Written by Paul Fritz
Boulder, CO – The Colorado Buffs are still a win away from securing bowl eligibility after a bitter 41-34 defeat against the Oregon State Beavers. After leading by a score of 31-3, the Buffs let up 25 unanswered points in the 2nd half and simply could not recover their momentum, eventually to lose in overtime against the OSU team coming into today with a 1-6 record. This is the 3rd loss in a row for Colorado and surely adjustments need to be made before heading to Arizona next week.
On losing their 31-3 lead, CU head coach Mike MacIntyre said, “I’d imagine it is shook (our confidence) a little to be honest. 31-3 with 13 minutes to go in the third quarter. Definitely should have won the game. We are going to come back to work tomorrow like you always say. Definitely a tough loss.”
Colorado started slowly against the struggling Oregon State defense, having to punt on their first three drives. Eventually, the offense began to click when Steven Montez found wideout K.D Nixon in the endzone for a 32-yard touchdown towards the end of the 1st quarter.
Throughout the first half, the Buffs defense continued to stop the OSU offense and mobile quarterback in Jack Colletto. Dante Wigley intercepted a tipped pass and ran it in 27-yards for the touchdown, making it a comfortable 17-3 lead for CU. A combination of sacks and dominant tackling by Nate Landman sucked out all the energy from the Oregon State attack.
Just before the end of the first half, Montez connected once again with Nixon for a 48-yard pass that put them at the 12-yard line. One more touchdown pass later to Nixon, the Buffs had a commanding lead at 24-3.
Colorado wasted no time coming out of halftime when running back Travon McMillian broke free for a 75-yard touchdown run, increasing the lead to 31-3. Half of the student section left at this point because, really, how could this game get be any more one-sided.
With the boulder at the bottom of the mountain for Oregon State, they had no other choice but to start pushing. The first matter of business was to take Colletto out of the game and replace him with senior Jake Luton. Sure enough, Beavers’ star wideout Isaiah Hodgins reeled in a spectacular one-handed catch in the endzone, giving them their first touchdown of the day to make it 31-10.
After a missed field goal by Colorado’s Evan Price on the ensuing drive, you could sense that the offense was satisfied with their lead and had checked out. The Beaver’s continued to push. Luton proceeded to pick apart Colorado’s defense completing 28 out of 39 passes for 310 yards and 3 touchdowns. After another touchdown to Hodgins, OSU converted a two-point conversion and all of a sudden were down just 31-28 with still 7 minutes left in the game.
Colorado went down the field and hit a field goal to give them a 6 point lead with 2 minutes to go, giving OSU just enough time for one last drive. Sure enough, the Beavers converted on 4th down for a touchdown, tying the game at 34. Placekicker Jordan Choukair shanked the extra point attempt which gave the Buffs just enough time for one last drive.
Montez did well enough to take the Buffs downfield and provide an opportunity for a game winning field goal. However, Price missed the 53-yard field goal and that meant overtime.
The Buffs won the coin toss and chose to defend first. Jake Luton brought OSU to Colorado’s 1-yard line, which was capped off by another Colletto rushing touchdown. Montez and the Buffs responded as well as they could, getting to the OSU 7-yard line. But 3 consecutive incomplete passes later sealed the fate for Colorado, giving them their 3rd loss in a row.
While fingers can be pointed to the CU offense for a lackluster 2nd half, the defense slowly allowed the Beavers to fight there way back. On the defense’s performance, linebacker Drew Lewis said, “It seemed as if we got too comfortable. They just crept back slowly and slowly and before we knew it they had caught up.”
Nixon had an opportunity to score in the endzone on third down, granted it was a difficult ball to catch after being deflected by an OSU cornerback. However, Nixon made no excuses, saying, “I blame it all on myself. I should have stepped up. I should have caught the touchdown passes.”
Colorado will head to Arizona to take on the 3-5 Wildcats on Friday, November 2nd. Oregon State is set to host the 4-4 USC Trojans on Saturday.
