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[Ella Huges & Marc Goldstein | WOUB]

Ohio Football’s MAC Championship hopes in the balance Wednesday at Toledo

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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — The Ohio Bobcats (7-3, 5-1 MAC) are looking to continue their journey to Detroit for the MAC Championship game, following an impressive win against Eastern Michigan (5-5, 2-4 MAC). The Bobcats will make the trip north to face the Toledo Rockets (7-3, 4-2 MAC), in a Wednesday night battle at the Glass Bowl.  

Ohio is coming off a 35-10 conference win against Eastern Michigan, in which quarterback Parker Navarro had his best performance of the year. The Bobcats offense was firing on all cylinders, scoring over 30 points for the fourth time this season. Navarro put up 400 all-purpose yards, rushing for over 100 yards, throwing for 277 yards, and scoring four rushing touchdowns, earning himself the title of MAC Offensive Player of the Week.  

Toledo hopes to continue the defensive clinic they put on against Central Michigan in which they had five sacks, nine tackles for loss, three fumble recoveries, one pick-six and another interception. The Toledo defense has held opponents to less than 20 points in four games and in those games have only allowed an average of 113 rushing yards per game. It will be essential for the Bobcats to establish the run game quickly if they hope to stand a chance against this strong Rocket run defense.  

Ohio Football players celebrate after a win vs Eastern Michigan on Nov. 13. [Conor Mallon | WOUB Public Media]
The Ohio defense also hopes to continue its dominant play and keep Toledo out of the endzone. The defense had a stellar performance last week against Eastern Michigan, with three sacks, six tackles for loss, three interceptions, and a fumble recovery. After giving up one touchdown in the second quarter, Ohio held Eastern to just three points in the second half completely stifling their offense. The Bobcats will look towards veterans Adonis Williams Jr and Shay Taylor to have their best game of the year if they hope to stop the dominant Rocket offense.  

Head Coach Tim Albin spoke about the challenges in facing the dynamic Rockets offense, “The receivers’ number one and number two are really, really good, and then the quarterback has shown that he can take over a game. So, it’ll be a challenge.”

Toledo quarterback Tucker Gleason is leading the MAC in passing yards with 2,032 and a completion percentage of 61%. Gleason’s main target is wide receiver Jerjuan Newton who leads the team with 823 receiving yards, 10 touchdowns, and averages 15 yards per catch.  

In their first meeting since the 2022 MAC Championship game, Ohio looks for just their second road win against Toledo. Anything can happen on a Wednesday night in November, making it essential for the Bobcats to stay hungry and not look past this dynamic Rockets offense.