Costly turnovers thwart Chippewas in road loss to Buffalo
BUFFALO, N.Y. – After winning three straight games in convincing fashion, the Central Michigan football team found itself unraveling in the second quarter of the Chippewas’ 43-20 loss on the road against Buffalo.
The reason? CMU didn’t value the football.
The Chippewas coughed up five turnovers on the evening and the Bulls turned that into 24 points.
“You aren’t going to go anywhere and turn the ball over like we did,” head coach Jim McElwain said. “We gave them short fields and they made us have long fields, and it’s disappointing.”
Midway through the first quarter, the Chippewas found a groove feeding the rock to senior running back Jonathan Ward. A steady drive resulted in Ward punchng in a score from a yard out.
The touchdown gave CMU a 7-3 lead. However, things went sideways for the Chippewa offense from that point forward.
It began with senior quarterback Quinten Dormady squirming out of a potential sack, then stepping up in the pocket to extend the play at the 1:40 mark in the first quarter.
Dormady couldn’t find anyone downfield before being overwhelmed by Bulls, and as he was brought to the ground, the ball popped free and caromed directly into the hands of a Buffalo defender.
The effort to get loose from the initial hit was valiant, but as Dormady escaped he got careless with the ball which caused the turnover and gave the Bulls possession at the CMU 22.
Buffalo capitalized on Dormady’s fumble and turned it into seven points less than three minutes later.
“With the fumble on the sack, ball security is of an importance,” McElwain said. “But there’s a lot of guys, where, you know, we need to play better and play right.”
Down 10-7, the Chippewas readied themselves to receive the ensuing kickoff and put together a solid drive.
No such luck.
Kick returner Montrae Braswell failed to get under the kickoff and the ball glanced off his hands, forcing him to scramble and fall on the ball to keep possession. It wiped out a chance to give his team a favorable starting field position.
To compound Braswell’s error, Ward fumbled the ball back to Buffalo on the very next play, this time handing the Bulls an even better start spot at the CMU 15.
It took Buffalo exactly one play to extend its lead to 17-7 on a run by Jaret Patterson, marking the Bulls’ second touchdown in a span of 24 seconds.
Braswell then muffed the catch on the following kickoff and failed to advance the ball past the Chippewas’ 20-yard-line.
CMU almost saw another fumble fall into Buffalo’s grasp for the third consecutive drive after Tyrone Scott hauled in a pass from Dormady and was immediately upended by UB cornerback Russell Devon, sending the ball skittering across the turf yet again.
The Bulls pounced on that ball as well, and the officials originally ruled it a fumble. Only after a lengthy review was the call overturned, giving possession back to the Chippewas.
The incompletion to Scott wasn’t a turnover in the scorebook, but it essentially ended CMU’s drive. Scott should’ve secured Dormady’s pass for a first down or at least a third-and-short situation.
Instead, the Chippewas faced a long third down and eventually brought out punter Brady Buell to punt the ball 32 yards to the UB 20.
The Bulls promptly marched a six-minute drive down the field for a touchdown and a 24-7 lead.
Though the Chippewas came through with an efficient touchdown drive in the waning minutes of the first half to cut Buffalo’s lead to 24-14, CMU could do nothing but play a poor man’s catch-up throughout the rest of the game -- especially after giving up a crippling touchdown just before halftime.
In the second half, the Chippewas surrendered a fumble on an unlucky bounce off a Buffalo punt that hit a CMU blocker, then turned the ball over again when Dormady threw an interception with 12:50 to play in the game.
The game’s final minutes saw Dormady toss yet another interception; this one was returned for a Bulls touchdown with 2:26 remaining.
“I don’t care who you are; if you’re gonna do that kind of stuff, you’re not gonna give yourself a chance to win,” McElwain said of his team’s five turnovers.
The Chippewas struggled in many phases in the 43-20 loss to Buffalo, but the excess of turnovers played a critical role in forcing CMU to make risky decisions and sometimes compound mistakes in its effort to mount a comeback.
