25 Questions that don't hate

Leipold Blocking Sleds

What is their body of work?

Buffalo is off to a 2-2 start.  They have wins over Albany and Florida Atlantic with losses to Penn State and Nevada.  Albany is FCS, and FAU has no FBS wins.  On the other hand, beating Nevada would have been a nice win and UB led Penn State 17-13 entering the 4th Q.  So far, I'd say they have won the ones they should have and come close to winning the other two.  They are probably better than their record, though they have yet to seemingly play really well this year.

How many seniors and juniors on the two-deep?

23.  This is a pretty young team.

Hurleytastic.

Who are their statistical leaders?

Boise Ross is #1 in the nation in passes defended

What is their turnover ratio?

The are +3, which is high for a 2-2 team.

Offense:

 How is their QB play?

UB has a senior QB, Joe Licata, who has been around a long time and I think was expected to pretty much kill it this year.  He is 7th in the MAC in pass efficiency.  Inside numbers seem OK.  He has completed 65% of his passes for 10.9 yards per completion.  He does have 6 TDs and 4 INT.  He is not a threat to run.

What was their scoring and yards per play?

They are averaging 29 PPG, which is partly inflated by the Albany game but is 5th in the MAC.  Our Blogswap with Bull Run indicates that the offense is struggling.  They average 5.3 yards per play, which is average.

TB Anthone Taylor says he
hates BG.

We don't think about him
at all.

Can they run the ball?

Their overall team number is 3.9 but that's a little bit misleading.  Their two lead backs average 5.0
yards per carry, which are good (top 10 in MAC right now) but nothing earth-shaking.  They are, however, committed to the run.

Do they pass the ball?

As noted above, their efficiency ranking is not great but the numbers inside are OK.  They have good WRs if they can get the ball to them.

How was their run/pass balance?

They run 51% of the time, which is on the high side for a team today.

Do they convert on 3rd Down?

They have converted 32% which is poor.  They are 10th in the MAC and 114th in the nation in this stat.  If they got this turned around, it would make a difference.

Do they score in the red zone?

They are not bad, at 5.5 points per trip.

Do they protect the quarterback?

This has been a weakness.  They have given up 9 sacks in 139 attempts, which is 6.5% of attempts, which is high.

Defense:

If you look closely, you can see
Kent's equipment truck.

Topline: Scoring and yards per play.

On defense they have been considerably stronger.  They allow only 20 PPG, which is very good, but allow 5.3 yards per play which is average.  The turnover margin helps them here.

Do they defend the run effectively?

They have allowed 5.0 yards per carry, which is neither good nor awful.

Can they be passed on?

They lead the MAC and are 19th in the nation in pass efficiency defense.  They allow only 50% completions and have 4 INT with 4 TDS.  When passes are completed, they are going for 11.2 yards per completion, which is relatively high.

Do they get off the field on 3rd down?

They allow 41% success, which is average.

Do they defend in the red zone?

They are on the low side of effective at 5 points per trip allowed.

Do they pressure the QB?

They have 7 sacks which is 5.1% of attempts, which is not a lot but not terrible.

Special Teams:

Buffalo's 1899 HB

Didn't hate him either.

Punting?

Their net punting is not good, 12th in the MAC.  Their kicker averages only 40 yards per kick and they have given up 11 returns for 11 yards going the other way.  He has 7 kicks inside the 20 and only 1 TB, so the yardage issue might be deliberately short kicks to nail the other team deep. He has 6 kicks over 50.  They have not been blocked.

Punt Return?

They have only 4 returns this year, but one was for an 86 yd score.  No blocks.

Placekicking?

He is 4-6.  His long is 43 and he has missed from 35 and 47, so only 1 bad miss.

Kickoff?

Their kickoff is not good, with only 10 TB in 24 kicks and an average starting point of the 29.

Kickoff Return?

They start on the 22 on average, which is not good.  They average less than 20 yards per return.

Miscellaneous: Overall atmospherics and intangibles.

A few things.

First, this is a matchup between Buffalo's very good pass defense and BG's big pass attack.  The Falcons need to run the ball to be effective.

On the other side of the ball, this is probably the least effective offense BG has played this year.  It will be interesting to see how they react to it.  UB is most effective on the run and BG has had a decent run defense lately, so that will be an interesting matchup.

I liked the Leipold hire.  His record at Whitewater?  111-8.  Yes.

BG has had good success over UB recently and has won 12 straight games against the MAC East.  I pick BG to win this game, but I do think the UB is better than their record.  If they can get stops against BG, we know that makes the Falcon machine very klunky and they'd have a good shot to win.