AKRON, OHIO - The Akron Zips (3-8, 2-5 MAC) did something on Saturday that the Buffalo Bulls (1-10, 0-7 MAC) have not done since Sept. 7.
They won a game.
In the disintegrating confines of the Rubber Bowl, Akron was able to defeat UB by a score of 21-10. It was the Bulls' ninth consecutive defeat.
Although it was a competitive game throughout, the Zips had just enough weapons to generate an adequate offense to derail the Bulls and keep them out of reach of the lead.
"Akron, when it counted, won the line of scrimmage," Bulls' Head Coach Jim Hofher said. "As much as we had some dynamic defensive plays, they won it over the course of the game. They certainly won the line of scrimmage with their defense against our offensive front and that to me was far more indicative of the outcome. We simply didn't generate even close to enough firepower in a close game to be able to win."
Buffalo cannot complain about this one, having numerous opportunities throughout the game. Akron may not have won the game in brilliant fashion, but they found ways to beat the Bulls.
"I told the team after the game there is no such thing as a bad win, and there is no such thing as an ugly win," said Akron Head Coach Lee Owens. "I don't buy into any of that. Wins are very glorious and we are going to take it and savor it."
UB found themselves trailing 14-0 early on, but did not roll over and die.
Buffalo responded by marching down the field on a six-play, 67-yard drive that culminated in a 32-yard touchdown connection on fourth down and 10 between quarterback Randall Secky and wideout Andre Forde, making the score 14-7 after the extra point.
"Coach called a go-route and it was executed right," said Forde, who had nine catches for 126 yards and a score. "I looked at the safety and he was moved all the way to the right. I went to the inside; it kind of looked like a post the way Randall threw it. It was executed right.
Momentum seemed to be in the favor of the Bulls.
On their next possession of the second quarter, the Bulls were forced to punt the ball away from their own 20-yard line, but Akron tailback Brandon Payne muffed the punt return and Mike Lambert of UB recovered it at the Zips' 14-yard line.
To the dismay of Hofher and the Bulls, they could only muster five yards on the drive and then kicker Michael Baker missed a 26-yard chip shot.
"You would like to think at that stage of the game there would be ample time to recover, which is why we kicked a field goal instead of trying to jam it in there," said Hofher.
"It was huge," said Owens. "Absolutely. Buffalo answered the one time, we held them to three another time, and the other time they missed the field goal and didn't get anything at all."
That drive was a microcosm of Buffalo's woes on offense all day long. The running game could only muster 34 net yards on 33 carries, and that put all the pressure on Secky.
Secky was battered all day long, being sacked five times for 35 yards with two fumbles, one of which was recovered by the Zips. He also threw two interceptions on 19-38 passing for 240 yards and a touchdown.
"We were doing a lot of zone blitzes," said Owens. "They just didn't handle the pressure very well."
"They did an outstanding job pressuring the interior and it really pushed things back into the quarterback," said Hofher. "There wasn't a whole lot of room for him to move. They did a real nice job with that."
UB's third down conversion rate told the story of the day, as they were 2-17 when trying to convert on third down.
"There was a time when John McKay coached the (Tampa Bay) Buccaneers and he was asked about the execution of his offense," said Hofher. "'I'm in favor of it,' he said, and 2 for 17, that's not very good execution on third down."
Where the Bulls' running game struggled, Akron's excelled as tailback Bob Hendry sliced and diced UB, gaining 119 yards on the ground on 27 carries and hitting paydirt twice.
"It was the same play both times," said Hendry. "We just kept running it, pounding it down their throats and scored both times."
Despite Hendry's performance, the rest of the Akron offense was stifled by a tough Buffalo defense. UB allowed only 297 total yards by the Zips and was able to sack quarterback Charlie Frye, who had 144 yards in the air, on five occasions.
Freshman Rob Schroeder tallied two of those sacks as he was a big part of that rugged Bulls defense.
"We played very well," said Schroeder of the defense. "We let up those two scores in the first half that kind of killed us, but after the half we came out fired up. We knew we had to stop the run, and our defense came up big in the second half."
Akron did not need much offense to defeat the Bulls, as the combination of an anemic Buffalo offense and a suffocating Zips defense proved to be too much for UB.
"Did we play well on offense? Absolutely not," said Owens. "But we did play pretty good on defense. I thought that our guys played really well on that side of the ball. They did what they had to do to get us in a position where we could win."
"We were getting sacks and getting penalties," said Hendry of the offense. "But it was the defense that was going three and out every time that's giving us a chance to get back on the field and try it again. They won the game for us."
Buffalo will head to Ball State next Saturday for their final game of the season.
