What an ugly mess at the Rubber Bowl

Was that an ugly game or what? Kent State fumbled four times and lost two of them, threw two interceptions, got flagged for six penalties, punted six times, lost the Wagon Wheel and simply got outplayed. But before I get to that .

The real black eye comes from our wonderful student section who decided to chant “F*** you Akron” throughout the game and then allegedly tried to rip out some bleacher seats. Real classy. I wonder what all those alumni think as they sit in the crowd ear-muffing their kids? I wonder what recruits and their parents think as they hear this tasteless banter coming from our crowd? Thanks for setting Kent State back a few more years. I know this isn’t the first time they chanted this at an opposing team, but it should be the last.

. Now back to the atrocity on the field.

Kent State’s team motto this season has been “finish.” Saturday at the Rubber Bowl, the Flashes never even got started.

Kent State began six drives inside their 45. Six possessions! And all they could muster was 10 points from them. But it gets even worse. Seven of those points were gimme points as the Flashes recovered a fumble and began their drive on the Akron two.

Another one of those six possessions came after Akron had a bad snap during a punt in the endzone, a play that would have been a safety if it wasn’t for a missed tackle. And don’t forget about the boneheaded fake field goal.

The defense did a good job against a sub-par Akron offense, holding them to just 245 yards of total offense. Akron quarterback Carlton Jackson struggled the entire day. He was 1-11 for 20 yards in the first half and wasn’t much better in the second half.

The bottom line: When you are winning the field position game and your defense is shutting the opponent down, you must put points on the board.

The turnovers are absolutely killing this team. Now with 14 in four games, when will this madness end? I could argue that Kent State should have been up at least 21 points against Kentucky at the half, but had three redzone turnovers. I could argue that they played down to a rival Zip team Saturday and had four painful turnovers. They probably wouldn’t have beaten Kentucky regardless, but Akron is another story, rival or not.

“I just thought we were absolutely our own worst enemy again,” coach Doug Martin said. “The only thing that can beat us right now are turnovers and that’s what beat us today offensively. The fumbles really were the difference in the game. We were up and down the field on Akron’s defense, they had absolutely no answers for us.”

Unfortunately, right now, Martin has no answers for all these turnovers.

Contact sports editor Jonas Fortune

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