Turnovers prove costly as CMU football loses to Buffalo
In Central Michigan football's first drive, redshirt sophomore Jase Bauer threw a 29-yard pick six, resulting in Buffalo taking an early 7-0 lead over the Chippewas.
CMU continued to make mistakes throughout the game as the Bulls capitalized, securing a 37-13 win at UB Stadium in New York on Saturday.
“I don’t care who we play, we’re not going to win playing like that,” head coach Jim McElwain said.
In its first five games of the season, CMU gave up four turnovers. At Buffalo, the Chippewas racked up four turnovers including three interceptions from Bauer.
Buffalo’s Devin Grant was on the receiving end of all three interceptions, two of which resulted in a pick-six.
After CMU went down by 10 early, the Chippewas responded with a touchdown of their own as Bauer completed a pass to Jesse Prewitt III for two yards. Tristan Mattson kicked the extra point to narrow the score to 10-7 with 11 minutes remaining in the first half.
After CMU's strong start to the second, Buffalo started to find its stride as it secured 16 unanswered points heading into the half with a 23-7 lead.
Bulls’ kicker Alex McNulty scored 13 of the Bulls' 37 points. McNulty was the 2022 Mid-American Conference Special Teams’ Player of the Year.
In the fourth quarter, the Bulls went scoreless and the Chippewas were able to add another six points to the scoreboard when Bauer completed a five-yard pass to Tyson Davis.
CMU led in passing yards with Bauer’s 280 compared to Buffalos' quarterback Cole Snyder’s 232 yards. However, the Bulls had 123 rushing yards to the Chippewas’ 80. This is the first game of the season CMU has not had over 100 yards rushing.
On the Chippewa defense both junior defensive back Trey Jones and junior linebacker Kyle Moretti led with eight tackles a piece. Junior defensive back Donte Kent had six tackles and Caleb Spann had five.
CMU is now 3-3 overall and in a three-way tie for second in the MAC West with Eastern and Western Michigan.
“The message quite simply is, let’s get back to work," McElwain said. "Let’s do a good job of staying together we get to play at home. Hopefully get another great crowd, get an opportunity to win at home, and get ourselves back in this thing.”
The Chippewas will look for its third straight home win against Akron on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at Kelly/Shorts Stadium for CMU’s homecoming.
