BOWLING GREEN — To hear coach Scot Loeffler tell it, Bowling Green was ready to go in the week leading up to its showdown against Buffalo last Saturday.
The Falcons, 1-0 in the Mid-American Conference for the first time since 2015, were flying high after beating Akron 31-28 on the road. Senior quarterback Matt McDonald was clicking. The defense had stepped up in the final minutes. It was a heady time with a Bulls team unbeaten in the MAC coming to town.
Bowling Green, however, fell flat in a complete reversal of fortunes from its league opener.
Buffalo’s 38-7 win raised critical questions about Loeffler’s team at the midpoint of his fourth year in Wood County.
“It’s the first time in my career when it’s a relevant game, the prep was through the roof, the attention to detail during the week was outstanding, the emotional preparation prior to the game was great,” Loeffler said. “You had an opportunity for a relevant game, and everything went bad.”
Bowling Green fumbled twice inside the Bulls’ 10-yard line. McDonald completed just 21 of his 42 pass attempts. The Falcons incurred 12 penalties for 117 yards and were outrushed 280-99.
The game seemed over shortly after it began. Buffalo running back Ron Cook, Jr., tallied a 2-yard touchdown less than five minutes into the game, kick-starting a span in which the Bulls rolled up 17 points in less than seven minutes, flexing their offensive muscles on the road again two weeks after a 50-point performance at Eastern Michigan.
Sophomore guard Bronson Warner noted that getting off to a positive start will be an area of emphasis for Bowling Green (2-4, 1-1 MAC) as it looks to right the ship this weekend against Miami (3-3, 1-1).
“On Saturday, we definitely came out really slow and flat,” Warner said. “The biggest lesson is we need the energy — we need to come out and smack them in the mouth right away to get things going.”
The Falcons’ defensive woes stood in sharp contrast to their success against the Zips.
In Akron, Bowling Green forced three turnovers, including a pick-six from sophomore cornerback Jalen Burton. At home Saturday, the Falcons forced just one and lost the turnover battle by three.
“We had opportunities to get a couple more interceptions, and make some things go our way,” junior linebacker Brock Horne said. “I still think we have the opportunity to be an elite-level defense. We just got to make the plays when opportunities present themselves.”
It was an all-around head-scratching performance that recalled the early years of the Loeffler era, when Bowling Green was a young team still figuring out how to compete at the college level. This year, the Falcons seemed to have tentatively solved the winning equation, outlasting Marshall in overtime and opening October with a critical takedown of the Zips.
Bowling Green’s goals, however, have scarcely seemed further away than they were with 8:33 to play in the third quarter Saturday — when Buffalo linebacker James Patterson strong-armed the football away from sophomore running back Jamal Johnson and raced 97 yards the other direction to give the Bulls a 38-0 lead.
Starting Saturday against Miami, Bowling Green needs a 4-2 finish to become eligible for a bowl.
“Hopefully, we don't go down this path again,” Loeffler said. “Just like I said, I wanted to be competitive in every single MAC game, and where I'm disappointed is we were not competitive on Saturday. I'm beyond disappointed — like flabbergasted disappointed.”
First Published October 11, 2022, 2:38 p.m.
