It was a windy fall day in Athens, with a bit of a chill in the air.  It is the kind of day that suggests that the seasons are changing, and Bobcats fans hope that it wasn’t symbolic for how their year has changed after what happened on the field after an ugly, 20-11 loss against Kent State.

“It looked like a fairly complete breakdown in all phases of the game,” head coach Frank Solich said in the post-game press conference.  Three turnovers, lack of an offensive rhythm, and three of 13 third down conversions added up to a 20-11 Kent State victory, and had the green-and-white faithful seeing visions of last year’s team.  For a team that was tied for the MAC East lead at the beginning of the day and seemed to have put the past’s bad habits behind them, it was as unwelcome of a change as the cold weather.

The game started off well for Ohio, especially after a freak play seemed to convey the fact that Lady Luck was still a Bobcat supporter.  Theo Scott was intercepted by Brian Lainhart of the Flashes, who was then stripped on his way to the ground.  Jordan Thompson recovered the ball and returned the ball 47 yards to the three yard line, setting up a Matt Weller field goal.  The story of the rest of the first half was one of special teams; Kent’s Matt Rinehart kept Ohio pinned back with his booming punts, and Lenerick Muldrow’s punt return set up the equalizing field goal.

The Bobcats again struggled to run the ball, ending the first half with only 12 rushing yards.  Without the ground threat, the offense struggled to put together drives.  “Nothing was going right,” Taylor Price said.  ”Our offense never found a rhythm, the ball kept bouncing away, it was just an off day.”

Conversely, the second quarter saw the Golden Flashes offense begin to hit its stride, and freshman QB Spencer Keith in particular was heating up. The Bobcats still couldn’t find a rhythm in the second half, when backup quarterback Tyler Tettleton fumbled the first shotgun snap for a loss, and two plays later punter Matt Schulte dropped the long snap, barely getting away a short kick.

Ohio looked to have caught a break when Julian Posey intercepted Keith on the Flashes’ first drive deep in Ohio territory, and returned it 59 yards. After his 24-yard pass to LaVon Brazill, however, Tettleton gave the ball right back. Tettleton’s pass looked like it was heading for a touchdown, but KSU safety Dan Hartman took advantage of Tettleton’s hesitation to avoid the pass rush and snatched the ball out of the air. That was the final time that Ohio’s offense truly threatened, and the Flashes quickly established control.

Jacquise Terry found room to run time and time again, finishing with 120 yards rushing.  The Bobcats’ defense was starting to crack due to the Flashes’ domination of time of possession.   “We were out there quite long as the game progressed,” senior safety Patrick Tafua said.  ”There was a little bit of wear and tear.”

After nearly getting a stop, Kent State went for it on fourth-and-five from the Bobcat 30 midway through the third quarter. Keith found Terry on a swing pass for 20 yards, setting up a field goal and giving them a 6-3 lead that they would never relinquish. Down but not out, the final backbreaker for the ‘Cats came at the beginning of the fourth quarter: Ohio gambled on fourth and inches by lining up in shotgun.  After a miscommunication with Donte in the backfield, Scott nearly made something out of nothing. He scrambled free of the defensive lineman that had him wrapped up, and delivered a pass right to Brazill, who saw the ball bounce of his hands.

Before long, the Golden Flashes would put the game out of reach.  Keith hit Tyshon Goode for touchdowns on back-to back possessions, and a field-goal deficit had turned into 20 to 3.  Brazill gave some consolation to the fans loyal enough to stick around to the end with an exhilarating 87-yard punt return for a touchdown right before the final whistle.

Some of the blame for the loss and for the anemic offense (only 164 total yards) was the sickness of Theo Scott.  “I was throwing up after our second series,” Scott said.  Solich said running back Chris Garrett also sat out most of the game because of illness.  Scott’s illness forced Tyler Tettleton into the spotlight, and the freshman quarterback showed signs of a great future, but did very poorly keeping the ball safe. The back-to-back plays at the beginning of the second half, where he first found Brazill for a big gain, showing off his footwork to get away from pressure and his arm to put it in the perfect place, and then threw an interception in the end zone, typified his day.

The loss places Ohio a game behind Temple in the MAC East, but there is still plenty of time to right the ship, including a match-up with the Owls in Athens on the last weekend of the year. The Bobcats take on Ball State (1-7, 1-3 MAC) next Saturday in Muncie, followed by an ESPN2 game with Buffalo (3-5, 1-3 MAC) on November 10.

“All of our goals for the season are still reachable,” Tafua said.