Bills beat Titans on late field goal
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. >> Stephen Hauschka hit a 46-yard field goal as time expired, lifting the Buffalo Bills to a 13-12 win over the Tennessee Titans on Sunday.
Buffalo’s defense forced three turnovers, and LeSean McCoy broke from a September slump with a season-best 85 yards rushing. McCoy sparked the decisive drive with a 13-yard catch on third-and-3. And backup running back Chris Ivory had a 9-yard run in getting the Bills across midfield.
Rookie quarterback Josh Allen scored on a 14-yard touchdown run but was held in check as a passer. He finished 10 of 19 for 82 yards and an interception.
Buffalo (2- 3) bounced back from a 22- 0 loss at Green Bay last weekend.
The Titans struggled on offense in failing to build off a 2623 overtime win over the defending champion Philadelphia Eagles. After winning each of its past three by three points, Tennessee (3-2) found itself on the losing end of a tightly played game in which the kickers accounted for six field goals and the teams combined for 444 yards offense.
Ryan Succup scored all of Tennessee’s 12 points by hitting four
field goals, including a 50-yarder that put the Titans up 12-10 with 4:43 remaining.
Marcus Mariota finished 14 of 26 for 129 yards and an interception.
The Titans’ best chance of finding the end zone slipped through their fingers early in the fourth quarter.
Facing t hird- and- 4 at Buffalo’s 23, Mariota avoided the pass rush and scrambled to his left, where he lobbed to receiver Nick Williams wide open in the end zone. Williams, however, had the pass drop through his hands while attempting to make an overthe-shoulder catch.
Tennessee settled for Succup hitting a 39-yard field goal to cut Buffalo’s lead to 10-9.
Bills rookie linebacker Tremaine Edmunds and defensive end Shaq Lawson had forced fumbles, while rookie cornerback Taron Johnson had an interception
BOTCHED CHANCES
Both teams squandered scoring chances on each of their final drives of the first half, which ended with Succup matching a career high by hitting a 54-yard field goal as time expired. see on the power play are generated through traffic,” said Vines. “We are working on it and getting more comfortable as each day goes by with more time to work on it.”
The Engineers’ goal Saturday was the first RPI power play goal of the year. Blake Orosz jammed home a loose puck in the crease that was kicked out off the original Josefine Hansen shot from the point.
“We’ve had the opportunities on the power play,” said Hansen. “Last week’s goal I was just trying to get the puck deep and it ended up in the back of the net. We’ve had some power play opportunities and it’s about getting the puck to the net and we’ve got girls like Blake getting the rebounds.”
RPI is now one for seven when on the man advantage this season, a .142 success percentage, with 14 shots on net. Again, a very small sample size from a very early season, but for comparison, fellow ECAC member Quinnipiac is 0-15 on the power play, Colgate is 3-16 (.188), and back to back defending National Champion Clarkson is 3-10 (. 300).
For reference, last season RPI was 16/133 (.120) on the man advantage. That means RPI scored one goal for approximately every 8.3 chances.
Teams are still situating there special teams, and that’s what the stats prove. RPI has a very subtle improvement so far, and it can change, but they are making strides to specifically focus in on the power play.
Marc Cavosie becomes a full- time assistant coach after serving as a volunteer assistant last season, as well as for the Rensselaer men’s hockey team from 2014- 2017, where he helped out with the forwards as well as individual skills work.
“We’re looking to get better every game, and it is early in the season. We’re getting a bunch of different looks and obviously I’m new so them relating to me and me relating to them is all a work in progress,” said Cavosie. “I think they are working well together, the chemistry is there in the unit, the coaching points we are trying to teach they are taking to heart, and they are trying out there.”
The team is responding to Marc’s effort to take the power play and make it a successful unit for the Engineers this season.
“Marc is great. He is teaching us a lot andwe are learning every single power play we get,” said Hansen. “As long as we keep pushing and keep working and I think good things are going to come from it.”
Saturday, the Engineers ran an umbrella power play, putting Hansen at the point and running the chances through her. Along with Hansen, Orosz was buzzing around in front and down low digging for loose pucks, and other players like Jamie Grigsby and Sabrina Repaci played integral parts.
“They all have a specific role that they are going to play and that’s why we put them together. We are hoping that the chemistry really meshes,” said Cavosie. “Blake is quick, she’s hard on pucks, she covers a lot of pucks, which allows us in zone time. Josefine is up top and she is going to be a distributor for us. Repaci is going down the other side and she is the one that needs to make a good decision there and it’s not always going to be Jaimie who is open, it depends on how good the penalty kill is.”
Orosz’s ability to get to the front of the net and grind and work hard is going to be a huge weapon for the team this season, espe- cially with the way Vines plans on building the offense.
“We’re going to have a blue collar type of mentality,” said Vines before the season started. “We’re going to have to score and get better around the other team’s net front and find ways to score some tough goals in those areas and we have the players to do that.”
The in front presence the Engineers want is going to have to generate from the point. Quality, high rebound percentage shots are going to need to be taken in open lanes up high in order to allow for the slot skates to grind for rebounds.
If you look at the shot chart from Saturday, you see that trend taking shape, like an arrow pointing at the net. A lot of shots were taken, from the center, left, and right point positions, with a clump of the offense forming out front, and zoning in real tight on the crease. Now, the Engineers just need to execute.
“90 percent of the goals you see on the power play are generated through traffic. We are working on it and getting more comfortable as each day goes by with more time to work on it,” said Vines. “We are getting a lot of shots blocked and we are passing up shooting opportunities a lot of the time. That’s how we are going to score. We are going to score dirty goals around the crease and we have to keep working on it.”
The RPI Women are 0-2-1 and go to Robert Morris University for a two game series at Moon Township. The Engineers return to Troy October 26 to take on RIT.