The Buffalo Bulls will be under the gun of another high-powered offense when it faces off against the University of Miami (OH) RedHawks on Saturday. With his second Mid-American Conference Offensive Player of the Week award, junior quarterback Ben Roethlisberger helped his team to an impressive 45-20 victory over Akron last week, throwing for two touchdowns and rushing for another two.
The RedHawks have tied a school record for most consecutive games scoring more than 40 points, with four in a row now. Miami has started out with a record of 4-1 overall and 1-0 in the MAC Conference, winning four straight games following a season-opening 21-3 loss at Iowa. The only conference game played by the RedHawks was the victory over Akron.
The Bulls will be trying to pick up their first victory of the season on Saturday when they travel to Oxford, OH to take on a RedHawks team that is coming off of a big win, and also playing in front of their home crowd. Buffalo's defense is going to have to play an amazing game to stifle Roethlisberger if they are going to have a chance for the victory this Saturday.
Offense
Making the plays for the Miami offense this season is quarterback Roethlisberger. Roethlisberger has passed for over 6,300 yards and 47 touchdown passes in his first two seasons as the quarterback for Miami. A two-time second team All-MAC selection, Roethlisberger has a completion percentage of 68.2 this season and has already broken the school's record for completions in his first two seasons, and is on pace to break the schools record for passing yardage and touchdown passes by the end of this season.
"Ben, he should be a Heisman - he should win the Heisman," stated Marshall head coach Bob Pruett in a press release. "I mean, I had two candidates in Chad Pennington and Byron Leftwich, and there's not an ounce of difference in them, daggone it, that guy can play."
The RedHawks attack through the air has been devastating to say the least, with the duo of Martin Nance and Michael Larkin reeling in the majority of the passes. Nance has caught 28 of Roethlisberger's balls for 443 yards, while Larkin has 25 receptions on the season and has caught at least one pass in 28 consecutive games dating back to his premier in Iowa.
While it is Roethlisberger and his receivers that make the offensive unit click, the running game has been equally deadly. Cal Murray and Mike Smith have shared the load of the offense, productively albeit; combining to average 133.8 yards a game. The duo has also cashed in for paydirt ten times on the season.
Defense
The Miami defense is ranked third in the MAC in total defense and is the top ranked MAC defense against the run. Anchoring the RedHawk defense in senior middle linebacker Terrell Jones, a veteran defender who is said to be like a coach on the field. According to coach Hoeppner, a healthy Jones is the key factor in the success of the defense. Terrell Jones is closing in on the schools record for top 10 all-time tacklers.
Miami also has two very solid sophomore linebackers that both got to see a lot of action as freshman in Terna Nande and John Busing. Nande played in nine games last year as a freshman and Busing played in ten games last year as a freshman, and is also said to have made big improvements in his work in the weight room in the off season.
Akron's No. 2 offense in the nation was shut down last week as the RedHawks only allowed 305 total yards of offense from the Zips, which was well below their season average. 229 yards below in fact
The home run play has been a major problem for Miami all season long as 1,746 of the yards that they have given up on the season have come on only 12 plays of 30 yards or longer. To put that in perspective, only 1,115 yards have been given up on the other 324 plays run by the offense.
Summary
UB will have to dredge up everything in their power if they hope to have a marginal chance on Saturday. This is essentially the same team that crushed the Bulls at UB's homecoming last year 49-0 - only one year stronger. Roethlisberger has proven to be the irresistible force this season, and if Buffalo wants to even slightly slow down his momentum, they will need to play the games of their lives. Oh yeah, the offense has to show up too.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
