Beleaguered Bulls Fall To Flashes

The Kent State Golden Flashes scored early and often against the Bulls, handing them a 33-7 defeat Saturday afternoon at UB Stadium.

Kent State's opening drive was a 98-yard, 16 play drive that took 6:44. Though the Flashes were unsuccessful on its point after attempt, the game never got any closer.

By the end of the first quarter it was obvious that the Bulls (1-8 overall, 1-6 Mid-American Conference) were not ready for the type of player Kent State (3-6 overall, 2-4 MAC) featured at quarterback. Joshua Cribbs ended the first quarter with 85 yards rushing on only eight attempts. He ended the day with 132 yards on the ground and a touchdown. Cribbs also completed 17 passes for 167 yards.

Despite the big numbers put up by Cribbs, Bulls' Head Coach Jim Hofher said he was still positive.

"He only had half as many rushing yards today as he had last week," Hofher said. "So in spite of a long 44 yard run, he was somewhat kept in, but there were other options made available to Kent and they found them."

Those "other options" that Hofher was talking about seemed to involve one other player, tailback David Alston.

Alston accentuated an already-amazing season on Saturday against the Bulls, as he ran for 172 yards and four touchdowns, averaging six yards per carry. Between Alston and Cribbs, the Bulls' defense was reeling.

The only way Buffalo would have been able to stay in the game was if they could have capitalized on the travesty that was Kent State's special teams. It got so ugly for the Flashes that they had their quarterback punt three times, while their punter only punted twice.

However, the Bulls were unable to create any semblance of offense against a very tight Kent State defense. Kent State head coach Doug Martin was very proud of where his defense is at this point in the season.

"From where our defense was last year to the way they are this year is a testament not only to our coaches, but to the defense as well," he said.

Another problem for the Bulls in this game, as it has been all season was inconsistency at the quarterback position. In this game, P.J. Piskorik and Datwan Hemingway both took snaps, with Piskorik getting most of the snaps before garbage time in the fourth quarter.

Piskorik threw his team-leading second touchdown pass of the season in the fourth quarter for the Bulls' only points of the game.

Coach Hofher wouldn't put the blame on any individual player however, as he was disappointed in the team's execution as a whole.

"When we needed to run we couldn't, they could. When we needed to pass we couldn't, they could," he said.

In addition to not being able to complete the fundamental aspects of playing successful college football, the Bulls were not aided by any big plays, which was what got them their only victory of the season against the University of Central Florida.

"Congratulations to Kent, today they made virtually all the plays, and we made virtually none," said Hofher. "It's certainly not explainable or understandable."

Hofher also maintained that it wasn't just Cribbs and Alston who defeated the Bulls; it was the entire Kent State team.

"They're a good enough team, and those two guys are very talented, but they didn't do it by themselves," he said.

The numbers however, tell a different story. Through the first half, the duo of Alston and Cribbs combined for 315 yards of total offense and four touchdowns. The other six yards for Kent State came on a scramble by backup quarterback Antwan Smith after he fumbled a snap on a field goal attempt.

"We made a lot of mistakes today, and they took advantage of them," said defensive end Aaron Sanders.

The Bulls' offense, on the other hand, totaled 26 yards at the half. They had two first downs, one of which was the result of a penalty and the other was the result of a trick play on a fourth down.

Normally, the Bulls are anchored by their "Four Horsemen" backfield. But that backfield was essentially unable to create any kind of momentum on offense Saturday. Steven King led the team in rushing with 13 yards on four attempts, followed closely by Dave Dawson's four yards on three attempts and Jared Patterson's zero yards on two attempts.

"It's a disappointing day of football today," said Hofher. "It's going to be tough for us to avoid saying, 'what could we have done differently?'"

The statistics make it seem as though it may be time to start doing things differently, however, as this is the second game in a row where the Bulls were never close. To add insult to injury, the tough scheduled competition does not let up.

Next week, the Bulls will play their final home game of the 2003-2004 season against Central Michigan at 1:30 p.m. at UB Stadium. The next week, the Bulls will travel to Connecticut to play the Huskies in a season-ending game for both teams.