Coming into Saturday's contest against the Marshall Thundering Herd, the Bulls figured their rating as the ninth-best passing defense in the nation was in jeopardy. They knew that Heisman-hopeful Byron Leftwich and company might even eclipse 300 yards through the air, a mark no opposing quarterback has surpassed this season. They just didn't expect it to happen in the first half.
Leftwich went 37 for 49, for a career-high 455 yards (324 in the first half), passing for two touchdowns and running for another to lead the Thundering Herd to a 34-14 victory in front of UB's 12,438-person Homecoming crowd.
Marshall improved to 4-1 (3-0 MAC), while the Bulls dropped to 1-5 (0-4 MAC).
Even after the game, the Bulls were still puzzling over how to slow down Leftwich's aerial assault. "Put him out of the game," was safety's Craig Rohlfs solution.
" Food poisoning," suggested UB Head Coach Jim Hofher.
The Bulls initial game plan was to derail the Herd's running game by putting safety Craig Rohlfs in the box. Mission accomplished. Rohlfs led the Bulls with 15 tackles, 10 of which were solo, to hold Marshall to a meager 3.0 yards per carry on the ground.
But by using Rohlfs as an extra linebacker, UB left their cornerbacks in man-to-man coverage against Marshall's receiving tandem, Darius Watts and Josh Davis. Despite two highlight reel interceptions by Mark Graham and Mike Lambert, Buffalo's corners could not keep up with the talented duo, which combined to make 16 catches for 201 yards and a touchdown.
" Unless you are a dominant defense, you have to develop a plan and pick your poison a little bit. ... To be forced into man coverage with the really good receivers they have, now you're picking that poison," said Hofher.
After Mark Graham forced a fumble recovered by Bobby Johnson on the game's first possession, the Bulls took over on their own 16-yard line. After two successive first down runs by Derrick Gordon, Joe Freedy took off and scrambled to the Marshall 24-yard line. The play was nullified by a holding penalty, setting the Bulls back in their own territory and eventually forcing them to punt. That was the last time until the final series of the first half that the Bulls would even approach midfield.
Leftwich led the Herd on an 8-play, 80-yard drive capped off by a 19-yard toss to Josh Davis in the back of the end zone that put the Herd in front 7-0.
Marshall recorded points on their next three possessions and took a commanding 24-0 lead late in the half. Darius Watts scorched the Bulls' secondary with five catches for 103 yards - in the first quarter alone. His 44-yard reception down to the UB 6 was the key play in Marshall's second touchdown drive, which culminated in a Leftwich 6-yard scramble into the end zone on third and goal.
The second quarter was marred by what looked like a serious injury to Marshall's starting center, Jeff Edwards. Bulls defensive back Jason Coley collided head-on with Edwards, who was run-blocking on the play. While Edwards appeared to have borne the brunt of the collision, it looked like the relatively harmless hits seen in almost every battle in the trenches.
Edwards, however, was motionless for almost 20 minutes subsequent to being taken away by ambulance. He was diagnosed with a bruised neck, and had movement in his extremities. At press time, the injury was not reported to be serious.
After the delay, Franklin Wallace punched it in from the one to put Marshall up 24 to nothing. But, Edwards' injury seemed to deflate the Herd, whose concern for their teammate was never far from their minds.
" We were real concerned about Jeff, but we can't just cancel the game. It was scary, but at the same time, you have to go on," said Marshall's right guard, Steve Perretta.
The Bulls had a great chance to cut into the Herd's lead right before the break, but a bad decision by running back Derrick Gordon, who was otherwise the Bulls' best player Saturday, and a questionable call by the officials, kept the Bulls off the scoreboard in the first half.
Gordon took a handoff at the 15 and barreled down to the goal line. As he extended the ball toward the pile-on, he lost control as his knees touched the ground. The ball rolled out of the end zone, and was ruled a touchback, giving Marshall possession at the 20.
Replays showed that Gordon's knees touched the ground a split second before the ball came out. The Bulls, however, accepted that human error is part of the game and focused instead on what they could have done differently.
" Coach teaches us to protect the ball first, and everything else will take care of itself. I take fault on that one," said Gordon.
" Knee down, or not down, it was a fumble by the back. You give somebody a reason to make a questionable call, and it doesn't have to come to that," said Hofher.
The Bulls came out of the second-half gates rejuvenated. Joe Freedy engineered a 71-yard drive, and Albert Grundy literally flew into the end zone from two yards out to erase the goose egg from the scoreboard.
The Bulls had a chance to make a game of it when Mike Lambert read the play perfectly and stepped in front of a Leftwich pass at the Buffalo 30-yard line. It was Lambert's second interception of the season.
Freedy took over, and again marched the Bulls downfield, executing a nice balance of run and pass plays to move the ball to the Marshall 23-yard line. The drive stalled, and Dallas Pelz missed his fourth straight field goal over the past three weeks, a 41-yarder, that would have put the Bulls within two touchdowns.
Leftwich then took the Herd on a 13-play, 77-yard march that featured a fourth down conversion, and was capped off by a 4-yard touchdown toss to Curtis Jones that cemented the game's outcome.
Derrick Gordon scored the game's final points, a two-yard run in the fourth quarter that pulled the Bulls to within 20. Gordon, who gained 137 yards on 30 carries, revitalized a Bulls running game which had been stuck at second gear for the past couple of weeks.
" We will continue to scratch and claw to try and find what's going to help us run this well or better in the following week. Derrick was our runner today, and we were able to punch out some yards," said Hofher.
The Bulls will face another MAC opponent next Saturday when they take to the road for a 2:00 kickoff against Kent State.
