Wes Williams wasn’t able to take a direct path to the quarterback, but it was direct enough.

The Miami University redshirt junior sacked Ohio’s Tyler Tettleton at the MU 10-yard line as time expired Saturday, preserving a drama-laden 23-20 victory over the 23rd-ranked Bobcats at Yager Stadium.

“Pandemonium, man. It was crazy,” Williams said. “That’s what you play football for.”

Previously unbeaten OU drove 68 yards in 75 seconds to reach the 7-yard line with 0:09 on the clock. With no timeouts remaining, the Bobcats opted to try one more play on first down and then kick a field goal if necessary.

But Tettleton scrambled and eventually got dropped by Williams, setting off a raucous red-and-white celebration and ending the RedHawk football team’s two-game losing streak.

“Just looking at Tettleton, it didn’t look like he was about to call the kicking team out there,” Williams said. “I bumped down from mike to end, and I just had one thought in my head: I’m going to go get him.”

Tettleton admitted he lost track of the fact that Ohio was out of timeouts and that he needed to throw the ball away if he didn’t get a pass off quickly.

“I just totally forgot. That’s my fault,” Tettleton said. “I was trying to make a play.”

OU coach Frank Solich said he didn’t have a chance to tell Tettleton exactly what to do on the play. He figured the veteran QB understood the situation.

“We wanted to win it right there,” Solich said. “Nine seconds is plenty of time to get one more play off, knowing that it’s a throw. Either the guy’s there or he’s not there.

“It does not come down to one player. There’s a lot of blame that can be thrown around. We could’ve coached a better game. We could’ve executed a better game on both sides of the ball.”

Kaleb Patterson provided the game-winning points on a 31-yard field goal with 1:24 remaining. He was perfect on three 3-pointers in the contest.

Zac Dysert completed 21-of-36 passes for 311 yards and a touchdown (to Nick Harwell) for MU, which improved to 4-4 overall and 3-1 in the Mid-American Conference East Division. Jamire Westbrook added a TD and 65 yards on 16 carries.

It was the RedHawks’ first victory over the Bobcats (7-1, 3-1) since 2005.

“Obviously, it’s a big win for our program,” Miami coach Don Treadwell said. “We anticipated this type of a game. You’ve got to give credit to those young men that are the warriors on the field. I’m very proud of our young men. It was truly a team effort across the board.”

MU never trailed, yet squandered a 20-7 lead before a Family Weekend crowd of 19,326. Chris Wade and Dayonne Nunley paced the hosts with 11 total tackles apiece.

Miami visits Buffalo next Saturday.