Ohio will try to maintain its first-place position in the MAC East when it travels to Ball State on Tuesday night. The Bobcats have rattled off a five-game winning streak since losing to Kent State in overtime to open conference play. Ball State has lost two of its last three games, including a setback against Toledo last week.
Ohio played a difficult non-conference schedule early in the season, getting blown out by Penn State and Iowa State. The Bobcats also suffered a loss to Kent State in overtime to open MAC play in early October, so they were sitting below the .500 mark at that point. They have bounced back with a five-game winning streak to completely turn their season around, though. Ohio has won four of those five games by double digits, including last week’s 37-21 win at Miami (Ohio) as a 2.5-point favorite. The Bobcats have also won three games as underdogs during this stretch, knocking off Western Michigan, Northern Illinois and Buffalo.
Another win over Miami of Ohio, another brick ?????#BeatMiami pic.twitter.com/RwVW3nzkef
— Ohio Football (@OhioFootball) November 12, 2022
They have now covered the spread in six consecutive games since Week 4. Ohio is in the driver’s seat in the division, sitting one game ahead of Buffalo and Bowling Green in the loss column. The Bobcats will face Bowling Green in their season finale next week in a game that could decide who represents the division in the MAC title game. Junior quarterback Kurtis Rourke has completed 68.8% of his passes for 3,087 yards, 24 touchdowns and four interceptions. He has been spreading the ball around, with four players going over 480 receiving yards. Freshman running back Sieh Bangura leads the rushing attack with 640 yards and eight touchdowns, averaging 5.0 yards per carry.