Yet Ohio still was able to pile up 17 answered points and extend its win streak in the “Battle of the Bricks” series to five with a 45-28 win. The difference was composure. The Bobcats’ maintained theirs. The RedHawks did not.
Ohio turned both of Miami’s first-half turnovers into touchdowns, but the score still was 28-28 late in the third quarter and the RedHawks trailed 35-28 going into the fourth before they drew three penalties on one play — a pass interference and two unsportsmanlike conduct, both on normally implacable junior middle linebacker Junior McMullen. The ball went from Ohio’s 31-yard line to Miami’s 24, setting up quarterback Nathan Roarke’s third rushing touchdown to go with his three passing touchdowns with no interceptions.
“We felt pretty good at halftime,” Martin said Thursday. “We had two turnovers and had scored two touchdowns and felt like we’d had a chance to score more. We got three straight stops to start the second half. Even after the touchdown (late in the third quarter), we’re only down seven and we’ve had two turnovers. We were right where we wanted to be.”
Martin blamed Miami’s defensive breakdowns on “kids trying to do too much” and “trying to do other people’s jobs.” McMullen’s tantrum, which led to his ejection, caught him off guard.
“Junior was upset,” the fourth-year coach said. “I’m not sure if he was upset about the play or other calls that weren’t called. It wasn’t characteristic.”
Fifth-year senior cornerback Heath Harding added this one to the ever-growing list of winnable games that includes the season-opening loss at Marshall, the come-from-ahead loss to Cincinnati, the Bowling Green game in which an unusual turnover cost Miami a chance to score the go-ahead touchdown in the last two minutes, and a three-point loss at Kent State.
“We just came up short,” the Dayton Christian product said. “That’s been the story of the year. It’s been disappointing. We had high expectations, but that’s life.”
The loss leaves Miami (3-6, 2-3 MAC East Division) tied with Bowling Green for third place, two games behind Ohio and Akron, who play Nov. 14. The RedHawks have virtually no shot at matching their division co-championship of last season, but they still can qualify for a bowl with wins in their last three games, a run starting with Akron on Nov. 7 at home. Kickoff is 7:30 p.m., and the game is on ESPN2.
Harding approaches the final three games of his five years in Oxford with mixed feelings. On one hand, he’s proud that he and his classmates were able to help turn around the program from 0-12 in 2013 to a 2016 bowl berth. On the other, they leave work undone.
They raised expectations, then didn’t meet them.
“We’re not very satisfied,” Harding said. “We didn’t get the job done. There were expectations we hadn’t had in a long time.”
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