Bobcats-Bulls Preview: It's A Trap!

It's been a while since the Buffalo Bulls won't clearly the worst Buffalo B_lls football team in the area but thanks to Ryan Fitzpatrick and his enormous Ivy League brain the Bulls are the laughing stock of Southern Canada. But make no mistake about it, the Bulls have a serious competitor for coolest quarterback name in the city thanks to Chazz Anderson, or as I affectionately call him, Chaz.

Chazz is a little like Tyler Tettleton except he isn't as good and his last name is generic and it doesn't start with a C. Anderson has thrown for 881 yards on the season (three touchdowns/three interceptions) and ran for 203 yards, the second most on the team, and three scores. Anderson is in his first year at Buffalo after transferring from the University of Cincinnati and it's his senior year, so this his is one shot at captivating the city of Buffalo. He had a bit of Spencer Keith-itis last week when he threw for fewer than 100 yards but he was playing against Tennessee and had 99 yards, so I'll give him a pass.

Anderson had a pretty strong game against Pittsburgh in the fist week of the season (32 of 49 for 276 yards and a pick) but he just can't seem to get the ball into the endzone. Anderson has two receivers that could start at shooting guard for the New York Knicks or at center for the Golden State Warriors. Sophomore Alex Neutz has 312 yards on the year, is six-foot-four and totally has Stevie Johnson beat in the name department (Take that, Bills of Buffalo!). Marcus Rivers is a senior with 285 yards on the year and he stands tall at six-foot-five, as listed on his ESPN page. Of course, if you go to his ESPN page for the 2012 Draft he is listed at six-foot-two AND three quarters. He's probably five-foot-eleven. Nobody actually watches the Bulls of Buffalo play. I am basing this preview off of wives' tales I've heard about Chazz and his "many misfits".

Buffalo's best player and workhorse is sophomore running back Branden Oliver. What saddens me about Oliver is that he was recruited by Ohio University but the Miami (FL) native chose Buffalo over OU. Why Branden? We could have been friends. Oliver has 500 yards and five scores in five games this season with 55 receiving yards on 11 catches (good for a yards per catch average of five) to go along with it. I'd imagine we'll be seeing a lot of Oliver in this game. Whether or not he is carrying the ball is a different topic. To cover that topic: he should be carrying the ball a good bit.

Buffalo has some nice players on offense but they don't match up to Ohio in terms of overall talent, especially on the O-Line, and in offensive execution. Tettleton is having a whale of a year with nearly 1200 yards and 12 touchdowns (just one interception) through five games. Tettleton did injure his leg against Kent State but all indications are that he will be good to go in this game. Donte Harden may also see some time at running back after getting hurt against Marshall. With Ryan Boykin having a good grasp on his role at this point it will be enteresting (entertaining + interesting) to see how Frank Solich divides up the carries between Boykin and Harden. Let's just hope that none come out of the Pistol formation.

Even though Ohio will be banged up entering into this game - Neal Huynh and Omar Leftwich are the biggest absences - the Bobcats won't struggle like they did against Kent State because the Bulls' defense isn't as good. The Bobcats should be able to get their offense going early unlike last week and even though the Bulls have some talent on offense, the only time they've gotten over 28 points in a game was against Stony Brook, which I honestly thought was a high school. Ohio shouldn't have much trouble getting 28 points and if they can get to that mark, the win should go to Ohio.

That said, I wouldn't be surprised if Buffalo won this game.

/setting self up to say "I knew it!" and not be laughed at for going to a school that lost a football game to the Buffalo Bulls