INDIANAPOLIS - Butler fell to the Dayton Flyers 19-9 on Saturday afternoon at the Bud & Jackie Sellick Bowl. With the loss, Butler slides to 5-2 on the season and 2-1 in PFL action while Dayton improves to 5-1 on the season and 2-1 in league action.
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ON THE RECORD WITH COACH LYNCH
"Tough one today. I thought that we played hard. We didn't execute very well. We made some mistakes that you can't come back from against a good football team. I thought our defense really battled, specifically in the second half. I think they would like to add some plays back in the first half. We did a good job of keeping the numbers down, the score down in the first half, but they played really well in the second half. They did everything for us to win offensively. Just stubbed our toe too many times, never got into a rhythm.
Obviously, the turnovers were killers, especially early in downs, and there were first down plays. Sometimes you can live with it if it's a third down play and you're trying to push the ball down the field or something like that. We've been awesome in turnover margin, been the best in the country but today we certainly weren't, and you see what the result is. I like this group a lot. I think we'll bounce back. A lot of football left, and we got to get back to the drawing board this week."
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NOTEABLE STATS
- Nick Munson hauled in five catches for 80 yards and a touchdown.
- Gabe Passini completed 15-of-26 passes for 152 yards and one touchdown.
- Madden Beriault led the defense with 14 tackles and half a tackle for loss.
- Tommy Diamond totaled 11 tackles and one tackle for loss.
- Kameron Armstrong had three tackles for loss.
- Beck Janki converted a 30-yard field goal.
- Dayton had three interceptions in the game.
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HOW IT HAPPENED
- Butler committed its first turnover of the season on an interception on the first play of the game. After forcing a missed field goal from the Flyers, Butler strung together an eight-play, 61-yard drive that ended with a Janki field goal as the Bulldogs took the early 3-0 lead. At the end of the first, Butler held the slim 3-0 advantage.
- Dayton opened the second quarter with a 25-yard touchdown reception from Bryce Cowgill, giving the visitors a 7-3 lead. Both teams traded possessions back and forth as neither side was able to get into scoring range. With just under two minutes left in the second, Dayton converted a 33-yard touchdown pass to Luke Hansen as the Flyers took the 14-3 lead. Dayton took the 11-point lead into the half.
- Neither side was able to generate much offense in the early part of the third quarter as a Butler turnover halted the Dawgs' offensive momentum. Off the turnover, Dayton put together a long drive, but the Bulldog defense had a big stop of fourth and one, forcing a turnover on downs. Dayton took the 14-3 lead into the final quarter of action.
- Butler started the fourth quarter with a nine-play, 79-yard drive that ended with a 20-yard touchdown reception from Munson. BU attempted a two-point conversion that was unsuccessful, cutting the Dayton lead to five (14-9). Dayton responded with a 13-play, 61-yard drive that ended with a field goal as the Flyers' lead grew to eight (17-9) with just over five minutes left in the game. Butler was unable to mount a comeback in the final minutes as Dayton secured the 19-9 victory with a safety on Butler's final play of the game.
UP NEXT
The Bulldogs will hit the road next weekend as they head to Des Moines, Iowa on Saturday, Oct. 24 to continue PFL play against Drake. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. Eastern (Noon Central). The game will be streamed live on ESPN+ and a link to live stats can be found on
Butlersports.com.
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