Bowling Green Falcons vs Buffalo Bulls football: UB report card from 28-22 loss

Didn't get to a recap yesterday, but before the podcast tonight and the bye week here's our grades from UB's loss to Bowling Green.

Quarterbacks - B

Even though Joe Licata had a good statistical game in terms of passing yardage, what hurts his grade the most is the poor throws into double and triple coverage along with failing to lead a touchdown drive until late in the game.

Running Backs - B+

Taylor and Johnson were effective once again as they usually are, but the issue was that the offense seemed to abandon the run game at the most inopportune times and it hurt the potential production that they could've had.

Wide Receivers + Tight Ends - A-

There were a few key drops and slip-ups but for the most part Weiser, Willoughby and McGill led the way in the receiving corps. Weiser in particular has had a few game stretch where he has already surpassed his reception and receiving yards total from last season.

Offensive Line - C

Inopportune penalties and four sacks allowed hurt the OL's grade yet again. They have massive size but at times are unable to get any push at the point of attack and it showed as a glaring weakness at times agaginst a sub-par Bowling Green defense

Defensive Line - B

Generating three sacks in one drive from Demone Harris, Brandon Crawford, and Max Perisse was great. What wasn't great was the lack of consistency in the run game for the second straight week and when they weren't pressuring Matt Johnson, he torched the defense as a whole.

Linebackers - B

Gilbo and Berry were solid yet again and are proving to be steady presences in the front seven for the young defense. However, there were lapses in run defense and Bowling Green ripped off more chunk plays than are acceptable when running right up the middle.

Defensive Backs - C

What saves this grade from being even lower was the astounding turnaround that the DBs had in the second half. After being torched in the first half for nearly 300 yards, and almost 200 of them going to Roger Lewis, the DBs buckled down and limited Johnson to under 50 yards passing in the 2nd half.

Special Teams - A

Adam Mitcheson is getting better by the week and hitting 3 field goals in the unfavorable conditions on Saturday is sure to be a good confidence boost. Tyler Grassman was also solid, punting into the wind for much of the game.

Coaching - C-

Offensive playcalling was suspect yet again, with the most frustrating thing being that the run was abandoned for large stretches and too much was put onto Joe LIcata's plate. There's no reason for him to have to attempt 59 passes and drop back over 60 times when he has Taylor and Johnson at his disposal. On defense, true freshman Cam Lewis and Marqus Baker were covering the nation's top receiver for most of the first half and they were burned on multiple occasions. It wasn't until after halftime that Boise Ross was tasked with covering Roger Lewis.