Detroit Disappointment

Same city, same result. Just like the MAC Championship at Ford Field, the Bobcats again fell short in the Motor City at the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl. Boy, would it have been tasty to get a first bowl win at the Pizza Bowl (and wow, isn't that cheesy). But again, the MAC gets off to a bad start during bowl season. My thoughts:

- Again, the Bobcats came out completely flat. The first half performance left the following adjectives in my head: disgusting, horrendous, embarrassing. Outside of two plays, the Shannon Ballard fumble return TD and the defense's fourth down stop, Ohio did nothing right. To give up 21 unanswered points to a 6-6 team on ESPN in a bowl game is embarrassing. There's no nice way to put it. Ballard's return and the 4th down stop were the only plays that kept Ohio from being completely finished.

- Despite the horror that was the first half, I have to give the defense credit for the second. They came out with intensity and shutdown Marshall's offense. They just couldn't stop the Herd when it counted most, on Marshall's 8 play, 35 yard final drive. Yes, the Herd missed the FG but the Bobcats only had 57 seconds left with no timeouts left, to get a TD, which leads me to my next point...

- TIMEOUTS! Game after game, I see Ohio burn through timeouts. It is probably my biggest frustration with Coach Solich. He used the first timeout with 7:53 left in the 3rd quarter, then the second timeout with 13:12 left in the 4th quarter. So for the final 13 minutes of a close game in which it was trailing, Ohio had only one timeout. It is just poor management to be down to one timeout at that point in the game. Marshall had all three of its timeouts for the final two minutes. I knew this was going to come back to bite them and it did, when Marshall ran the clock all the way down to :57 on its last drive because Ohio had just the one timeout.

- And this is not the first time it has happened...

- In the MAC Championship game, trailing Central Michigan, Ohio had one timeout left for the final 9:09.
- Down seven against UConn, Ohio had one timeout for the final 5:05.
- Down 6-3 against Kent State, Ohio used its final timeout at the 13:13 mark of the 4th quarter.

This is an alarming trend. Yes, timeouts are there to be used but when you are behind in close games, you really have to be judicious with using them.

- That said, I'm not sure if 10 minutes and three timeouts would have been enough for the Ohio offense to drive down the field. The rushing game has been a weak link but today was really bad. 24 carries, 12 yards. Just 123 total yards. Terrence McCrae made an excellent TD catch but the Bobcats' only TD drive of the day was aided by great field position from a blocked punt. Their longest drive of the day was 12 plays, 61 yards and 28 of those yards came from Marshall personal fouls.

- Didn't you just have a feeling it wasn't going to be the Bobcats' day when LaVon Brazill barely overthrew an open Taylor Price for what would have been a TD? Ohio thrives on big plays and after just missing out on one, did not score on that possession or again.

- What else? Matt Weller shockingly misses a 29-yard FG. Chris Garrett gets nothing on a 4th and 1 at the Marshall 25. A lot just didn't go the Bobcats' way.

- And with all of these issues, the Bobcats still had a chance at the end and only lost by four. Yes, they did a lot wrong. The pass game was stagnant and the run game non-existent. The special teams had its good (the punt block) and bad (Booker's punt return TD for Marshall, Weller's missed FG). The defense came out slow but held the Herd scoreless in the second half. But the comeback effort showed good resiliency and prevented the Bobcats from being blown out with people watching on ESPN.

- It has been a good season. Ohio gave UConn and Tennessee a test, won the MAC East and played some really good football in the last few regular season games. But the Detroit trips have been a disappointment. I did not expect a win over Central Michigan. I was truthfully glad to see them get there and give the Chippewas a game. I did think the Bobcats would beat a 6-6 Marshall team led by an interim coach. Maybe it says something about the MAC, which hasn't won a bowl game since 2006, that a middle of the pack C-USA team is better than the MAC's second best. I'm not sure. We'll see how the MAC performs in the next two weeks. But overall, the Bobcats have a lot to be proud of, despite today's loss. They rebounded after a tough 2008 and put together some performances in 2009 to build on for 2010.

- Finally, kudos to this senior class. Lee Renfro, Theo Scott, Taylor Price, Chris Garrett, to name a few, will be missed.