Following Ohio State's 37-9 win over Ohio on Saturday night, Bobcats head coach Brian Smith offered some brief comments on the game and position his team finds itself in now sporting a 1-2 record three games into its schedule.
Although Smith mostly kept his perspective focused on the positives of his own side, he did take the time to praise the Buckeyes' defensive unit as a whole. He highlighted the well-roundedness of the Silver Bullets in stating that Ohio State has "a lot of good players on that side of the ball." Smith further complimented defensive coordinator Matt Patricia for his ability to implement within the collegiate talent he now oversees familiar schemes to what he deployed at the NFL level during his time with the New England Patriots.
“I'd say there are defintiely NFL concepts that [Matt Patricia] runs. I know a lot of what he's doing carried over from what he was running with the patriots. i think the personnel is good there and there's a lot of good players on that side of the ball.” — Brian Smith
Smith particularly appreciated the effort Ohio demonstrated on defense during the toughest test of his team's season thus far. The Bobcats turned OSU over on downs on the Buckeyes' first offensive possession of the game and did not allow a touchdown until the final three minutes of the first half. Ohio's resilience continued early into the second half, as Ohio State would not achieve a two-touchdown lead in the game until just over six minutes remained in the third quarter.
“i thought our defense played extremely well. i think they played hard, i think they tackled really well; there's a lot of good things that they did.” — Brian Smith
Although the Bobcats will now need to win their next game to rebound to a .500 record, Ohio seems poised to do so given its fourth opponent this season — Gardner-Webb — currently sits among the FCS ranks. That represents a considerable step down in competition from the first three games on the Bobcats' schedule, all of which took place against Power Four schools. Smith made sure to point this fact out in the postgame presser as a means of emphasizing how battle-tested his team already finds itself as Ohio prepares for conference play in the MAC two weeks from now.
“There's Two Teams in the country That Played Three Power Four Schools to STart their season. THat was Us and Notre Dame... makes us extremely proud of them, how hard that they played and how well we've executed at times against a lot of really good opponents week in and week out.” — Brian Smith
The Bobcats will play their first MAC opponent in the final week of September when Ohio hosts Eddie George's Bowling Green squad in Athens. That meeting will represent the true start of the Bobcats' conference title defense campaign after Ohio demolished Miami (OH) 38-3 to win the MAC Championship in December of last year.
