OXFORD, Ohio — Miami University had Tuesday night’s MACtion game won twice, and lost it anyway. The RedHawks built leads of 24-10 and 31-16 at Yager Stadium, then watched Buffalo quarterback Jason Wright throw two touchdown passes, run for two more and set up the overtime field goal that finished a 34-31 Buffalo comeback win, according to the game recap published by By The Belt.
Wright finished 22-of-46 passing for 358 yards with four total touchdowns and two interceptions, per By The Belt’s recap, and his favorite target, Chance Morrow, caught 12 passes for 199 yards and both of Wright’s touchdown throws. Buffalo (6-3, 4-1 MAC) won its fourth straight game and its first at Yager Stadium since 2015.
For three quarters, the night belonged to Miami. After Buffalo opened the scoring with a 33-yard Oliver Hautanen field goal, the RedHawks answered with a nine-play, 75-yard drive capped by Braylon Isom’s 21-yard touchdown catch, and Rodney Nelson’s 10-yard scoring run early in the second quarter made it 14-3, according to By The Belt. Wright’s quarterback sneak before halftime cut it to 17-10, but Miami’s special teams struck first in the third quarter — a blocked punt recovered in the end zone by Scoop Smith pushed the lead to 24-10.
Even Buffalo’s mistakes seemed to help Miami stay in control. Wright threw interceptions on consecutive Buffalo possessions in the third quarter, including one picked off by Miami linebacker CJ Young, and when the RedHawks later forced a field goal try that Kellan McLaughlin hooked wide left, the score stayed 24-10. A Smith six-yard touchdown run on a reverse early in the fourth quarter restored a 15-point cushion at 31-16, per the recap.
Then the game flipped. Wright found Morrow for a touchdown and a two-point conversion to make it 31-24 with 8:56 left. Buffalo’s Will Clark sacked Miami quarterback Caleb Heavner to push the RedHawks out of field goal range, and Wright drove the Bulls 80 yards in 14 plays, tying the game on another quarterback sneak with 1:35 remaining in regulation, according to By The Belt.
Overtime came down to kickers. Hautanen put Buffalo ahead 34-31 with a 27-yard field goal. Miami’s answering possession stalled, a false-start penalty on the field goal unit pushed McLaughlin’s try from 40 yards to 45, and the kick clanged off the right upright — sealing a loss in a game where McLaughlin converted just one of three field goal attempts, per By The Belt’s recap.
The quarter-by-quarter line from Sportradar confirms the shape of the collapse: Miami led 17-10 at halftime and 24-16 after three quarters before Buffalo outscored the RedHawks 15-7 in the fourth and 3-0 in overtime. Buffalo outpassed Miami 358 yards to 154 on a night when the RedHawks’ ground game, led by D’Shawntae Jones with 112 yards on 17 carries, mostly did its job.
Heavner finished 12-of-23 passing for 154 yards and a touchdown for Miami, and Isom led the RedHawks with seven catches for 89 yards and a score. Malcolm McCain led Miami’s defense with 11 tackles while playing through an injury, and Young added seven tackles and the interception, according to By The Belt. Miami converted just 33 percent of its third downs.
The standings damage is real. Miami fell to 5-4 overall and 3-2 in the MAC, and By The Belt noted the RedHawks are now 3-3 in one-score games this season and will need help to reach a fourth straight MAC championship game appearance in Detroit. Buffalo, meanwhile, sits in the driver’s seat in the conference race with a tiebreaker over Toledo in hand.
What happens next raises the stakes further: Miami hosts Ohio University in the Battle of the Bricks next Tuesday night, November 10, in Oxford. The Bobcats arrive as the MAC’s unbeaten-in-conference standard — Ohio rallied past Akron 28-20 on Tuesday night on Duncan Brune’s 91-yard touchdown run, the same night Miami was letting its own fourth-quarter lead slip away.
That sets up the story of next week in the MAC: Ohio entered this week unbeaten in league play and left Akron still perfect, while Miami must now beat the Bobcats at home to keep its Detroit hopes credible. A RedHawk team that could not close out Buffalo gets no softer assignment — only a bigger one, under the same Tuesday night lights at Yager Stadium.