Sports
Ohio Football Slow To Start, Can’t Catch Kentucky
By: Eric Singer
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In Ohio week one victory over Kent State the Bobcats offense thrived, as quarterback Derrius Vick threw for 262 yards and two touchdowns.
The offense’s performance in week two was very much the opposite, as Ohio mustered only 223 yards of total offense and Vick played limitedly in a 20-3 loss to the Kentucky Wildcats.
The Bobcats (1-1, 1-0) had three possessions in the first quarter, and each one ended with a punt. The offense only put together 22 total yards in the quarter, and Vick looked out-of-sync with his receivers and failed to complete any of his four pass attempts.
“I don’t know why we took a while to get going,” Ohio head coach Frank Solich said. “[Kentucky] is a good football team, so that has something to do with it, but we did not execute at the start of the game, and that cost us.”
On the Bobcats’ second drive of the second quarter, backup quarterback J.D. Sprague took over for Vick, and played the rest of the game.
“We had intended to give J.D. some playing time in this game,” Solich said. “J.D. got in there, he moved the team on a couple of drives, so we stayed with him through most of the game.”
Sprague played relatively well, completing 13 of his 25 pass attempts for 153 yards. He also ran the ball six times for 40 yards.
Solich wouldn’t say whether the quarterback competition between Vick and Sprague is open heading into Marshall next week.
“You don’t want to go on a merry-go-round with your quarterbacks,” Solich said. “But, certainly we’ll take a look at the film. Both guys had their moments, and both just needed a few more moments.”
The Bobcats didn’t get on the board until Josiah Yazdani drilled a 44-yard field goal on Ohio’s opening possession of the second half to cut the Wildcats lead to 17-3.
At his press conference on Tuesday, Solich talked about how difficult it is to prepare for a team such as Kentucky in only a week’s time because of the Wildcats’ potent offensive attack.
The Wildcats started hot, scoring two touchdowns within the first seven minutes of the game. The Bobcats’ defense looked overmatched, as the Wildcats were throwing and running with ease in the first quarter.
After the first, the Bobcats defense tightened up.
After allowing 187 yards and those two touchdowns in the first quarter, the Bobcats gave up just 215 yards and two field goals over the final three quarters of the game.
“I think our defense played well enough,” Solich said. “If we could have just gathered an offense that was able to get more first downs, especially early in the game and work field position, but it really didn’t happen that way.”
Redshirt freshman linebacker Quentin Poling finished with 2.5 sacks in the game, including a key sack on a third-and-goal for the Wildcats late in the second quarter. It forced the Wildcats to attempt a short field goal, which Wildcats’ kicker Austin MacGinnis missed.
“I don’t know why we took a while to get going,” Solich said. “[Kentucky] is a good football team, so that has something to do with it, but we did not execute at the start of the game, and that cost us.”