CMU-Buffalo: Postgame Notes

CMU 27, BUFFALO 25

Yet another Mid-American Conference showdown goes down to wire and, thanks to a field goal kick that nailed the right upright, CMU escaped its game against Buffalo with a victory.

I'm going to switch things up a little bit this time around for postgame notes, because there was a point in the press conference where things took a little turn from the ordinary. Coach Butch Jones answered questions from the media, as usual, and things were normal up until I began asking a question. It dealt with the two plays in the 4th quarter when Buffalo took a screen 65 yards for a score and recovered the onside kick, because up until that point, nobody had bothered to ask about those two plays, as critical as they were. Jones interrupted the question to defend his defense for the otherwise great game it played today. Here's how it went:

Me: "You got a good win today, but again, the defense gives up a big play late---"

Jones: "Our defense played well. I'll tell you that. I don't want to hear nothing about our defense. It's a great team win. Our defense kept us in the ballgame. So yeah, they gave up a big play. We'll get that corrected. But let's talk about the positives. That was a great team win today. Our students, our fans, it was unbelievable. Best since I've been here. So... we'll get that corrected. That's also, you know, (their) team has great players, too. That tailback's (James Starks) going to play on Sundays. That quarterback's (Drew Willy) going to play on Sundays. They made their plays when they had to. But hats off to our kids, I thought they played extremely well."

First of all, this really wasn't much of an incident. Jones and I spoke after the conference, I got to finish my question and he responded - I've worked with him for more than a year now and I don't think any less of him now than I did before. Nobody's been criticized more over the last year than the CMU defense, and with it playing extremely well the last two weeks, he defended it after a big emotional conference win. I understood all of that.

But here is my point, and I know I'm not the only one who's thinking this: The defense, and the special teams at some points, cannot continue to give up big plays late if it wants to three-peat in the MAC. I'm not at all trying to be negative after a win. In fact, I completely agree with Jones - CMU's defense, overall, is the best I've seen it in the last two years, and we at CM Life gave them that credit after last week's loss at Purdue. It's coming a long way, for sure, and it deserves a lot of credit for keeping Central in the past few games and putting it in the position to win. Those guys are playing their hearts out.

On the same token, though, there's those fourth-quarter breakdowns that you just can't ignore when you go further down your schedule! Let's go back to two weeks ago against Ohio. When CMU made that game 24-14 in the fourth quarter and later 31-21, it took the Bobcats a combined six plays to respond with two touchdowns, both on 40+ yard plays. (The defense did come up big on fumble recoveries on the last two drives to preserve the win) Fast forward one week against Purdue - with the score 25-24 in CMU's favor, it took one play following a kick return to CMU's 46-yard line for Purdue to score and win 32-25. Today, after CMU makes it a two-possession game (27-18) with less than three minutes to go, it took four plays for James Starks to take a screen play 65 yards for a touchdown - and then Buffalo recovers the onside kick and sets itself up for a game-winning field goal! As great as the defense played all game, the game was in Buffalo's hands late, and they missed the field goal.

Just in case that isn't enough, here's the point total, spread out over four quarters, by CMU opponents this season:

1st: 30
2nd: 30
3rd: 30
4th: 63

CMU has some great offenses to look forward to playing against this year - Western Michigan, Toledo and Ball State are the more prominent, and you can't ignore NIU after today's 37-0 drubbing of Eastern Michigan. Nobody can expect those teams to miss the opportunity to win like Buffalo did today. That is my point. You can talk all day about how great the defense played for the majority of the game - it definitely has the last two weeks - but hypothetically, if Buffalo converted the field goal today and won it, the team still would be 0-2 after those two weeks. Could you really blame everybody but the defense for that?

The best case scenario for the football team is, they learn from these plays and lock down better as a group in those late-game situations. It's completely capable of doing that if it can play as great as it does for a majority of the game. But it is one of the little things that you have to look at heading into the bye week.