OXFORD — Miami University’s up-and-down football season swerved downward Saturday afternoon.

The exhilaration of last week’s dramatic victory at Central Michigan was replaced by long faces following the RedHawks’ 34-13 loss to Ohio University at Yager Stadium.

“I hate this feeling more than anything,” Miami quarterback Zac Dysert said. “I think everyone on the team does.”

A game that started so well for the RedHawks, who took a 7-0 lead and were in a position to make it 14-0, turned sour quickly as the Bobcats scored 27 unanswered points while taking advantage of six Miami turnovers.

“I’ll take the blame today,” said Dysert, who passed for 332 yards and two touchdowns but also was intercepted four times and lost a fumble. “We just have to calm down and let things come to us a little bit.”

Miami coach Michael Haywood said he tried to keep the players calm and focused during the week, but that wasn’t easy with the hype surrounding what everyone knew was a showdown for first place.

“The outside world is making such a big deal out of this game and internally we’re trying to make it just one of five more games,” he said.

“This was kind of a different setting than the guys were used to,” Miami strong safety Jordan Gafford said. “You try not to think about it ... Coach was right. You could tell guys were pressing. We know if we don’t shoot ourselves in the foot, we’re still a good football team.”

The shooting began after Miami took a 7-0 lead four minutes into the game on a 15-yard touchdown pass from Dysert to Armand Robinson.

Roman Lawson forced an Ohio fumble on the ensuing kickoff and true freshman Demetrius Quarles recovered for Miami at the Bobcat 32.

The RedHawks moved to the 12, but later three consecutive plays — an offensive pass interference penalty, a reverse that lost 13 yards, and a sack — resulted in the loss of 39 yards.

“You get 14 points down, now there’s some concern,” Ohio coach Frank Solich said, “but our defense stepped up and did a great job of keeping them even out of field-goal range.”

Nick Harwell did set a Miami single-game record with 219 receiving yards, though the catch that will be remembered most was the 81-yard gain which should have been a touchdown, except that he ditched the ball a fraction of a second too soon, just before he reached the goal line. The ball went out of the end zone and Ohio got the ball at the 20.

The RedHawks (4-4, 3-1 Mid-American Conference) stand one-half game behind the Bobcats (5-3, 4-1).