Western Michigan Kicks past Buffalo with 1:19 to Play
Scoreless third quarter, tie game in the fourth, and a 38-yard field goal from Dieter Kelly with 1:19 left. That is how Western Michigan got out of Buffalo with a 20-17 win, its third of the year against two losses.
Western Michigan started fast. Jalen Buckley ran in from nine yards out on the opening drive and it was 7-0, but Buffalo tied it eight seconds later when Jason Wright hit Patrick Clacks III for a 59-yard touchdown. Messiah Burch's 1-yard run early in the second quarter put Buffalo up 14-7, and Kelly's 43-yarder before the half made it 14-10. Then nobody scored in the third quarter at all.
Buffalo struck first after the break with a 35-yard field goal from Oliver Hautanen at 13:00 of the fourth, stretching the lead to 17-10. Broc Lowry answered with a 5-yard touchdown run with 6:44 left to tie it at 17, and Kelly finished the job. Two ties, two lead changes, and the only margin that mattered was the last one.
The yardage was close to a coin flip: 327 for Western Michigan and 305 for Buffalo, and neither side lost a turnover. Buffalo ran it 47 times for 135 yards, while Western Michigan threw for 212 and credited its defense with five sacks. Buffalo falls to 2-3 after a game it led by seven in the fourth quarter, which is the kind of loss that sticks around for a while. Western Michigan leaves with a win that took 1:19 of clock to settle.
For fantasy purposes it was a quiet one. Lowry led all scorers with 19.9 points, and nobody in the game cleared 20.