UB vs. NIU - MAC Championship Game (11/30 - 7pm)

[SGBull]

We knew that not being able to make a PAT was going to come back to haunt us eventually. Unfortunately it was the biggest game of the year. It sucks.

[zigo230]

Well that was a brutal ending. I guess this is where I’m supposed to say it was still a great season?!!  Well they worked hard to put themselves in position all season to get to Detroit and late in the 3rd had a 19 point lead and somehow blew it. Definitely a team loss as the O couldn’t do anything in the final 20 mins and the D inexplicably gave up huge plays.  This one hurts.  

Maybe on the plus side, Lance feels he now has unfinished business and won’t get poached by some other program.

[UB85]

Don’t see how Lance gets poached. One good season and no championship. If he strings a few more seasons I could see it happen. In the other hand, I’m told he’s told people UB is his last stop. 

[Jeseph]

This was the year to win. The MAC was down and we were up. Ugh, I’ll stop being negative and stay on the hoops side

[tedward45]

Lots to think about with this game. It was a fun season and I think the school did earn many new fans but the 3 big games with most opportunity to really grow a fan base, the D was a no show and other than the 1st half tonight the O was disappointing in those same 3 games. I really think Tyree's play dropped off the second half of the year compared to first half of season. He was really rattled by pressure tonite and ran into 3 of the 4 sacks. I will be curious if he declares for draft before their bowl game and decides to sit it out if he is going pro. Lastly....can UB please find a reliable kicker? 

Edited December 1, 2018 by tedward45

[enrique14150]

That was a disgusting way to lose.  I'll try my best to sugar coat it...

Glass half full - the program has taken positive strides the past couple years, building a better team and culture.  They have an established coach, a good QB coming back for his senior year, a couple promising running backs.  They present the hope of being regularly competitive, in a way this program never really has.  Can we really complain too much after the season they've had and also how basketball is doing?  If they're really building as well as people keep saying, then is this loss a big deal, whatever maybe they'll be back again soon.

Glass half empty - I thought I was done seeing a UB team go up 19 points in a MAC championship game, but hey lets do it again.  They went up 19 and turned off the intensity, focus, and sharpness.  Jackson was all over the place after that.  The defense proved yet again that against a good team, they're going to have a hard time holding a lead.  They kept letting receivers get by over the top with no help, kept allowing 3rd and 4th down conversions, couldn't get themselves off the field.  Micheson's regression finally came back to really haunt them.  They beat up some tomato cans this year along with a decent Temple team, a decent Eastern team, and a Toledo team in an off year for them.  But got ground down by two good teams in Army and ohio, by the skin of their teeth at Miami, and caved in vs NIU.  I can't get around those when asking myself 'how good is this team?'  In the end they were a good MAC team, nothing more.  My dad texted me after this saying they're the third best team in the MAC in the end.  Yet again I'm left feeling like maybe this team does some things well because of Leipold, but also kinda wins in spite of him.  I don't know.  I know you can't always assume you'll be back in a title game again, sometimes these opportunities are hard to get and this was theirs.

I want to hope, at the very least, that this game burns for everyone on that sideline and provides the drive and focus they need to go the next step and get it right next year.

[zigo230]

12 minutes ago, tedward45 said:

Lots to think about with this game. It was a fun season and I think the school did earn many new fans but the 3 big games with most opportunity to really grow a fan base, the D was a no show and other than the 1st half tonight the O was disappointing in those same 3 games. I really think Tyree's play dropped off the second half of the year compared to first half of season. He was really rattled by pressure tonite and ran into 3 of the 4 sacks. I will be curious if he declares for draft before their bowl game and decides to sit it out if he is going pro. Lastly....can UB please find a reliable kicker? 

I noticed after his knee injury, Tyree didn’t run at all, barely moved around in the pocket. He stuck his foot in the ground and made some laser throws.  At mid season he started running again and it seemed like his passing game went downhill.  Not sure if that’s just a coincidence. But yeah I agree his game dropped off quite a bit. He’s not NFL ready imo.

[enrique14150]

It's going to be interesting to see how he, and the offense, looks without a receiver like Anthony Johnson.  When he was in there, he drew enough attention from the defense that it gave other guys openings.  When he was hurt, the defenses were able to concentrate on everyone else more.  Next year he's not going to be able to chuck it up there and 83 will come down with it.

[UBFan99]

Pathetic collapse. It was a good regular season but that doesn’t mean they didn’t disappoint when it mattered. 

Now some random bowl game against some other no name program like Georgia Southern that nobody cares about except some people here and fans of whatever team UB plays. How thrilling. Very disappointed, major opportunities blown.  

Jackson isn’t NFL ready, even in a weak draft class. 

[rma]

People really came out of the woodwork today to criticize the program (not here). I didn’t recognize them from when we had 200 people in the stands in losing seasons.  Funny how that works out.

[enrique14150]

19 minutes ago, rma said:

People really came out of the woodwork today to criticize the program (not here). I didn’t recognize them from when we had 200 people in the stands in losing seasons.  Funny how that works out.

Agreed.  But this team didn't do itself many favors this year, when the spotlight was on them and they had a big opportunity to get people's attention for good reasons, they didn't take advantage.  The Toledo game went well, that was on Channel 2 and got great ratings; the Army game (undefeated with a big crowd, nice weather, and the Bills away and in the dumps) and this one, not so well.

[rma]

13 hours ago, enrique14150 said:

Agreed.  But this team didn't do itself many favors this year, when the spotlight was on them and they had a big opportunity to get people's attention for good reasons, they didn't take advantage.  The Toledo game went well, that was on Channel 2 and got great ratings; the Army game (undefeated with a big crowd, nice weather, and the Bills away and in the dumps) and this one, not so well.

I don't disagree at all.  But I'm hoping that some of these people that saw us blow the game looked under the BUFFALO, see 10-2, and think "Wow I should see this team that won so many games even though they sucked for the last 20 minutes".  I'd rather have UB Football in the press for going 10-2 and losing the championship game than no press, us going 2-10, or having UB football in the news for something bad.

[xDerekRx]

Im more with you RMA. People have gotten pretty critical with a program moving the right direction. Expectations have gotten the best of people.

Someone above just put down the fact that no one cares about a bowl game?

To me I want to win a bowl game now. I dont care which one or who its against. I would have loved another MAC title, thankfully we got one in 2008 or it would be even more bitter. But we dont have that bowl title and I want that. To me I want it more than the MAC title as crazy as that sounds

But as good as a season as this was there were some ugly times where expectations may have ruined it. We had some brutal losses. The offense would cave a bit in second halfs. 

And no matter how good of a season you could have had, losing the way you did in the title game is pretty brutal. It deserves a reaction. Your 2 best offensive players couldnt get you in even FG range when it mattered most and the Def just gave up 2 giant plays (something they kinda do at times)

It was frustrating to see it lost that way. Plain and simple. Just leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

But again that being said, Im excited for a bowl game and I want a bowl win.

[weareub46]

Yea last night really hurt and still stings pretty bad. Going to take a little bit to get over it. It’s easy to be cynical about the team because of it. But not caring about a bowl game is ridiculous. 

Did we all think this was the year we would win the MAC? Absolutely. But we’ve still never won a bowl game in program history. That’s a major milestone that UB has to get over ASAP. If we want to take this program to the next level that’s soooo important. With the best record in UB History and their first ever bowl game victory I think the Macc will sting a lot less. Still lots to play for and still a season to be proud of. 

We lost the games that really mattered but when was the last time we said UB even took care of all the games they should have won in the regular season? 

We NEED to continue success into next year. The fieldhouse will be built and it should help recruiting but we all want consistent winning. I would say next year is almost more important. To have another winning bowl season would be huge for this program. 

Tough tough tough to lose that game how it went last night...but lots to look forward to. First things first, let’s beat the hell outta whoever we play in a bowl game and end this year on a high note. 11-3 sounds pretty good to me 

[admin]

I was never a fan of going for 2 just cause we missed the previous XP. I see us doing this over and over again and I hope we stop. 

[zigo230]

10 hours ago, admin said:

I was never a fan of going for 2 just cause we missed the previous XP. I see us doing this over and over again and I hope we stop. 

I’m with you on that.  Coaches everywhere play that strategy after missing the first XP and all they do is chase the point the rest of the game.   The XP in college is a gimme (yeah I know, not for UB). Just take it.  

At the end of the game if you need a 2-pt conversion to tie it, then go for it.  Or if you want to try to win the game, like Maryland did vs. Ohio St.  

[promotherobot]

19 hours ago, xDerekRx said:

Im more with you RMA. People have gotten pretty critical with a program moving the right direction. Expectations have gotten the best of people.

Someone above just put down the fact that no one cares about a bowl game?

To me I want to win a bowl game now. I dont care which one or who its against. I would have loved another MAC title, thankfully we got one in 2008 or it would be even more bitter. But we dont have that bowl title and I want that. To me I want it more than the MAC title as crazy as that sounds

But as good as a season as this was there were some ugly times where expectations may have ruined it. We had some brutal losses. The offense would cave a bit in second halfs. 

And no matter how good of a season you could have had, losing the way you did in the title game is pretty brutal. It deserves a reaction. Your 2 best offensive players couldnt get you in even FG range when it mattered most and the Def just gave up 2 giant plays (something they kinda do at times)

It was frustrating to see it lost that way. Plain and simple. Just leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

But again that being said, Im excited for a bowl game and I want a bowl win.

This is actually a good sign. It means people are buying in and getting emotionally invested in UB. 

What stings for me is this season was the best chance we had to go undefeated. A chance to be ranked and go to a prestige bowl game. It's still a great season but it could have been magical. Even with 10 wins we underachieved.

[John]

On 12/1/2018 at 10:14 PM, weareub46 said:

Yea last night really hurt and still stings pretty bad. Going to take a little bit to get over it. It’s easy to be cynical about the team because of it. But not caring about a bowl game is ridiculous. 

Did we all think this was the year we would win the MAC? Absolutely. But we’ve still never won a bowl game in program history. That’s a major milestone that UB has to get over ASAP. If we want to take this program to the next level that’s soooo important. With the best record in UB History and their first ever bowl game victory I think the Macc will sting a lot less. Still lots to play for and still a season to be proud of. 

We lost the games that really mattered but when was the last time we said UB even took care of all the games they should have won in the regular season? 

We NEED to continue success into next year. The fieldhouse will be built and it should help recruiting but we all want consistent winning. I would say next year is almost more important. To have another winning bowl season would be huge for this program. 

Tough tough tough to lose that game how it went last night...but lots to look forward to. First things first, let’s beat the hell outta whoever we play in a bowl game and end this year on a high note. 11-3 sounds pretty good to me 

Yes a tough, tough loss. I agree it has been a record setting year in many aspects. Even with a winning team there should be accountability. In many games this year after UB has taken a big lead in the first half the team has gone into both offensive and defensive shells. They stopped trying to push the ball down the field and they became very conservative across the board. That is on the coaches. If they play anywhere close to that against Troy they will get blown out like the Ohio game and like the second half against N. Illinois. Hope for a good bowl game to end the season on a positive note. Go Bulls!!!!