#MACtion has finally begun and all teams will continue conference play heading into this weekend.
After five weeks of college football the Mid-American Conference members tried to pull together their shaky starts.
Miami (0-5, 0-1 MAC) fell on the road to Buffalo, 35-27 Saturday. While the Redhawks lost, coach Chuck Martin remained positive.
“I was pretty pleased with the first half,” he said. “We moved the ball well with a lot of confidence but couldn’t convert on the third down which cost us.”
Miami is still searching for depth, especially in the front-seven players on defense. This week Miami will host Massachusetts in its second conference matchup of the season.
“They throw the ball well and score a lot of points,” Martin explained. “Their defense is very physical and good at stopping the run.”
The Redhawks’ issue this season has been closing games. The ability to execute when losing has been the knife to Miami’s season.
Buffalo coach Jeff Quinn commented on the win saying it was a lot of fun, being the Bulls’ first conference win of the season.
“We had a great crowd, I think almost 21,000 people in the attendance,” Quinn said. “Miami came in well prepared, but we were very pleased with the outcome.”
Buffalo (3-2, 1-0 MAC) stood strong on defense with 11 pass breakups and five quarterback hurries. Offensively, Anthone Taylor rushed the ball 36 times for 222 yards and three touchdowns.
“We always have the same mindset and continue developing,” Quinn said. “We’re hitting six-to-eight receivers every game so we’re moving the ball around well. We haven’t been able to get as many turnovers that we’d like and that’s been a huge emphasis at practice.”
Kent State (0-4, 0-1 MAC) traveled to Virginia, where they were defeated by the Cavaliers 45-13. Golden Flashes coach Paul Haynes commended the squad’s start to the game, but just like Miami, he said they need to finish games to break their four-game winless start to the season.
“We played hard, played well out of the gate, but had huge setbacks with our turnovers in the first half,” Haynes said. “When you’re playing talented teams you cannot turn the ball over.”
Kent State returns back to conference play this week, where they will look to get back to .500 in league play after a season-opening loss to Ohio. Kent State will pay a visit to Northern Illinois, a very well-coached squad that plays a physical brand of football. The Huskies are coming off their bye week so Haynes knows that they will be fresh and ready to go.
“We’ve been running the football a lot better,” Haynes said. “If you take away our sack numbers, that was our best game running the ball.”
Northern Illinois has a stable of running backs that they can rotate and pound the football. The Huskies also do a terrific job of mixing it up with motions and deception that causes opposing defenses issues.
Bowling Green (3-2, 1-0 MAC) took on Massachusetts (0-5, 0-1 MAC) in a close 47-42 victory Saturday.
“It was a circus atmosphere up there, there were almost 17,000 people there,” Bowling Green coach Dino Babers said. “I’m proud of our young men and how they battled. We found a way to win on the road. You have to win on the road to become a good football team.”
Bowling Green has a lot of young talent on defense trying to breakthrough as everyday starters.
Offensively, the Falcons took 100 against the Minutemen.
Bowling Green hosts Buffalo this week.
“We don’t plan it, we just play football and what happens, happens,” Babers said. “We’re obviously trying to play fast football and we’re a well-conditioned football team that can carry the tempo.”
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