Big Plays Cost Bulls in Loss to Nebraska

Saturday, September 11

Lincoln, NE

3:30 PM (EST)

1-1 , 0-0

Nebraska

2-1 , 0-1

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Buffalo

Nebraska

Big Plays Cost Bulls in Loss to Nebraska

9/11/2021 8:37:00 PM | Football

Box Score

LINCOLN, NE – The University at Buffalo football team put up a fight, but ultimately lost to Nebraska, 28-3, at a stifling Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Temperatures were approaching 100 degrees midway through the game.

While the UB defense played extremely well, two plays in the first half proved too much to overcome. On a third and long at the Nebraska 25, Husker quarterback Adrian Martinez escaped a sack at his own 15-yard line and scampered all the way to the UB 2. Nebraska scored one play later. The Huskers also connected on a 68-yard touchdown pass with just 34 seconds left in the half to lead 14-0 at the break.

Alex McNulty drilled a 45-yard field goal with 9:17 left in the third quarter to cut the Nebraska advantage to 14-3, but that would be the extend of the Bulls scoring.

Quarterback Kyle Vantrease attempted a career-high 50 passes on the day, completing 27 and throwing for 224 yards. He completed passes to nine different receivers with his favorite target being Quian Williams who had eight catches for 93 yards.

Nebraska's front four was tough, making it difficult to move the ball on the ground. Kevin Marks, Jr. was the Bulls' leading rusher with 85 yards. Dylan McDuffie was a nice spark for the Bulls, finishing with 46 yards on only seven carries.

The defense was led by linebacker James Patterson who had 12 tackles in the game, one shy of his career high. Safety E.J. Brown had a career-best six tackles, including two tackles for loss. The Bulls had five tackles for loss in the game.

"I'm proud of the way our team competed," head coach Maurice Linguist said. "There's no moral victories. We prepare and play to win and we came up short. We're very aware of the outcome of the game. What we have to do now is go back to the systematic approach that we carry with us every single week to fix what have to fix, build on the positives from the game and prepare ourselves for a very good Coastal team coming into Buffalo."

There were indeed positives in the game. The Bulls ran 83 plays in the game, 22 more than Nebraska. UB was 11-for-22 on third down. Vantrease's quick punt in the third quarter sailed 81 yards – the second longest punt in program history.

The Bulls will host 17^th-ranked Coastal Carolina next Saturday at noon at UB Stadium.