The Robert Morris football team dropped its final non-conference bout with a 35-10 thrashing to the Howard Bison.

Howard came into Saturday as a top-10 team in scoring offense and it was clear what the difference-maker was: the running game.

Last year, the Colonials were in the bottom five in the country in rushing defense and struggled in running the ball in their winless campaign.

Although RMU has been in the middle of the pack this season and averages 176 yards a game, the Bison stopped the Colonials in their tracks with only 43 yards on 25 attempts.

Head coach Bernard Calrk put it bluntly.

“It was abysmal,” Clarks said. “[Our] rushing game’s not there. It’s nowhere near close to where it needs to be. But, we also gotta focus on our offense and execution.”

On the other side, Howard found the open hole as they had 146 yards to show on the ground, including two touchdowns from Bison quarterback Quinten Williams.

“[Howard] did a great job of running the ball,” Clark said. “We only stopped the run twice this year, against two teams we should have beaten. It’s a situation where we have to pick it up as a defense. We gotta make sure we make a tackle and make sure to wrap guys up and bring them to the ground.”

Graduate running back Ian Wheeler also had a day with 59 of his 215 all-purpose yards coming from a touchdown run in the fourth quarter. Wheeler also had a kickoff return for a touchdown.

Colonial quarterback Anthony Chiccitt could not carry over his career game on homecoming last week. The senior went 25-for-39 with 139 yards with a touchdown, his first interception thrown this season and two fumbles.

“He’s still got some work to do,” Clark said. That’s why they call it a season. We have a few more games to play. So, we got time to work on and keep things going, but [he’s] going to get better. I know [he’s] a fine quarterback. We just gotta make sure he’s doing the things that he’s capable of doing.”

Noah Robinson came into today second in the country in receiving yards. The Bison shut him down, with the Old Dominion transfer catching five balls for only 25 yards.

However, tight end Chaese Jackson stepped up as the leading receiver with seven receptions for a season-high 76 yards. He caught the Colonial touchdown of the game for his fourth of the season.

“Chaese did have a good day. He got a touchdown. He caused a couple of passes, but Chase is a good player. He’s competitive and that’s what he’s proven, that he’s a competitive player.”

With non-conference and conference play beginning, Clarke spoke on the importance of getting ready for a new test.

“We got to get ready for it. There’s no doubt about it. We didn’t want to finish off our non-conference like this, but we got to get ready for Gardner Webb. That’s the important thing. This is a good eye-opener for us. [Howard] is a good football team. Top-10 in the nation in scoring offense. So this is a good eye-opener to get us ready for the conference.”

The Colonials begin Big South-OVC play on the road for the next two games, starting in Boiling Springs, NC, against Gardner-Webb.

Last year, the Colonials were embarrassed on their home field with a 48-0 loss on homecoming.