Miami Stuns Ohio 34-17 With 27 Unanswered Points as MACtion Opens Week 11

The Bricks change hands in one half

Ohio walked into Yager Stadium on Tuesday night with the Mid-American Conference in its hands: 7–2 overall, 5–0 in the league, winners of six straight, off to the program’s first 5–0 conference start since 1997. For a half, the Battle of the Bricks went exactly that way. Ohio led 7–0 after one quarter and 17–7 at halftime, and Miami (Ohio) looked like a team still carrying last week’s collapse — the 34–31 overtime loss to Buffalo in which the RedHawks blew a 31–16 lead late in the third quarter.

Then the second half started, and Ohio never scored again. Miami cut it to 17–14 in the third quarter, tied the game 17–17 on Brady Stidham’s 36-yard field goal with 14:20 left, and took the lead for good on Stidham’s 25-yarder with 3:56 to play. The finish was an avalanche in miniature: D’Shawntae Jones broke a 48-yard touchdown run with 1:55 left to make it 27–17, and 11 seconds later Amariyun Knighten returned an interception 58 yards for the touchdown that sealed a 34–17 win.

Twenty-seven unanswered points, 20 of them in the fourth quarter, against the last unbeaten team in MAC play. Head coach Chuck Martin’s team moves to 6–4 and 4–2 in the conference — bowl eligible, and suddenly very much alive in the league race. Ohio falls to 7–3 and 5–1, its six-game win streak gone, its margin at the top of the standings down to nothing. A week after Miami watched a two-score lead dissolve at home, the RedHawks were the ones doing the dissolving. That is not a typo about MACtion. That is just MACtion.

A rushing clinic in Akron

Western Michigan did not need a comeback. The Broncos went to InfoCision Stadium and ran the ball wherever they wanted, beating Akron 42–14 behind 566 total yards — 360 of them on the ground, against 60 rushing yards for the Zips.

Jalen Buckley carried 23 times for 121 yards and two touchdowns, including a 35-yard score on fourth-and-1 in the third quarter that turned a 21–7 game into a rout. Cole Cabana ran nine times for 107 yards and ripped off an 82-yard touchdown on third-and-4 in the second quarter. The Broncos even absorbed a scare: starting quarterback Broc Lowry left early with a cut on his face, backup Mason Reynolds broke a 35-yard run and threw the game’s first touchdown pass, and Lowry still returned to throw a 20-yard touchdown to Keivin Boone-Nelson II in the fourth. Reynolds later added a 10-yard touchdown pass to tight end Nate Levicki, who caught both of the backup’s scoring throws.

Akron’s night had one bright thread — Cibastian Broughton found Marcel Williams five times for 85 yards and two touchdowns, from 35 and 39 yards — and one ugly one, as starting right tackle Allen Jones Jr. was ejected for targeting in the third quarter. The Zips never led. At 1–9 and 0–6 in the MAC, Akron is still looking for its first conference win, with trips and home dates running out. Western Michigan, at 7–3 and 5–1, pulls level with Ohio at the top of the league — and the Broncos entered the night having won three straight in this series, which Akron has not won since October 15, 2017.

Bowling Green survives the rally

The third game of the night nearly produced the second comeback. Bowling Green led Kent State 17–14 at halftime at Doyt L. Perry Stadium, stretched it to 27–14 with a 10–0 third quarter, and then spent the fourth quarter hanging on. Kent State scored 14 points in the final period, the last of them on Nakai Amachree’s 48-yard touchdown run with exactly 2:00 remaining, to cut the Falcons’ lead to 33–28.

That was the last gasp. Bowling Green took the kickoff, knelt the game out, and Eddie George’s Falcons moved to 3–7 and 3–3 in the MAC. Kent State falls to 3–7 and 2–4 under Mark Carney — a painful line for the Golden Flashes, who arrived needing to win out to stay bowl eligible and now cannot get there.

Georgia is the new No. 1

The night’s other reveal came from the selection committee. In the second College Football Playoff rankings, released Tuesday, Georgia (8–1) climbed to No. 1, replacing Miami (Fla.), which fell six spots to No. 7 after Saturday’s 31–24 loss at Notre Dame. Unbeaten Utah (9–0) sits at No. 2, Alabama (7–2) rose to No. 3, unbeaten UCLA (9–0) jumped four spots to No. 4, and Notre Dame (8–1) made the night’s biggest leap, up six places to No. 5.

Texas is No. 6, Tennessee climbed five spots to No. 8, and Indiana slid five to No. 9. Ohio State’s tumble continued — the Buckeyes fell eight places to No. 20 at 6–3 — and Boise State (8–1), at No. 24, holds the highest spot of any Group of 6 team. We set up the committee’s Notre Dame problem in yesterday’s rankings preview, and Monday’s notebook covered the Heisman flip the Miami loss set off.

Wednesday keeps it going

MACtion does not pause. Wednesday brings three more league games, headlined by Buffalo at Ball State, with UMass at Toledo and Sacramento State at Central Michigan completing the midweek slate. The MAC race that Ohio controlled on Tuesday morning now has two 5–1 teams at the top and a 4–2 Miami team that just beat the leader at home. November in this league rarely asks permission.

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