Turnovers Cost Bulls in 24-21 Loss to Nevada

Saturday, September 26

3:30 pm

2-2

Nevada

2-2

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Nevada

Buffalo

Turnovers Cost Bulls in 24-21 Loss to Nevada

9/26/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football

Box Score

BUFFALO, NY – Second-half turnovers cost the University at Buffalo football team in a 24-21 loss to Nevada at UB Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The Bulls finished non-conference play 2-2.

The Basics

Score: Nevada 24, Buffalo 21
Records: Nevada (2-2), Buffalo (2-2)
Location: UB Stadium, Buffalo, NY
Attendance: 19,072
Weather: Cloudy, 72 degrees

How It Happened

Scoring Plays

- The Bulls got on the board first when Joe Licata connected with tight end Matt Weiser on a 41-yard touchdown pass over the middle. Weiser did most of the work on the ground after breaking the safety's tackle. (UB 7, Nevada 0 – 11:11 1Q)

- After UB punter Tyler Grassman pinned the Wolf Pack at their own 4-yard line, James Butler ripped off a 91-yard run on the first play from scrimmage to give Nevada a first-and-goal at the UB 5-yard line. Butler ran it in one play later. (UB 7, Nevada 7 – 3:07 1Q)

- Nevada running back Don Jackson scored on a 55-yard run to give the Wolf Pack the lead late in the first quarter. (Nevada 14, UB 7, :12 1Q)

- The Bulls answered on their next possession, driving 59 yards on 11 plays. Adam Mitcheson connected on a 33-yard field goal to cut the lead to four. (Nevada 14, UB 10 – 11:11 2Q)

- The Wolf Pack answered with a 38-yard field on their next possession to push the lead back to seven. (Nevada 17, UB 10 – 8:41 2Q).

- Mitcheson made his second field goal of the day, a career-long 43-yarder, midway through the third quarter. (Nevada 17, UB 13 – 4:40 3Q)

- Jackson scored his second rushing touchdown of the day, from 10-yards out, to extend the Nevada lead to 11. (Nevada 24, UB 13 – 10:25 4Q)

- Sophomore receiver Collin Lisa scored his first career touchdown on a 5-yard slant from Licata. Marcus McGill ran in the two-point conversion to cut the lead to three. (Nevada 24, UB 21 – 8:06 4Q).

Inside the Numbers:

- Joe Licata completed 28-of-46 passes for a season-best 338 yards and two touchdowns. However, the senior quarterback did throw a pair of interceptions.

- Senior tight end Matt Weiser had the best game of his career with 10 receptions for 131 yards – both career highs.

- Senior wide receiver Ron Willoughby tied a career high with 10 catches for 122 yards.

- Collin Lisa had four catches for 51 yards and a touchdown – the most productive day of his young UB career.

- Running backs Jordan Johnson and Anthone Taylor combined to rush for 147 yards. Johnson had 13 carries for 79 yards and Taylor had 16 rushes for 68 yards.

- Freshman wide receiver Brandon Smiley had the first two catches of his career.

- It was another strong day for the UB linebackers as all three starters posted career highs in tackles. Brandon Berry led the way with 13, including a tackle for loss. Okezie Alozie and Nick Gilbo each had 12 tackles. Gilbo added a sack.

- Boise Ross had a career-high four pass breakups in the game.

- Adam Mitcheson made both of his field goal attempts in the game (33, 43)

- Senior punter Tyler Grassman averaged 44 yards on his five punts. Two were over 50 yards and three were downed inside the 20.

- The Bulls outgained the Wolf Pack 487-379 in total offense.

- The UB defense held Nevada to just 90 yards passing on 12-of-21 attempts.

- Brandon Berry, Nick Gilbo, Duke Hwang and Gusty Schwartzmeier each registered a tackle for loss.

- Nevada was just 4-of-12 on third down.

- Buffalo allowed only 99 yards of total offense in the second half.

- After being limited to just 39 yard of rushing in the first half, the Bulls rushed for 110 yards in the second half.

- Nevada won the turnover battle, 3-0. All three of UB's turnovers came in the second half with the Bulls driving.

Key Stat

Ron Willoughby and Matt Weiser both went over 100 yards receiving in the game. It was the first time since 2013 two UB players went over 100 yards receiving in a game (Alex Neutz, 168, Fred Lee, 110, at Toledo).

Game Changer

With the Bulls leading 7-0 and having the Wolf Pack pinned deep in their own territory, Nevada's James Butler busted up the middle for a 91-yard run and scored one-play later.

Nota-BULLS

- It was Joe Licata's fourth career 300-yard passing game.

- Matt Weiser's 131 receiving yards were the most by a UB tight end in the Bulls FBS era (since 1999).

- Weiser now has 17 catches on the season – two more than all of last season.

- Ron Willoughby tied a career high with 10 catches in the game.

- Jordan Johnson's 37-yard run in the fourth quarter was the longest of his career.

- Boise Ross had four more pass breakups to bring his season total to 10.

- As a team, the Bulls had seven pass breakups in the game.

- Joe Licata moved into 16^th in MAC history with 66 career touchdown passes.

- It was the third time in the first four games the UB defense limited an opponent to under 129 yards passing in a game.

- The Bulls had seven true freshmen and eight redshirt-freshmen play in the game.

Quota-BULLS

Head Coach Lance Leipold

"Turnovers and untimely penalties put us in bad positions and that was the difference today. We definitely need to get those cleaned up. After giving up some big plays in the first half I think we settled down defensively. We started to have some success on first down in the second half to put them in some normal down and distance chances."

"I think in the first half their defensive line got the better of us, but late in the game we started to wear them down a little bit and we started to have some success."

"I was pleased with our competitive nature in the fourth quarter. We played our tails off there. When we needed to get a stop, we got a stop. If there is something to build on, I think it's something we will take pride in that we will not quit and we will play this thing out 60 minutes and we did that today."

Senior Tight End Matt Weiser

"I think it went so well for me today because they had to worry about other guys on our team. We have so many options on offense that it gave me a great opportunity to make plays today."

"Our mindset is onto the next one and we will look at the film and learn from it. It's going to be a big game and we are excited for conference play next week against Bowling Green."

"You always learn from the game you play and we will make sure we see what we did wrong and try to eliminate mistakes in the future. We have had some mistakes that have haunted us in a couple games now. We will have to clean those mistakes up and carry over all the good things the offense has done to be successful in conference play."

Junior Running Back Jordan Johnson

"We knew going into the game that they had a good front seven, but we knew if we could get a body on a body that we would be able to go out there and run the ball effectively.

Senior linebacker Nick Gilbo

"We allowed a couple big plays in the first half that really came back to hurt us. In the second half we began to play a little slower and reading the keys and stuck to the game plan which ended up helping us play better."

Sophomore wide receiver Collin Lisa

"I thought we started making plays at the end but we definitely missed some plays early on. This one hurts because I thought we played well overall, but we shot ourselves in the foot a couple times with some mistakes that we will need to clean up to succeed in the future."

Up Next

The Bulls will remain home and open conference play against Bowling Green next Saturday at UB Stadium. The Falcons are 2-2 and are coming off a 35-28 win at Purdue on Saturday.