The Good, The Bad, The Ugly: Buffalo Bulls Football vs. Ball State

Here we are again, having to discuss a frustrating UB Football loss. The Buffalo Bulls fell to the Ball State Cardinals by a score of 31-21 on Saturday and truthfully it wasn't even that close. That being said, let's take a look at the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Good

Kyle DeWeen-

When a special teams player is performing well I really try to give them as much credit as possible. DeWeen had a strong night punting the ball with an average of 35.8 yards and pinning the Ball State offense within the 20 yard line four times. MVP accolades go to the punter this week.

The rushing game (when we used it)-

Jordan Johnson showed once again why UB should continue to establish a strong rushing attack throughout the game considering he brought in 76 yards and 6.3 yards per carry. Many have complained about Buffalo's run game and I feel it’s still a little non-existent. So let's put this into perspective. Jordan Johnson rushed at 6.3 yards per carry. Last I checked, each time you get a first down you only have to advance the ball 10 yards. Simple math would point to an offensive coordinator that Albany's defensive line should've been destroyed by an all out rush attack.

Mason Schreck-

Schreck is going to be a valuable part of this offense. The senior received 9 catches for 61 yards and a touchdown. Once the offense stopped utilizing Schreck, it struggled. If this offense wants any kind of success this season, they need to get Schreck more involved.

The Bad

The rush defense-

I just can't make any sense of this whatsoever. Buffalo returns an incredible defensive line this year, runs a 4-3 defensive scheme, and also returns an almost carbon copy of their personnel from the last season but is getting destroyed in the running game. Ball State brought in 356 rushing yards as James Gilbert kept breaking through the line with ease.

The Ugly

The Refs

I'm not the type of person to call out the refs in spite. This officiating crew was down right horrendous.

Andy Kotelnicki's play calling-

I've been beating this dead horse for so long and so hard that there's a ten-foot crater in the ground. Time after time again, we see the most predictable play this offense offers: the draw play up the middle. What continues to be frustrating is despite the inability to run through the line, there were rarely wide runs to get around it.

******

So.....how do I put this? Yeah, I didn’t really write this article. Turns out I pretty much copied and pasted bits and snippets from old articles I wrote throughout this season (and changed some numbers of course). That’s how much has changed. I’ve only seen flashes of progress this season and most of them were in UB’s fourth quarter effort versus Army. That’s one quarter out twenty-four.

Just let the fact that I copied and pasted old stuff I wrote to make this article sit with you for a sec.