5 takeaways from CMU football's victory over Ohio
1. Rawls can be a tool for the defense
While senior running back Thomas Rawls didn’t play on defense, he may have been the Chippewas biggest defensive asset.
His 40 carries for 229 yards and two scores kept the clock moving and forced Ohio’s offense to stay sidelined for more than two-thirds of the game.
2. Enjoy Davis while he’s here
For most wide receivers, 10 catches, 181 yards and two touchdowns signify a career day. For senior Titus Davis, this stat line comes on a day when he wasn’t even at 100 percent health.
Davis has the ability to take control of a game, regardless if he’s full speed or not.
“I’m hurting,” Davis said. “You’re going to be sore after games like that. I felt good pregame and during the game, but I can tell you right now, I’m feeling it.”
3. Rush still struggling to hold on to the ball
Sophomore quarterback Cooper Rush had a solid day throwing the ball, going 17-for-27 with 233 yards, two scores and zero picks. Rush has brought the interception numbers down from last year, but his biggest struggle is holding onto the ball.
Rush fumbled twice Saturday, including one in the final minute of the first half that gave the Bobcats the ball in the red zone. Ohio couldn’t convert and settled for a field goal, moving the score to 14-3 at the half.
4. Third down really was the key play
There’s a reason the student section pulls out and waves their keys on every third down.
CMU converted 13 of its 17 third down attempts (76.47 percent) while Ohio was three out of 12. The Chippewas came into Saturday 108th out of 125 teams in the country, converting 33.33 percent of third down chances.
Part of the reason for the success was senior running back Thomas Rawls, who was able to convert on many short third down situations throughout the game.
5. Chippewas look to start new homecoming streak
CMU’s win Saturday broke a streak of four consecutive homecoming losses and was the first homecoming victory in Head Coach Dan Enos’ career.
Prior to the four straight losses, the Chippewas were on a five-game homecoming winning streak. And prior to that, they had lost six consecutive.
The Chippewas have a streaky homecoming past, with a string of eight consecutive victories from 1950-1957 and a 17-game winning stretch from 1966-1982.
