By Jonah Bronstein
AMHERST — Turner Gill prefers the term green zone to red zone, because he doesn’t want his offensive players to think about stopping when they cross the opposition’s 20-yard-line. The Buffalo Bulls coach believes the subtle semantics can make the difference between field goals and touchdowns.
It didn’t work out that way in Saturday’s 20-13 loss to visiting Central Michigan. The Bulls drove inside the 10 on two occasions and came away with just six points. With the game on the line in the fourth quarter, they got it down to the 11 but couldn’t go any farther.
“I think when we got down there, we were hesitant,” said UB wideout Naaman Roosevelt (St. Joe’s). “We have to stay focused.”
Trailing by a touchdown with just over nine minutes left, Zach Maynard connected with Roosevelt for a four-yard gain. Roosevelt thought he had passed the first-down marker, but the referees spotted him a couple inches short. Less than a yard away from a new set of downs, Gill didn’t even think twice about going for it. But Josh Violanti, the Bulls’ 282-pound center making his first collegiate start, couldn’t create space for a quarterback sneak, and the 185-pound Maynard couldn’t create something out of nothing.
“We don’t deserve to win the football game if we can’t get fourth-and-inches,” Gill said.
UB got the ball twice more. On the first possession, Maynard unloaded a beautiful deep spiral to Roosevelt on the third play that was intercepted by Josh Gordy. On the last series, Maynard underthrew a Hail Mary pass, then got a mulligan by way of a pass interference call, but this time overthrew the Bulls’ tallest receiver, Marcus Rivers, in the end zone.
With that, the defending Mid-American Conference champion Bulls are now 1-4 on the young season, and 0-2 in conference play, two games behind rival Temple for first place in the East division. UB hosts Division I-AA Gardner-Webb next week, then returns to MAC play with an Oct. 17 home game against Akron.
“I think there were some things I saw in every phase — offense, defense, special teams — where there was some progress,” Gill said. “We can build on that. There’s still (seven) ball games to go where we can get some things accomplished.”
Central Michigan, the preseason favorite to win the MAC, improves to 4-1 overall and 3-0 in conference play, and has now won 16 straight cross-division games.
The Chippewas quarterback, Dan LeFevour, has drawn numerous comparisons to Florida star Tim Tebow, and he showed why before an announced crowd of more than 18,000 at UB Stadium, completing 22 of 28 passes for 268 yards and two touchdowns and one interception, and picking up another 98 yards on 21 rushes. He even found his way into the defensive huddle a couple of times, coach Butch Jones said.
Still, the UB offense produced more yards (433-412) and turned the ball over less. Maynard completed 16 of 31 passes for 210 yards, and ran for another 47 yards. He threw a 24-yard laser to Roosevelt for a second-quarter touchdown, and protected the ball until that late interception, which didn’t seem to be his fault.
Ike Nduka made his first career start in place of Brandon Thermilus, who had been ineffective in UB’s previous three losses. Nduka bobbled his first carry, dropped the first ball thrown his way, and had another early fumble that he recovered himself, but by the end of the game, he had rushed for 172 yards on 22 carries (7.8 average). Niagara Falls native James Starks is the only player in UB’s Division I-A era to rush for more yards in a single game. He did so five times.
“I would’ve thought if we had this amount of yards we’d probably be successful and win the football game,” Gill said.
Nduka provided some of the explosive play potential the Bulls have been desperate for since Starks decided to have season-ending shoulder surgery. He ripped off a 48-yard run, the longest of the season for UB, that led to one of the field goals, and had a 35-yard touchdown run that was reduced to a 16-yard gain because of a holding penalty.
Roosevelt caught six passes for 114 yards. It was his 11th career 100-yard game, and he’s now seven receptions shy of tying Drew Haddad’s school record.
Scott Pettigrew led an improved run defense with 10 total tackles (six solo). Davonte Shannon corralled LeFevour in the backfield for a big third-down stop in the second half, and intercepted him in the first half to give UB the ball on the Chippewas 47. But the Bulls amassed just one yard on the drive, not even giving themselves a chance to stall in the red zone.
Gill said he plans to analyze each of the red zone plays from this game “and come up with a different gameplan for how we can execute better from here on out. There’s some credit to Central Michigan, but there are some things we can execute a little bit better, and we can put our players in better position.”
Contact reporter Jonah Bronstein at 282-2311, ext. 2258.
