The Buffalo football team’s chances of making a bowl game for the second consecutive season seem to be fleeting at best.
The Buffalo Bulls have lost three straight games and are still looking for their first road win of the season. Buffalo is a team that relies heavily on its passing game led by Joe Licata, who is completing 64.6 percent of his passes for 20 touchdowns and nine interceptions. Licata has five touchdowns and four picks in his last two games, and Buffalo has 21 passing plays of 25 or more yards. Ron Willoughby and Devon Hughes have combined for more than 900 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns, while Matt Weiser has caught a touchdown in two of his last three games. Buffalo’s ground game is averaging 4.2 yards per carry and Anthone Taylor leads the way with 951 yards and nine touchdowns. However, Taylor has not scored in his last two games. Defensively, the Buffalo Bulls are allowing 33.1 points, 428.4 yards, and they’ve forced 11 turnovers and 17 sacks. Lee Skinner leads Buffalo with 69 tackles and Adam Redden has 12 tackles for loss.
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One year ago, the Bobcats began a November slide that soured an entire season.
It started at Buffalo with a nonsensical safety call that is as bad as any officiating decision ever rendered on the field of play.
“That was as shocking a call as I’ver seen,” said Ohio quarterback Derrius Vick, about referee Tom McCabe’s safety call on Bobcat QB Tyler Tettleton…on the four-yard line.
The Bobcats deserve the blame for the three-game slide in November 2013 however. Blowout losses, non-competitive efforts and a distinct lack of enthusiasm and passion were more telling about Ohio’s late-season than one horrifically blown call.
Now, 365 days later, the Bobcats are hoping to end the year a different way. Ohio (4-5, 2-3 Mid-American Conference) has labored through sputtering offensive performances, defensive lapses and an unsatisfying three months to get to this point.
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Ohio can still salvage a winning season, and probably a bowl game bid, if it can run the table in November. It starts Wednesday night with a nationally televised bout against similarly floundering Buffalo (3-5, 1-3 MAC).
Ohio head coach Frank Solich hasn’t had a losing season in Athens since 2008. The Bobcats are on that edge now with three games to play. He’s credited this club’s mental makeup all season long, and believes a strong finish is certainly possible, if not probable.
Physically, the Bobcats are feeling better. Ohio has had 10 days off since a three-touchdown loss at Western Michigan on Oc. 25. That left the Bobcats as one of the last teams in the entire country to have a bye week.
It’s helped. Ohio will have healthy running backs in A.J. Ouellette and Daz Patterson ready to go. In the secondary, safeties Devin Jones, Josh Kristoff and Blake Scipio have all been pronounced ready to play.
And at quarterback, Vick will resume the starter’s role. He missed four complete games after suffering a knee injury back on Sept. 20.
The Bobcats are healthier, but need to execute better. Offensive mistakes — penalties most noticeably — have prevented Ohio from having the firepower to challenge in several games this season.
The Bulls have a potent offense, and are typically a match up problem for Ohio defensively. Junior RB Anthone Taylor is a load, and is just 49 yards shy of 1,000 for the season. He’ll be the hammer for UB, which has rushed for an average of 244 yards per game in its last three meetings with the Bobcats.
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