Homecoming Not So Sweet

Saturday, October 6

Mount Pleasant, Mich.

12 p.m.

Central Michigan University

1-5 , 0-2

Buffalo (Homecoming)

5-1 , 2-0

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Buffalo

Central Michigan

10/6/2018 6:55:00 PM | Football

Box Score Photo Gallery

Chippewas slip to 1-5 with loss to Buffalo at Kelly/Shorts

By: Andy Sneddon

Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – The normally affable John Bonamego was in a foul mood on Saturday afternoon.

Bonamego was blunt, and understandably fuming after watching his Central Michigan football team commit four turnovers and surrender nearly 300 yards of rushing in falling to 1-5 with a 34-24 Mid-American Conference loss to Buffalo at Kelly/Shorts Stadium.

"We missed too many tackles, we were penalized 10 times for 60 yards," he said. "Buffalo is a good team. To beat good teams you have to play good football, and we didn't play good football today. Bottom line: We dropped passes, turned the ball over, we didn't tackle. We had penalties and we beat ourselves."

The Bulls rushed for 295 yards and took advantage of the mistake-prone Chippewas, pulling out to a 17-3 lead late in the second quarter and then keeping CMU at arm's length throughout the final two quarters.

The loss dropped CMU to 0-2 in the MAC.

"There are guys in that locker room that are hurting right now," Bonamego said. "They are kids, they work their tails off every single day of the week. Every day, they put in a lot of time, they put in a lot of effort. Right now, they're not getting results and no one's happy. No one is happy."

Kevin Marks rushed for 167 yards and Jaret Patterson collected 121 as the Bulls finished with 307 yards on the ground, more than double their season per-game average. Both the Bulls' rushing total and total yardage (434) were season highs for a Chippewa opponent.

"We didn't tackle well enough, we didn't get off blocks," Bonamego said. "We had players in position. When we tally it tomorrow, we're going to count missed tackles and YACs (yards after contact). If they ran the ball for 300 yards, expect for the 70-yard TD, the majority of them came after contact. That's not good enough."

Romello Ross scored on a 10-yard run midway through the third quarter to draw CMU to 17-10, seemingly giving the Chippewas a shot of momentum.

The one-TD deficit lasted all of 16 seconds.

On Buffalo's next play, Marks bolted 70 yards down the left sideline for a score, putting CMU back in a two-TD hole at 24-10.

The Chippewas again drew within a TD at 24-17 when JaCorey Sullivan caught a 23-yard scoring pass from Tommy Lazzaro with under two minutes to play in the third quarter. But again, Buffalo answered, taking over at the Chippewa 39 after Lazzaro was intercepted for the second time in the game. It took Buffalo seven plays to reach the end zone, extending the lead to 31-17.

The Chipppwas managed season bests in total yardage (340) and rushing yards (172), but the four interceptions and 10 penalties, in the end, were too much to overcome.

"We have another game next week," Bonamego said. "We don't have time to feel sorry for ourselves. We have to go back and do things better. It's not about what you do or doing things different; it's about how we do things and how well we do things -- stop the bleeding of self-inflicted mistakes.

"Right now, we're beating ourselves more than our opponents are beating us."