The No. 21 Western Michigan Broncos (11-0, 7-0 Mid-American Conference) came into Saturday to show off for the College Football Playoff committee. They did just that.
The undefeated Broncos dictated the game and came away with a 38-0 blowout of the Buffalo Bulls (2-9, 1-6 MAC) at a packed Waldo Stadium. Bronco’s redshirt senior quarterback Zach Terrell torched the Buffalo defense for a career high 445 yards as well as four touchdowns. His favorite target, senior receiver Corey Davis had 13 catches for 173 yards and two touchdowns.
“Execution’s not where it should be for us to have a chance to beat a team like this,” said Bulls head coach Lance Leipold. “I thought our defense played extremely well in the first half, played their hearts out, played well, played hard but you could see the talent they have at the skill positions, the explosiveness at multiple spots that make it difficult for us right now to slow that down.”
Buffalo was without starting quarterback redshirt freshman Tyree Jackson. Graduate transfer quarterback Grant Rohach made the start in Jackson’s place. He finished 12-of-22 for 140 yards.
The Bulls never really had a chance as their top-25 opponent controlled the game all day. Buffalo managed to keep the game close early and finished the first quarter tied 0-0 and only allowed the Bronco’s 14 points in the first half.
The Bulls defense had a strong showing early but couldn’t finish out the game. Overall, their rush defense continued its upward trend of the last couple weeks but the pass defense had its worst game of the season. Terrell had more than 200 more passing yards than any other quarterback who has faced Buffalo this year. Davis outmatched Buffalo’s secondary physically and looked unstoppable. On his second touchdown, he discarded senior cornerback Boise Ross who was called for pass interference on the play after grabbing Davis when he made his cut to the outside.
“He’s a great player, credit to him and credit to Western’s offense,” said junior linebacker Ishmael Hargrove of Davis. “They’ve got a lot of weapons on their team and it’s hard to keep them all contained so credit to them and their offense, they’re an excellent team.”
Buffalo had chances to get in the game but couldn’t capitalize. They were able to get the Bronco’s to fumble the ball three times in the first half but only recovered one of them. They went three-and-out on the drive following the fumble recovery.
Offensively they never moved the ball. Buffalo’s offense only managed to convert on third down twice in the game, with their first conversion coming with 1:30 left in the second quarter. They also never saw the red zone in the game. The Bronco’s elite defense was too much for Buffalo to handle. Their front seven controlled the trenches and were all over Rohach seemingly every time he dropped back.
“They brought some other secondary blitzes, blitzing corners, did some things that were disruptive, credit them,” Leipold said.
Buffalo senior running back Jordan Johnson did have a solid game. He finished with 95 yards on only 16 carries.
The Bulls close out their season next week when they visit the Bowling Green Falcons (3-8, 2-5 MAC) Friday. Kickoff is at 2:30 p.m. at Doyt Perry Stadium.
Dan Petruccelli is a sports staff writer and can be reached at sports@ubspectrum.com
