Published: September 20, 2008 10:15 pm      

COLLEGE FOOTBALL: UB threatens No. 5 Missouri

COLUMBIA, Mo. — The Buffalo Bulls were within one touchdown of leading the No. 5 team in the nation for the better part of three quarters Saturday.

Chase Daniel passed for a career-high 439 yards and set a Big 12 record with 20 consecutive completions, helping Missouri overcome a rash of errors in a 42-21 victory over the Bulls.

UB trailed 27-21 late in the third when a 15-yard penalty stalled a drive into Missouri territory.

“I’m proud of our guys’ effort. They did an outstanding job,” UB coach Turner Gill said. “They just executed better than we did and they were the better football team today. We are trying to continue to make progress, and we are. We’ll bounce back and our guys will be ready to play next week (at Central Michigan).”

With starting running back James Starks (Niagara Falls) sitting out due to a hip injury, the Bulls (2-2) got three touchdowns from receiver Ernest Jackson, one on a kickoff return and two on passes from Drew Willy.

Willy finished the day 22-of-40 for 237 yards. Naaman Roosevelt (St. Joe’s) had 87 yards on nine grabs. Mario Henry rushed for 60 yards, and Josh Thomas led the defensive effort against one of game’s best offensive attacks, recording seven tackles, two forced fumbles and a pass breakup.

“Our belief level was high because we are a Division I school just like any other team,” Jackson said. “We don’t look down upon ourselves at all.”

The Tigers (4-0) lost three fumbles in UB territory, and got flagged for running into Bulls punter Peter Fardon, keeping alive a drive that ended with Willy’s 32-yard touchdown pass to Jackson.

Gill was 15-1 against Missouri in 16 years as a player and assistant coach at Nebraska.

“I’m so familiar with everything here, nothing really fazes me,” Gill said. “I just tried to describe to the players what it was going to be like so they could be like I am, somewhat comfortable, and just realize it’s just another football game and another football field.”

Missouri entered the game leading the nation with 57 points per game and scored on 15 straight possessions led by Daniel — 13 touchdowns and two field goals — over two games before coming up empty on three second-quarter drives. One ended with Jake Harry’s ninth punt of the season and the other two ended on lost fumbles after receptions by Chase Coffman at the Buffalo 38 and Jared Perry at the Buffalo 12.

That made a huge disparity in total yards, with Missouri at 590 and Buffalo at 286, less meaningful.

“We probably overdid the adversity,” Pinkel said. “Obviously I didn’t do a very good job because I like to think I’m a pretty good coach and I have a well-coached team, and we didn’t look that way out there today.”

Daniel was 36-for-43 for two touchdowns, and fell three completions shy of the NCAA record of 23 in a row shared by Tennessee’s Tee Martin (1998) and Cal’s Aaron Rodgers (2004) when he and Jeremy Maclin missed a connection on fourth-and-1 midway through the third quarter. The previous Big 12 record was 18 straight shared by Iowa State’s Seneca Wallace (2001) and Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford (2007), and Daniel had shared the previous school record of 15 in a row with Kent Kiefer (1990), setting it over two games in 2007.

Daniel topped his previous career best of 421 passing yards at Colorado last season and also became the fifth Big 12 quarterback to top 10,000 career yards in total offense. His 83.7 completion percentage is the best in school history for a minimum 30 passes.