www.AriOnline.org


Buffalo Bulls Lose Again
Sunday, October 02, 2005

by Jeremy Smuckler

It was another loss for the woeful Bulls as they dropped to the Scarlet Knights from Rutgers on Saturday night. While they were able to rack up more total yards than Rutgers, they could simply not put the ball in the end zone and failed several times to convert on fourth down and short. They also had a field goal partially blocked and ran into some bad penalties late in the game.

The 17-3 loss marks the third of the season and the first time they had gained points all year after being shut out by Connecticut and Syracuse, respectively, on the road. It was not, however, a total loss for the 17, 620 fans who came to support UB. They watched Buffalo play very tight with Rutgers in the first half and saw some hope in freshman quarterback Drew Willy. They also witnessed a fireworks display and a halftime show that featured free-style biker Matt Hoffman and skateboarder Bucky Lasek.

Rutgers struck first with 5:49 left in the opening quarter when quarterback Ryan Hart hit Sam Johnson on a slant in the back of the end zone to take a 7-0 lead. Buffalo fought back on their opening possession of the second quarter with a 51 yard drive, only to have kicker Mike Baker’s 34-yard field goal attempt blocked by Terry Bynes of Rutgers.

In the very next possession, UB had an even more impressive drive, going 74 yards down to the Rutgers 7 yard line. That drive was cut short when they failed to convert a questionable 4th down and 2 call. The score remained 7-0 for the rest of the half.

The Bulls followed up in the next half with another impressive drive after a Rutgers punt. They drove 55 yards to the Rutgers’ 16 and Baker connected on a 33-yard field goal with 6:53 left in the third quarter. The crowd gave a somewhat sarcastic cheer as the Bulls managed to put their first three points of the year on the scoreboard.

Rutgers took control of the game on the following drive, scoring 10 unanswered points on their way to a 17-3 victory. The Bulls came close to putting points on the board late in the fourth but were again unable to convert on 4th down.

Rutgers, which had sat atop the Big East ranks in pass offense was able to manage just 150 yards of passing offense against the UB defense. Kareem Byrom, who grew up near the Rutgers campus in New Brunswick, New Jersey had a career high 11 tackles for the Bulls.
"Our defense just continues to improve," Hofher said. "You saw our offense take a positive step today."

Stewart Sampsel stepped up this game and set career highs in completions (15) and attempts (26). Also, we were able to see glimpses of the freshman prospect Drew Willy. Willy was a very impressive 10 of 15 for 88 yards and may have stirred some quarterback controversy.

The Bulls have a break next week and will go the following week to face Western Michigan before coming back home to take on Akron. The Akron game is October 8th at 1:30 P.M.

Labels: campus, sports

Published by The ARI Online
A Jewish Student News Publication from The University at Buffalo
Find this article at: http://www.arionline.org/2005/10/buffalo-bulls-lose-again.html