Buffalo entered Saturday’s game against Ohio with the opportunity to play the role of a bull in a china shop, ready to dismantle the Bobcats’ perfect season.
Ohio’s win, a 38-31 victory against Buffalo (1-4, 0-2 Mid-American Conference,) fit the mold of a traditional MAC battle defined by turnovers and chippy penalties.
As a reward for the Bobcats’ grind-it-out win, they became the first bowl-eligible Football Bowl Subdivision team in the nation.
“It’s a testament to our program, to all of our players and our coaching,” said redshirt senior offensive lineman Eric Herman. “Being bowl eligible is a great gift and it’s a testament to how hard we play on the field.
Ohio coach Frank Solich said coming into the game that Buffalo’s run game hinges on big, physical offensive linemen and powerful running backs — an outlook that the Bulls didn’t take long to prove correct.
On the opening drive of the game, Buffalo bullied its way down the field picking up three runs of 10 yards or more before freshman running back Devin Campbell ran straight up the middle for a three-yard touchdown to give Buffalo a 7-0 lead with 11:23 left in the first quarter.
On the ensuing possession, Ohio sustained a drive deep into Buffalo territory despite committing a pair of unnecessary roughness penalties. The march was stopped short, though, when redshirt junior quarterback Tyler Tettleton threw into double coverage and was picked off by Buffalo junior cornerback Najja Johnson.
Tettleton’s miscue was his first in 161 passing attempts and his first since last year’s MAC Championship loss.
After the interception, Buffalo drove 93 yards in 14 plays culminating in a 10-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Alex Zordich to freshman wide receiver Devon Hughes for a 14-0 lead.
Freshman running back Daz’mond Patterson returned the ensuing kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown — tying a program record for the longest such play — to provide Ohio with a much-needed counterpunch that pulled the Bobcats within a touchdown with time winding down in the opening quarter.
“It was a pretty big boost for our football team,” Patterson said. “The blocking was great, from what I remember the only guy I had to make miss was the kicker. I just followed my blocking and it went perfectly.”
The Bobcats’ next drive stalled on a botched fake field goal attempt deep in the Bulls’ territory. However, redshirt sophomores safeties Thad Ingol and Nathan Carpenter softened the blow of Solich’s gamble by forcing a fumble with Buffalo pinned deep in the shadow of its endzone.
On the Bobcats’ next play from scrimmage, redshirt junior running back Beau Blankenship burst through the hole for a touchdown from 14 yards out to tie the game at 14 apiece with 11:18 remaining in the second quarter.
Buffalo couldn’t maintain ball security on its next possession, as Zordich scrambled away from defensive pressure only to have the ball stripped by redshirt senior defensive tackle Corey Hasting. Redshirt sophomore safety Josh Kristoff pounced on the loose ball and the Bobcats were in business in Buffalo territory.
Zordich’s miscue did not come to fruition for the Bobcats, though, as they stalled in Buffalo territory.
After trading three-and-out possessions, Ohio redshirt freshman punter Grant Venham’s punt bounced off Buffalo junior safety Derek Brim for Buffalo’s third fumble of the game, which was recovered by Ohio freshman defensive back Blake Scipio.
The Bobcats took over on Buffalo’s 15-yard line, and one play later Tettleton found redshirt senior wide receiver Tyler Futrell on a fade route for a score. The touchdown gave the Bobcats their first lead of the game with 6:05 left remaining in the half.
With the touchdown toss, the 38th of his career, Tettleton tied Boo Jackson (2008-2010) for the Bobcats’ all-time record in passing touchdowns.
In the Bobcats’ first drive following halftime, Tettleton connected with redshirt senior wide receiver Bakari Bussey for eight yards. A Buffalo penalty tacked on 15 more yards, as well.
Three straight runs from Blankenship set redshirt senior kicker Matt Weller up for a 45-yard field goal, which he knocked down to bring the score 24-14 in Ohio’s favor with 12:35 remaining in the third quarter.
On their next drive, the Bulls one-upped Ohio by employing a reverse passing play in which junior tight end Alex Dennison connected with junior receiver Alex Neutz for a 55-yard touchdown to pull Buffalo within a field goal.
After Ohio was unable to make good of its next drive, the Bulls once again knotted the score, this time at 24, with a 30-yard field goal with four minutes remaining in the third quarter.
The deadlock didn’t last long, though, as redshirt junior running back Ryan Boykin scored his first touchdown of the season — a one-yarder — on the first play of the fourth quarter to give Ohio a 31-24 advantage.
Boykin struck again nine minutes later with a 51-yard touchdown run that pushed Ohio ahead 38-24. Boykin, who had only 11 touches on the season heading into the game and had not played since the Bobcats’ win against Marshall, said it felt sweet to finally operate at what he deemed 100 percent efficiency.
“It was hard on me mentally,” Boykin said. “It’s hard being out for so long. Coach told me I was going to spell Beau (Blankenship) when he got tired. I was going to try to make the most of it.”
Buffalo was able to bring the score within a touchdown when Dennison bulldozed his way into the endzone with eight seconds remaining.
Buffalo outgained Ohio in total yards 501-333 on the day, 313 of which came the ground, prompting Solich to be critical of his defense.
"They have very powerful, strong running backs, they have a great offensive line and they have a quarterback that they’ll build into the running game, so it’s a very difficult offense to slow down,” he said. “We didn’t do a very good job of that at times.”
Solich said the Bobcats might have lost redshirt senior tight end Jordan Thompson for the season because of a lower body injury sustained during the game. Losing Thompson would only accentuate the rash of injuries that has plagued the Bobcats this season.
Solich noted that what depth Ohio has been able to utilize this season while dealing with injured first-stringers has been key in maintaining their pristine record.
“If this would have happened to us three, four, five years ago, we wouldn’t be 6-0,” Solich said.
nr225008@ohiou.edu
