CMike Crupi/THE POST Ohio quarterback Kareem Wilson is tackled by Bowling Green safety Chad Long during the Falcon's 35-7 win.

BOWLING GREEN - Nothing indicated a 35-7 Ohio loss. Nothing foreshadowed a complete collapse. Fresh off their first victory of the season and with three tough losses nearly forgotten, the Bobcats put together a good week of practice, Ohio coach Jim Grobe said, even though Bowling Green would be - on paper - the easiest opponent they had faced so far this year.

Ohio (1-4 overall, 1-1 in the Mid-American Conference) had a good game plan, Grobe said. So the team was ready, even energized, when it left the locker room Saturday at Doyt L. Perry Stadium and headed out onto the wind-blown, rain-chilled field.

It didn't matter that it was homecoming, that Bowling Green was hungry too, probably even hungrier with an 0-3 record and two straight losses to Ohio over the last two years. Nothing mattered, because Ohio was going to win and head back to Athens to face Marshall, which beat Miami Saturday, next weekend. Then Ohio would find out if it was MAC Championship material.

It took just 31 seconds before Bowling Green tailback Godfrey Lewis cast that issue in doubt exactly a week before Ohio's noon kickoff with Marshall Saturday.

On the second play of the game, Lewis took a handoff. He went left, saw nothing, went right and saw Findlay - or at least the endzone that pointed toward the city south of Bowling Green.

"I really sensed that there was some energy there and we were ready to go," said Grobe, who for the first time at Ohio, will fail to improve on the previous year's record (8-3 last season). "But from the very start, we just didn't seem very sharp. We looked sluggish. We weren't the typical team I'm used to watching.

"One of the things our kids have done a pretty good job of is they usually play really hard. I looked at our kids after the game, and there were lots of tired kids. I thought they flew around really good. They just got whipped today."

Lewis's 66-yard touchdown run would have been enough to ensure a tie for Bowling Green. Ohio's offense found itself stuffed at the line all day, scrambling for fumbles five times and even throwing deep balls that never found the mark in the receiver's belly - except for one 19-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Kareem Wilson to Raynald Ray.

That touchdown late in the first quarter, when the game still had the appearance of a high school game thanks to the numerous empty seats scattered throughout the puddles, brought Ohio back into the game in everyone's minds. But no one knew that the second and third Ohio possessions of the game had drove the Bobcats out of it.

Ohio got the ball after Lewis's touchdown run and managed to keep it for four plays. On the fifth, tailback Steveland Hookfin, breaking new ground in the Ohio record book with every yard he gained , fumbled. It was the first of three lost to the Falcons on the day.

After fumble No. 1 for Ohio, Bowling Green touchdown No. 2 came 10 plays later. The scoreboard read 9:36 and 14-0. The rain continued to fall.

"They were more aggressive today," said Wilson, who moved into second place in Ohio's rushing record book with 3,022 yards. "Hands down, they wanted the game more than we did. We knew they were a good team. We knew we had to start fast. We just didn't meet their challenge."

By not being able to move the ball, Ohio's offense hurt the defense. Looking at the stat sheet, it's easy to place blame on the Ohio secondary. Bowling Green quarterback Ricky Schneider, making his second start of the season, completed 13-of-18 for 178 yards. Again and again, his receivers made gravity-defying, acrobatic catches to burn the Bobcats.

But to Grobe, the Bowling Green's possession time (35:41 to Ohio's 24:19) was a key stat.

"Our problem was not a defensive problem as much as it was a team problem because our offense did not do their job," Grobe said. "Our team is very similar to BG's, because we want to keep our defense off the field. It wasn't just the defense. Our defense spent too much time out there today."

Although Ohio's touchdown, which followed a blocked punt by Ohio linebacker Leigh Barbour, gave Ohio possession on the Bowling Green 17 and got it back in the game, nothing it did after that ensured that it would stay in the game. The Falcons scored two more touchdowns in the second quarter. In the second half, Ohio didn't even threaten by getting the ball into the redzone.

The collapse was complete.