Sports
Windham, Rushing Attack Helps Bobcats Beat Kansas
By: Russ Heltman
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Greg Windham and the Ohio Bobcats got their 2016 season back on track with a 37-21 victory over the Kansas Jayhawks. Ohio used a strong running game to take the victory in Lawrence, Kansas and it marks their first victory over a Power Five conference opponent since 2012.
Windham and the Ohio offense came out firing in the first half, building a 28-7 lead highlighted by Windham’s 23-yard touchdown run to lead off the second quarter. The Bobcats used a diverse attack to rush for 329 yards on the ground, the most in a game by the Bobcats since 2005, with Windham galloping for 146 of those yards on 16 carries.
A slow start in the third quarter almost derailed the Bobcat hopes of a victory, as they were held to just 66 yards of offense in the quarter. However, the loss of quarterback Montell Cozart to injury early in the fourth quarter brought the Kansas offense to a standstill and Ohio was able to hold on.
The Bobcats used the offense as their defense today, possessing the ball for over 75 percent of the game with the three-headed rushing attack of Maleek Irons, Dorian Brown, and Windham. Kansas was never able to hold the ball long enough to get anything going and the Ohio defense stayed fresh throughout the game because of it.
One of the biggest differences since last week was penalties. Ohio had 36 fewer penalty yards against Kansas and coach Frank Solich took notice.
“Sometimes we are our own worst enemy, we had to keep the penalties down this week and we were able to do that pretty well,” Solich said postgame.
Another question mark after last week’s shootout was the defense, but after giving up 546 total yards to Texas State, Ohio came to play from the first snap and held Kansas to 232 total yards, including just 21 yards in the first half.
“The defense gave up a couple big plays but all in all they did well stopping the run especially in the first half,” said Coach Solich on the defensive performance.
Though not quite as record breaking a game as last week, this contest still saw one big milestone achieved as defensive end Tarell Basham picked up his 20th career sack, setting the Ohio Football record.
Ohio now shifts its focus to a date with the Tennessee Volunteers in Knoxville next Saturday. Kickoff is slated for 12 p.m.