Robert Morris Sticks Tight With FBS Opponent Buffalo in Narrow Loss

Robert Morris (2-2) playing against FBS opponents apart of its non-conference schedule is a relatively new thing for the Colonials’ football program. In fact, it was not until the 2019 season when the Colonials played Buffalo (2-2) that they faced off against a FBS program.

After losing to the Bulls in blowout fashion seven years ago, the Colonials have played against four other FBS teams, losing to each of them including to Akron just two weeks ago.

Despite the lack of success, Robert Morris head coach Bernard Clark Jr. believed that his team could pull off a potential upset over the team the same program that his team lost to back in 2019 as the Colonials traveled to Buffalo on Saturday for round two.

It was almost a storybook game for the Colonials and Clark as they looked evenly matched with the Bulls throughout a majority of the game, but it was the rushing attack from the Bulls that allowed them to escape the upset bid with a narrow 31-28 victory.

Despite missing a potential touchdown on the game’s opening drive, Robert Morris still struck first. After linebacker Anmanuel Dickson hauled in tipped pass for an interception, the Colonials started their second drive of the game at the Buffalo 33-yard line.

The Colonials were leading 7-0 just three plays later due to a 29-yard touchdown run from sophomore running back Xavier Goulbourne.

Buffalo eventually got things going on the ground themselves by the second quarter and used the ground game to open up a 16-play drive that was capped off on the first of running back Nico Hill’s two touchdowns in the game which tied things up at 7-7.

Robert Morris quickly jumped back ahead on the very next drive on a magical play from quarterback Carson Haggard. Facing a 3rd-and-7, Haggard started to step up in the pocket, pump faked into a juke move, and trotted his way 50 yards for a touchdown.

The Bulls managed to tie the game back up just before halftime, apart of a 14-point swing, due to a coaching blunder from the Colonials.

After forcing the Bulls into using all of their timeouts, the Colonials could have just ran the ball on a third down deep in their own territory, effectively killing the remainder of the clock in the second quarter. Rather, the Colonials attempted to pass and it fell incomplete giving the Bulls nearly a minute to work with before halftime.

Buffalo needed barely half of that to score as quarterback Jason Wright matched his counterpart and scrambled in for a 25-yard touchdown. The Bulls then used another lengthy drive out of halftime to take their first lead of the game at 21-14.

Just when things started to look bleak, down 28-14 after a third-staright Buffalo touchdown, Robert Morris forced its third takeaway of the game when safety Jaylen Williams flew through the blindside and hit Wright from behind resulting in a fumble that rolled into the end zone and into the hands of linebacker Khalil Hunter.

The defensive touchdown cut the score to 28-21 and gave the Colonials a chance that was short lived as the Bulls used a field goal on the next possession to make it a 10-point game.

Regardless, the Colonials still had time to make something happen and got the ball all the way down to the Bulls’ 36-yard line before turning it over on downs with a little over four minutes left. The Colonials ended up getting the ball back and scoring on a 32-yard connection between Haggard and wide receiver Noah Shaerli but it was all for not as they were left with no timeouts.

Robert Morris did a lot of things that needed to be done in order to pull off an upset of an opponent of Buffalo’s nature, even without starting running back Keino Fitzpatrick II and star wide receiver Galen Combs.

In order to pull off an upset, the underdog must do a couple of things really well. Some of those things include running the ball with efficiency, generating turnovers and limiting the opposing team’s quarterback. They checked all three of those boxes.

Even without Fitzpatrick, the Colonials had no problem running the ball as they ran for 153 yards on 22 attempts (7.0 yards per carry) and two touchdowns. Defensively, the Colonials forced three turnovers, one for a touchdown, and limited the Bulls’ quarterback to just 140 passing yards.

While the Colonials managed to do all three of those in the loss, to an extent, a pair of major issues prevented them from coming out victorious. Those issues were a lack of a consistent passing threat and rushing defense.

Without Combs in the lineup, Haggard lost his top target and could not piece it together good enough with the rest of the receivers to reliably move the ball down the field. He finished the day just 13-for-31 for 163 yards and one touchdown through the air.

On the other side of the coin, what really gashed Robert Morris’ chances at taking Buffalo down was the Colonials inability to stop the Bulls’ rushing attack. In the end, the Bulls rushed for 302 yards and three of the team’s touchdowns.

Buffalo’s Jason Wright finished just 15-for-28 for 140 yards and a touchdown with two interceptions but he made his money on the ground as he tallied 97 rushing yards and a touchdown. The Bulls’ running back duo of Messiah Burch and Nico Hill did the rest of the damage as they combined for another 210 yards and pair of touchdowns.

Robert Morris finally returns to Joe Walton Stadium next week as the Colonials will welcome in Mike Vick and his Norfolk State squad on homecoming weekend.