After a troubling 31-17 home loss to Buffalo, University of Toledo coach Jason Candle was still encouraged by the play of his defense.
Following a strong second-half showing in a loss at Eastern Michigan last Saturday in which they shut out the Eagles after halftime, the Toledo defense limited Buffalo to just seven first-half points.
“They played with a high energy, a lot of effort, and really good focus,” Candle said. “Hats off to the defensive coaching staff, getting their guys in the right spots and getting them to play with high energy and effort. Part of it is having the belief that they can be that good, and going out there and doing the right thing. When our guys do those things we have a chance to be successful.”
Starting in the first half with an aggressive pass rush, the Rockets sacked Buffalo quarterback Tyree Jackson five times in the game. The Bulls’ offensive line had allowed just one sack of Jackson all season before Saturday’s game.
“To sack that guy five times, I don’t think he’s been sacked five times all year,” Candle said. “I thought we had him out of his rhythm in the first half. To get pressure on him was huge. We did a good job disrupting his play.”
The Rockets also got a season-high three interceptions in the game from Jamal Hines, Justin Clark, and Kahlil Robinson.
“We played with a lot of energy and were feeding off each other in the first half,” said junior linebacker Jordan Fisher, who had a career-high 12 tackles. “We were playing as a unit and were able to come up with turnovers. They ran similar stuff in the second half, and we just need to keep knowing our assignments and coverages.”
Toledo allowed 463 yards of total offense to Buffalo, but that was on 96 plays run by the Bulls, an average of 4.8 yards per play.
“Give our defense a ton of credit,” Candle said. “They played lights out in the first half and really lights out the entire game. They had 96 plays for 463 total yards. That’s a really stout effort. A lot of guys played on defense today.
“They did a much better job of communicating and understanding where to be and where to go and getting guys on the ground. It was against a good offense and, when you leave them out there that long, you can’t expect them to continue to hold up like that.”
Toledo struggled to keep the ball on offense, with just eight first downs in the game and a 1-for-12 mark on third downs. Buffalo had the edge in time of possession in all four quarters, including an advantage of 21:16-8:44 in the second half.
That gave the defense a lot of time on the field, and they had to deal with several short-field situations as Buffalo began to turn up the pressure on both sides of the ball.
“Our inability to continue to move drives offensively, that really put a lot of un-needed pressure on our defense,” Candle said. “But, we lose together and we win together, we celebrate together as one. It can’t be one or the other. I thought we played good complementary football in the first half. Our defense was able to give us a couple short fields, but we weren’t able to score touchdowns. You are still trying to be perfect in everything you do and try to fix the mistakes you see on tape.”
Contact Brian Buckey at bbuckey@theblade.com, 419-724-6110, or on Twitter @BrianBuckey.
First Published October 21, 2018, 12:16 a.m.
