It looked as if the Buffalo football team’s game Tuesday night would go the same way its previous four did.
After losing four straight games and committing four turnovers in a 37-14 loss to Ohio last week, Buffalo turned the ball over on both of its first two possessions against Akron Tuesday.
Junior quarterback Joe Licata threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown on the second play of the game, and junior running back Anthone Taylor fumbled on the ensuing drive.
“Honestly, I wanted to kill somebody after those first two turnovers, that’s what was going through my mind,” said interim head coach Alex Wood. “But you hold your composure. It’s early in the ball game. You just have to keep playing.”
The Bulls (4-6, 2-4 Mid-American Conference) ‘kept playing’ and ended up with their most complete game of the season, defeating Akron (4-6, 2-4 MAC) 55-24 Tuesday night at UB Stadium to snap a four-game losing streak. Buffalo’s 55 points are its most against a MAC opponent.
“Coach Wood was talking about getting that stench of losing off of you,” said junior running back Anthone Taylor. “It’s just a tremendous feeling to able to go in there and celebrate with your teammates at the end of the game and to be able to play all four quarters together and play as a complete unit.”
Buffalo gained 536 yards of total offense against the No. 1 defense in the conference. The Bulls held Akron to just 229 yards of total offense – their best total against an FBS opponent this season.
Licata threw four touchdown passes – surpassing former Bull Drew Willy as the program’s all-time leader in touchdown passes. The record breaking score – Licata’s 53rd of his career – was his first touchdown pass of the game: a 6-yard throw to junior running back Devin Campbell at the end of first quarter.
“To be able to break that record in a win is obviously special and something I’ll remember forever,” Licata said. “But it doesn’t really matter right now. When I look back in 20 years and my family’s name will be in the record book forever that will be pretty cool.”
Licata finished 16 of 21 passing for 193 yards and four touchdowns.
The running game found success as well Tuesday night, as Buffalo ran for 310 yards behind Taylor and sophomore running back Jordan Johnson’s 100-yard rushing performances. Taylor ran for 178 yards and a touchdown after totaling just 62 rushing yards the last two games, while Johnson ran for 104 yards and his first touchdown of the season.
Taylor found running lanes throughout the game and ran for 97 yards in the first quarter alone. His career long 57-yard run set up Licata’s record-breaking touchdown pass.
Buffalo made several creative play calls Tuesday after scoring just 28 points and gaining 405 yards of the offense the past two games combined. Johnson threw a 33-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open junior tight end Matt Weiser after taking a direct snap and faking a run up the middle. The score was the first of 21 unanswered Buffalo points after Akron scored on the inteception.
Backup junior quarterback Tony Daniel replaced Licata to run the option on several occasions and ran for a 21-yard touchdown off a designed run to give Buffalo a 21-7 lead in the second quarter.
Wood said the creative play calling wasn’t because of Akron’s defense specifically.
“It was a Buffalo thing because we hadn’t been doing squat on offense,” Wood said. “We needed to generate some offense so you got to do what you need to do to make that happen.”
Akron got its first first down with 9:23 left in the first half and went ‘three-and-out on its first three possessions. It was the first time Buffalo held an opponent to less than 14 yards a completion and did not allow a completion of at least 29 yards in a game.
“We definitely practiced all week as a defensive unit to stop the deep ball,” said senior safety Adam Redden. “We prepare for it and coach [Lou Tepper] calls a great play and we definitely knew we had to stop the deep balls and also stop the weak zone … It was a good win today as a defense.”
Redden had a team-best nine tackles and forced and recovered a fumble on a sack of Akron quarterback Kyle Pohl in the fourth quarter.
After trailing 27-10 at halftime, the Zips went on a 16-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to start the second half. Akron fullback Cody Grice ran in for a 1-yard touchdown run on fourth and goal to cut Buffalo’s lead to 10 points.
The Bulls then put the game out of reach with two touchdowns in a four-play span. Licata threw a 42-yard touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Ron Willoughby. Senior defensive lineman Tedroy Lynch then forced a fumble on Pohl on Akron’s first play of the ensuing drive. Licata threw a 24-yard touchdown to Campbell one play later to give Buffalo a 41-17 lead.
The win is Wood’s first as interim head coach and keeps the possibility of Buffalo finishing the season at .500 alive.
“We didn’t get started the way we wanted to on offense … but I was really proud of our players for hanging in there and understanding there was a lot of football left to play,” Wood said.
Buffalo hosts Kent State (1-8, 0-5 MAC) Wednesday Nov. 19. Kickoff is set for 8 p.m. and can be seen on ESPN2 and ESPNU. It will be the Bulls’ final home game of the season.
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