

Evans looks like he’s going to be a force at DE and the DTs look solid in their rotation.

Let’s get Papi and Cox and Buckner more involved in the offense and hope Ross remains healthy.

UC is better than the teams left on OUr schedule and it seems we are improving in every game.

A fast, athletic tight end would work wonders for our offense. That crossing route play they ran like four or five times was a guaranteed first down. Having seen high school footage, the freshman from Indiana, Burton, could be that guy.

+1

I’m not seeing that many wins left on the schedule. Every game will be a shootout and we can’t keep making the mistakes we are making. As stated above, we will see the tight end against us as well as running qb’s. Have to do a lot better than 50% passing in my opinion.

I'm proud of the kids on this roster: they have shown they are committed, talented, tough, and resilient. The Cincy loss was a straight heartbreaker. No question. If this team is going go beyond regular bowl status, this is one Ohio needs to go its way. No question. And Ohio fans of any duration have been there for similar heartbreaks- who in the world did not think we were gonna beat 13th ranked Western Michigan in that MAC Championship in 2016 when we got the ball back for that final possession only see it evaporate? You could just feel the momentum change in the 4th. And who didn't watch the 2017 Akron game in utter disbelief?---I still cannot believe that happened. But I learned some things about this team this year so far: I would take the kids and coaches on this team this year and every year.

Cincy was a tough, talented team out to intimidate: but Ohio showed they are tough and talented too, and not intimidated. How many times did Rourke just flat refuse to accept defeat, making something out of nothing? That was beautiful. How many times did Cincy DBs try to get in Odom's face early and intimidate him with talk and how did Odom respond?--with one of the biggest games of his career. How many times did the RBs churn, fight, and spin for every yard? How many times did an exhausted offensive lineman execute another effective combo block or exhausted DLman chase down a play from behind? On the final drive of the game not only was Rourke's long run nifty and clutch, but how about when DL Knock put a potential tackler on BLAST with a legal, tough hit? That was great football!

At the end of the Cincy game, my friends and I were SCREAMING for Ohio to run outside or an option play on that goal line play where we ran the same play and lost 3-4 yards. That was tough. I cant explain that. And I probably would use Ross differently on offense other than dive plays.
However, outside of maybe that goal line play and a series on offense in the third or fourth qtr, there is little serious argument that the coaches did not put the 'Cats in very good position to win. In the 3rd or 4th quarter, there were plays to be made but we simply did not execute things the players are very capable of executing. Albin did not fumble inside the Ohio 30, drop a td in the endzone or overthrow a open receiver on the Cincy 2 yard line, leaving us to settle for FGs. Burrow did not miss a square-up tackle on the QB in the red zone resulting in a 12 yard TD; he did not miss two coverages on the TE for critical plays; he did give up the outside on a route where help was to the inside for a TD. The Defense was much, much better: Ohio gave up 424 yards and only because one explosive play of 77 yards. More importantly, we reduced the number of explosive plays allowed on defense dramatically. Without calling anyone out, there is one thing i would discuss as one player has given up 4 explosive plays for tds in 3 weeks and Cincy seemed to actively target that.

I dont believe in moral victories and I hate that we lost against Cincy. Ohio still has important goals it can reach and they are getting better each week. Cant wait to see how it plays out.

And yet “guru’s” are calling for heads of the OC. Total show of lack of football knowledge and understanding of the game.

And until we have a QB who can complete more than 47% of his passes and learns ball security, we will not scratch the surface of our offensive talent.

Now before people jump me, the kid has a lot of talent, but also a lot of learning to do.

Football can be a very frustrating game, perhaps more than some others because there is a true script to the approach. The very shape of the ball tells you all you need to know about its unpredictability. Coming into the season I felt pretty good about stealing a win over UVA or UC, if not winning both. Both losses were hard to swallow for different reasons. It was a little encouraging too to see that UVA handled Louisville this past weekend (although the Cardinals look to be very average this year, post Lamar Jackson).

I watched most of the game of TV and one of my takeaways was that a play here or there could have shifted the game immensely for both teams. Just imagine if we had been able to get another TD late in the first half, or even a couple of those field goal drives had been for 7. It's such a chess match where one finger tip, one swat at an ankle, etc. makes the difference between a touchdown and a TFL. I also did not get too giddy when the halftime lead was so big as I knew it would not last-have watched too much Ohio football to think otherwise.

With the proliferation of shotgun/pistol based offenses, I understand why it can be harder for teams to deviate from that even in a goal line situation but gosh it just makes me scratch my head so much to wonder why you take that chance for such a big TFL. Won't speak for everyone but I think anyone cheering for Ohio on Saturday just cringed when they saw that 2nd and goal play lined up as we all knew what was going to happen.

What frustrates me more is I feel like if you go back into BobcatAttack's threads from the past few seasons, you would find several discussions about the madness of that same very approach/similar play in short yardage situations and how it failed miserably. I try to learn from my mistakes in life and when I encounter a situation where the opportunity to make that same mistake presents its self, my mind is consumed with thoughts of, "hey, remember last time when you _________________, don't do it again." I guess I just approach things differently than Ohio's coaches. I also think that we fans probably analyze a lot of this more than they do.

Maybe the line blows off the ball and creates and open hole for a scoring play-but if you line up tighter and have to push through a sea of humanity to score-guess what: you get the same 6 points! It would be an easier pill to swallow had they been stuffed on a couple of QB sneaks as that was purely a muscle on muscle failure-not a poor strategy that is usually not successful in those situations.

Moving forward I hope some lessons were learned and that the loss is put behind them. UMass would love to come to Athens and leave with a win. If the Bobcats can put forth the first half effort from last week for 60 minutes they will do some good things this season. If they can stay healthy against UMass, Cats will go into MAC play with what I think is a pretty healthy roster?

Perhaps this disappointing start keeps the Cats under the radar more for better things later in the year. We too have started the year as media darlings with a big win over Penn State. That same year we were clobbered by Ball State towards the end of the year. Would love to return the favor against Akron and Buffalo and spoil their seasons this time around.

We've scored 30+ points in each game. The DEFENSE has to play better. Point blank period!

+1

Compete well for at least 45 minutes out of the 60. There can be a couple three and outs and a turnover in a bad quarter but the team can't simply play bad to mediocre half the game and expect to win.

Rice, Ohio, BG, and UConn ... Fearless Foursome!

Combined 4-11 with wins over powerhouse programs like Rhode Island, Howard, Eastern Kentucky and Prairie View.

Yikes!

We are reaching historic levels of awfulness with OUr defense.