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CU Games of the Day – October 21st
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October 21st … CU has a 2-3 record on this date over the past 40 years … 1989: The largest Homecoming crowd in the Bill McCartney era, 50,057, witnessed the methodical dismantling of the Jayhawks as the Buffs rolled to a 49-17 win … 1995: Against a 2-5 Iowa State team heading nowhere, Colorado fell asleep at the switch, allowing a 27-10 halftime lead become a 28-27 deficit before rallying for the 50-28 win … 2000: Any delusions Buff fans had that 1-5 Colorado was not a bad football team came to a crashing end as 3-3 Kansas handed the Buffs a 23-15 setback … 2006: 20th-ranked Oklahoma played without Heisman trophy candidate Adrian Peterson, but his substitute, Allen Patrick, filled in ably, rushing for 110 yards and a touchdown in leading the Sooners to a 24-3 win in Norman … 2017: No. 15 Washington State handled Colorado, 28-0. Cougar quarterback Luke Falk threw for 197 yards and three touchdowns, while the Buffs used three quarterbacks but were shutout for the first time since 2012 …
- 1989: No. 3 Colorado 49, Kansas 17 … Starting for the injured Eric Bieniemy, senior tailback J.J. Flannigan ran for 178 yards and three touchdowns, including two in the second quarter as Colorado built a 21-3 halftime advantage … Essay: “Things Have Changed” …
- 1995: No. 9 Colorado 50, Iowa State 28 … Offer college football teams a 22-point win on the road against a conference opponent, and a 50-point total on the scoreboard, and most of those teams would walk away quite content … Not the Buffs …
- 2000: Kansas 23, Colorado 15 … Gary Barnett: “We had plenty of opportunities to win that game. We just didn’t have it in us to do it” …
- 2006: No. 20 Oklahoma 24, Colorado 3 … With the game already in hand, the Sooners nonetheless decided not to take a knee late in the game, scoring on a Chris Brown four-yard run with just 17 seconds remaining to make it a 24-3 final … Essay: “A Matter of Perception” …
- 2017: No. 15 Washington State 28, Colorado 0 … “That was the worst offensive performance we’ve had since I’ve been a coach here,” Colorado coach Mike MacIntyre said. The Buffs had just 13 first downs on the night, and converted just one of 17 third down opportunities … Essay: “Same Song, Different Verse” …
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October 21, 1989 – Boulder No. 3 Colorado 49, Kansas 17
The largest Homecoming crowd in the Bill McCartney era, 50,057, witnessed the methodical dismantling of the Jayhawks as the Buffs rolled to a 49-17 win.
Starting for the injured Eric Bieniemy, senior tailback J.J. Flannigan ran for 178 yards and three touchdowns, including two in the second quarter as Colorado built a 21-3 halftime advantage. Before Kansas was allowed to score its two consolation touchdowns in the fourth, Colorado had built the lead to 42-3.
The 482 yards of total offense was becoming expected of the Colorado offense. After scoring once in the first quarter, on a 13-yard run by Darian Hagan midway through the quarter, Colorado proceeded to score 14 points in each of the remaining three quarters. While not treated to an exciting finish, Buff fans were at least entertained by Flannigan, who put an end to any lingering doubts about the Colorado running game without Bieniemy. Flannigan had touchdown runs of four and 41 yards in the second quarter, then a 64-yard score in the third quarter before taking his 178-effort to the bench in the fourth quarter. Senior fullback Erich Kissick scored his first touchdown of the season on a one-yard run, while backup quarterback Charles S. Johnson scored on an eight-yard run, to close out the Buffs’ onslaught.
It was now – finally – time to stop pretending to be focused on only the team immediately before the Buffs. Ever since the Washington rout, writers and fans had pointed to the Oklahoma and Nebraska games as the true test of the Buffs. Missouri, Iowa State, and Kansas were not expected to seriously challenge Colorado, and they did not. The Buffs had taken care of business – nothing more, nothing less. The bullies of the Big Eight, the “Big Two”, were ready to re-establish order and put the upstart Buffs back in their place, just as they had done to Oklahoma State the year before (The Cowboys had a great year in 1988, going 10-2 overall … but were 0-2 against the Big Two).
Colorado remained at No. 3 in the next poll, actually losing two of its three first place votes. While Colorado was putting it to Kansas, Notre Dame was outlasting No. 9 USC, 28-24, to regain the confidence of the pollsters (No. 2 Miami was idle; No. 4 Nebraska thumped Oklahoma State, 48-23).
With its 7-0 start, the 1989 Buffs were off to the best start of any Buff team since the 1937 Buffs of Byron “Whizzer” White fame went 8-0 to start the year.
For the dream of an Orange Bowl birth, the Buffs needed to exorcize some demons of their past.
The first awaited them in Norman.
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Things Have Changed …
The week before the Oklahoma game, the history of the rivalry was oft-cited, and it did not paint a pretty picture for the Buffs. Oklahoma led the series, 34-8-1, including a 19-3 record against Colorado in Norman. The Buffs had not beaten the Sooners in any of Bill McCartney’s previous seven attempts, losing by an average score of 33-11. Colorado had not so much as been in the lead in any game since 1976. The last Colorado victory over Oklahoma had come in the 1976 game; the last Colorado win in Norman? 1965. “Nobody”, Bill McCartney understated, “has dominated Colorado more through the years than Oklahoma.”
But this was 1989.
The Oklahoma Sooners of 1989 were not the force of the previous decade. Gone was Barry Switzer, who had led the Sooners to an average of almost ten wins a year in his 16 seasons. Switzer had left the school in the shadow of probation, leaving it to first year head coach Gary Gibbs to pick up the pieces. On the year, the Sooners were an uncharacteristic 5-2, losers to Arizona and arch-rival Texas. The week before the Colorado game, Oklahoma defeated Iowa State. But the lackluster performance in the 43-40 win had dropped the Sooners out of the top 25 for the first time in recent memory (Iowa State rolled up 609 total yards against Oklahoma, which was to that date, the most ever against the Sooners). Colorado, the undefeated and 3rd ranked team in the nation, would be playing an unranked Oklahoma team looking to cling to its past.
Head coach Bill McCartney seized upon this opportunity. On Thursday, October 26th, two days before the Oklahoma game, McCartney handed out t-shirts to the players. On it was written: “Things Have Changed”. It was a simple message, but one which rang true to the Buffs. The opportunity to change the established pattern and the established hierarchy of the Big Eight was there for the taking. “This is what we’ve worked for”, said Bill McCartney before the Oklahoma game. “We’re putting it on the line now.”
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Game Notes …
– Senior kicker Ken Culbertson connected on all seven extra points in the rout of Kansas. The fourth such kick gave Culbertson 44 consecutive makes, a new school record (Culbertson would go to finish the season with 66 consecutive conversions, a school career record – as was his 59 consecutive makes for the 1989 season).
– Senior wingback M.J. Nelson received the start against Kansas, with J.J. Flannigan starting for Bieniemy. This alteration of the starting lineup represented the only shift in the offensive lineup for Colorado – the entire season. All five offensive linemen, the quarterback, the wide receiver, fullback and tight end – all had the same names attached to them all year.
– For only the 28th time in 100 years of Colorado football – but for the third time in 1989 – the Buffs had two rushers go over 100 yards. J.J. Flannigan had 178 yards on only ten carries (a clean 17.8 yards/carry average), while Hagan had 118 yards on 17 carries.
– The 49 points against the Jayhawks was the most-ever in the 86-year series, besting the previous record of 45 put up in the 45-29 victory in 1970. The record would stand for five years, when the Buffs out-scored the Jayhawks, 51-26, in 1994.
– Kansas had the ball for 82 plays to Colorado’s 62, and held the ball for 33:10 of the game clock. Still, the Buffs out-gained the Jayhawks on the day, 482-359.
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October 21, 1995 – at Iowa State No. 9 Colorado 50, Iowa State 28
Offer college football teams a 22-point win on the road against a conference opponent, and a 50-point total on the scoreboard, and most of those teams would walk away quite content.
Not the Buffs.
Against a 2-5 Iowa State team heading nowhere, Colorado fell asleep at the switch, allowing a 27-10 halftime lead become a 28-27 deficit before rallying for the 50-28 win. If ever there was a “lucky” three-touchdown win, this was it.
On a blustery 40-degree day, the Colorado passing offense was grounded. Fortunately, the rushing game responded, picking up a season-high 326 yards, with three Buffs rushing for at least 80 yards.
Iowa State took leads of 7-0 and 10-7 early, with touchdown runs by Herchell Troutman from seven yards out and Lendon Henry from 14 yards giving CU a 14-10 lead early in the second quarter.
After Henry, who had 111 yards on 18 carries on the afternoon, scored on a two yard run with 3:46 to go before halftime, the Buffs were up 21-10. When senior safety Donnell Leomiti returned a fumble 75 yards for a score with less than a minute before the break, the wind seemingly had been taken out of the Cyclones sails.
Iowa State was not finished, however.
Aided by 20 mph winds in the third quarter, the Cyclones took advantage of a poor Colorado execution. A punt was blocked out of the endzone for a safety, a second punt traveled only 14 yards, and John Hessler threw an interception. Iowa State super sophomore sensation Troy Davis, who went for 203 yards on 33 carries, ran for two touchdowns during the Cyclone rally, the second coming with 14:12 remaining in the game to give the Cyclones a 28-27 lead.
Then it was the Buffs’ turn to take advantage of the weather conditions.
Driving with the wind, Colorado was more successful. Henry capped off a 66-yard drive with a one-yard run to give the Buffs back the lead at 33-28 with 11:10 to play (the two-point conversion run failed). Less than a minute later, linebacker Matt Russell returned a Todd Bandhauer pass 30 yards for a score to put the Buffs on top by a more comfortable margin, 41-28. A Voskeritchian field goal and a Marlon Barnes eight-yard touchdown run with two minute left to play made the final look like a romp.
Colorado coaches and players knew better.
“Fortunately we came through in the fourth quarter when we absolutely had to”, said Neuheisel after the game. “I’m excited about how we responded to adversity after a loss”.
Defensive hero Matt Russell, who led the Buffs with 12 tackles in addition to his game-changing pick-six, agreed: “We started slow, but we were able to come back strong when the game was on the line.”
Even though the win was lackluster, it was a win. Colorado (now 6-1, 2-1 in the Big Eight) advanced to No. 7 in the polls, moving up two spots thanks to losses by No. 5 USC (to Notre Dame) and No. 8 Kansas State (to Nebraska, 49-25).
Now it was time for the Buffs to face Nebraska. The Cornhuskers were 7-0 and ranked No. 2.
Neuheisel, unlike his predecessor, had made an effort for the first eight weeks of the season not to direct the season’s energy towards the Nebraska game. Throughout the year, the new Colorado head coach had attempted to direct focus only on the upcoming week’s opponent.
Now the upcoming opponent was Nebraska. “Fortunately, now we can say, ‘all right, let’s talk about it’,” said Neuheisel.
There was plenty to talk about. Until Nebraska had kicked around Kansas State, the Big Eight had four teams ranked in the top ten in the nation. With a loss to Kansas already recorded, and a road game against Kansas State looming, Colorado faced bigger problems than just Nebraska.
Although the Buffs were ranked 7th in the country, a loss to the Cornhuskers could well result in a fourth place finish in the Big Eight Conference.
Game Notes …
– Colorado had a long history of thumping Iowa State, so the 50 points posted in 1995 were not close to a record. The highest point total belonged to the 1970 Buffs, who posted a 61-10 rout over the Cyclones.
– Lendon Henry (111 yards on 18 carries) and Marlon Barnes (100 yards on eight carries) had the first 100-yard games of their careers. The Iowa State game represented the 36th time in school history in which CU had two or more players rush for over 100 yards in the same game (and the first since the 1994 game against Kansas State). Herchell Troutman had 80 yards on the day, leaving the Buffs 20 yards short of only the third game in Buff history with three 100-yard rushers.
– Lendon Henry had about a quarter of all of his rushing yards for the season against Iowa State (111 of 463) and three of his four rushing touchdowns. Henry’s 111 yards were the most rushing yards by any Buff in the 1995 season.
– Super sophomore Troy Davis almost out-rushed the Buffs all by himself. Davis had 33 carries for 203 yards, making him the first player since 1987 to rush for over 200 yards in a game.
– How big an effect did the wind have in the Iowa State game? With the wind in the first and third quarters, the Cyclones had a 19-7 advantage. In the second and fourth quarters, the Buffs out-scored the Cyclones, 43-9.
– The win was the 12th-straight for the Buffs in the series against the Cyclones, with Colorado enjoying a 20-6 advantage in games played in Ames.
– While the Big Eight was enjoying a great deal of success nationally, with four top ten teams, much of the success was coming at the expense of Iowa State. The Cyclones, under first-year head coach Dan McCarney, would go 1-6 in the final season of the Big Eight (3-8 overall), losing to the four top schools by an average score of 51-14.
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October 21, 2000 – at Kansas Kansas 23, Colorado 15
Any delusions Buff fans had that 1-5 Colorado was not a bad football team, but really a good football team which had beaten down by an overpowering early-season schedule, came to a crashing end as 3-3 Kansas handed the Buffs a 23-15 setback.
Running back David Winbush, who had set a CU record for opposing rushers with a 268-yard effort in 1998, accounted for 181 yards of total offense as the Buffs once again found a way to lose.
The teams traded field goals on their opening possessions. The Colorado offense, held to one offensive touchdown by Texas the week before (and that on a one-play, 13-yard “drive”), put together a five-play, 42-yard drive culminating in a 47-yard field goal by Mark Mariscal to tie the score at 3-3.
A few minutes later, Colorado took its only lead of the game.
A 39-yard punt by Jayhawk Joey Pelfanio was fielded by Roman Hollowell at the Colorado 34-yard line. Aided by a block by linebacker Sean Tufts, Hollowell raced around right end and down the sidelines untouched for a 66-yard touchdown. The extra point was blocked, but Colorado had a 9-3 lead with 2:29 to play in the first quarter.
The lead lasted until the first play of the second quarter, with David Winbush scoring on a three-yard run to cap a seven-play, 80-yard drive. The extra point was good, and Kansas had the lead. The 10-9 score held up until the last play from scrimmage before halftime, with Kansas hitting a 28-yard field goal to take a 13-9 advantage into the break.
Colorado cut the lead to 13-12 early in the third quarter. Taking the second half kickoff, the Buff offense finally put together a drive, going 78 yards in 12 plays. Unfortunately, the Buffs needed to go 80 yards for a touchdown, settling for a 21-yard field goal after making it to the Kansas two-yard line.
Kansas then responded with a field goal drive of their own, with Joe Garcia hitting a career-best 52-yarder to make it a 16-12 game heading into the fourth quarter.
Two of the Buffs’ next three possessions made it into Kansas territory, but resulted in no points. The Jayhawks then pieced together a nine-play, 80-yard drive to start the fourth quarter, with a six-yard touchdown run by Reggie Duncan making it a 23-12 game. Mark Mariscal’s third field goal of the game, this one from 40 yards out, cut the lead to 23-15 a few minutes later.
The Colorado offense had one last chance to tie the game late.
Setting up at their 23-yard line, it took only three plays – and a personal foul against the Jayhawks – to set the Buffs up at the Kansas 14 yard line. Three incompletions and a sack later, however, the game was over.
“Missed opportunities”, Barnett said. “You can count them. We got good field position with our offense and couldn’t convert. We had the ball thrown twice to us and didn’t hang on to it. One was a touchdown. We had plenty of opportunities to win that game. We just didn’t have it in us to do it.”
The “touchdown” Barnett was referring to came on the first play of the fourth quarter.
With Kansas nursing a 16-12 lead, Jayhawk quarterback Dylen Smith was pressured, with the ball coming straight to Buffs’ safety Michael Lewis. Instead of taking the ball and scoring, Lewis let the ball bounce off his chest and into the hands of David Winbush, who took the ball for a 14-yard gain. “I was going to catch the ball and take it to the house,” said Lewis. “But I did the wrong thing, I guess. I took my eyes off of the ball.”
The defense could not be blamed for the loss, though. The Colorado offense, which had now produced only one touchdown in two games (the one-play, 13-yard “drive” against Texas), was keeping the Buffs from having any opportunity to win. The Colorado offense cracked the Jayhawk red-zone three times during the afternoon, but only could produce three Mark Mariscal field goals.
“Our team has a choice to make,” said Barnett of his team, now 1-6 on the year. “There’s going to be a lot of people who are going to give up on them – and understandably so … They can either join that group or pull themselves closer together.”
Up next was 2-4 Oklahoma State.
The Cowboys, coached by former Colorado assistant Bob Simmons, was also struggling. After opening with two non-conference wins, Oklahoma State had dropped four straight.
On paper, the Buffs had more talent and would be playing at home.
So far in 2000, though, nothing for Colorado had gone according to form.
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Game Notes …
– With the loss, Colorado dropped to 1-6 for the 2000 season, only the fifth such start in school history.
– Colorado had now lost two straight to Kansas in Lawrence, after the Buffs had won seven straight against the Jayhawks on their home field between 1983 and 1996.
– For his 66-yard punt return, Roman Hollowell was named the Big 12 Special Teams Player-of-the-Week. Hollowell’s effort proved to be the only one in the 2000 season which merited Big 12 Player-of-the-Week honors by a Colorado player.
– Freshman quarterback Craig Ochs set a new career-best with 246 yards passing. John Minardi had five catches for 81 yards, while tight end Daniel Graham had four for 77.
– The Colorado rushing offense continued to struggle. Both starting guards – Justin Bates and Karl Allis – were not in their accustomed positions for the first play of the Kansas game. In their place, Marwan Hage and Ryan Gray earned their first career starts. With two new starters along the line, the Buffs were held to 90 yards rushing on 32 carries.
– On defense, cornerback Roderick Sneed also had his first career start, subbing for an injured Donald Strickland. Sneed responded with five tackles against the Jayhawks (two solo), and a pass broken up.
– The win over Colorado gave Kansas a 4-3 record, but that proved to be the high-water mark for the Jayhawks in 2000. Kansas would go on to lose their final four games of the season, finishing with a 4-7 overall mark, 2-6 in Big 12 play. Head coach Terry Allen, with an 18-27 mark in his first four seasons, was retained, but would not make it through all of the 2001 campaign. After opening with a 2-6 record to open the 2001 season (including a loss to Colorado), Allen was let go. Tom Hayes would finish out the season as the interim coach, posting a 1-2 record.
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October 21, 2006 – at Oklahoma No. 20 Oklahoma 24, Colorado 3
The 20th-ranked Oklahoma Sooners played without Heisman trophy candidate Adrian Peterson, but his substitute, Allen Patrick, filled in ably, rushing for 110 yards and a touchdown in leading the Sooners to a 24-3 win in Norman.
Patrick became just the second player to rush for over 100 yards against the Colorado defense in 21 games, needing 35 carries to get to his 110 yards. Still, Patrick’s numbers were impressive when held up to the efforts of the Colorado offense. The Buffs managed just 113 yards of total offense, including only 39 yards passing on three completions.
The night game was played in temperatures in the 40’s and with 20-25 mph winds, keeping offensive production down for both teams.
Playing with the wind in the first quarter, the Sooners built a 10-0 lead, scoring all the points they would need to take down the 1-7 Buffs. Quarterback Paul Thompson connected with Manuel Johnson for a three-yard score to cap a 12-play drive to give the Sooners a 7-0 lead on their first drive. At the end of the quarter, with the wind still at their backs, the Sooners connected on a 46-yard field goal to make it 10-0.
The Colorado offense, held to one first down and 26 total yards playing against the wind in the first quarter, failed to take advantage of the wind in the second. The Buffs did penetrate Sooner territory twice over the next two quarters of play, but came up empty on both trips. One drive ended by a Zach Latimer interception of a Bernard Jackson pass in the Oklahoma end zone, while the other ended with a 56-yard field goal attempt by Mason Crosby drifting wide left.
Neither team scored again until the fourth quarter. A fumbled punt by Stephone Robinson led to a Sooner touchdown early in the fourth quarter, giving Oklahoma an insurmountable 17-0 lead. The Buffs avoided a shutout midway through the final stanza, putting together an 11-play, 51-yard drive, culminated in a 39-yard field goal by Mason Crosby with 6:13 to play.
With the game already in hand, the Sooners nonetheless decided not to take a knee late in the game, scoring on a Chris Brown four-yard run with just 17 seconds remaining to make it a 24-3 final.
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A Matter of Perception
I wasn’t watching the conclusion of the Fox Sports broadcast of the Colorado/Oklahoma game as the clock ran out on another frustrating loss. I stopped paying attention after the Buffs finally scored late to make the score 17-3. Brad had called right after Mason Crosby’s field goal with 6:13 remaining. His first words were, “I’ll bet you were worried”. He knew that my thoughts of the game, with the winner long since decided, was whether the Buffs’ streak of consecutive games scored in would come to an end at 217.
With the streak extended, and no realistic hope of a Buff comeback, my thoughts turned to what was happening in the Texas A&M/Oklahoma State game, which was tied at 20-all in the fourth quarter. The Buffs didn’t have either Big 12 rival on their schedule this season or next, but with Colorado unable to generate any semblance of an offense, the Big 12 South battle at least provided a distraction. The Aggie/Cowboy game wasn’t televised, so I logged onto the ESPN website to get play-by-play updates.
(The A&M/OSU game did prove to be entertaining. Both teams scored late, with A&M scoring with two seconds remaining to tie the game. The Aggies went on to win in overtime, 34-33, after the Cowboys missed an extra point.)
While “watching” the A&M game, I did check in every minute or two on the CU game. After the Colorado onsides kick attempt failed, it appeared that Oklahoma was methodically running out the clock. When the Sooners made a first down inside the CU five yard line with less than a minute to play, I assumed that 17-3 would be the final score. I had to admit to myself that I didn’t feel too bad about the game. After surrendering an opening drive touchdown, the defense had actually played very well. On the evening, the Sooners would run 75 plays to the Buffs’ 44. With that statistic in mind, only losing by 14, to a ranked team, on the road, did have some positive aspects.
But wait ….
While waiting to see if Texas A&M would be able to score against Oklahoma State with less than a minute remaining in regulation, the CU/Oklahoma score was posted … “Oklahoma 24, Colorado 3”.
What?
Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops had not instructed his quarterback to take a knee? The Sooners had scored with 17 second remaining to up the score. I clicked back onto the CU game update to be sure. Yes, Oklahoma had scored again.
Now, I was depressed.
24-3 is miles away from 17-3, at least in terms of national perception.
Oklahoma was a ranked team, so the score would be on the front page of every sports section in the country, and would continuously scrawl across the bottom line of the ESPN stations. What would have been characterized as a hard fought game would now be portrayed as a blowout.
What difference did that make?
One need look no further than the Arizona State game in September. Only six weeks removed from that game, announcers, pundits, and other “experts” were pointing to the 21-3 loss to Arizona State game as one of the few in which the 1-7 Buffs were not “competitive”. The reality was that the game was 14-3 from early in the second quarter until late in the contest. The Buffs were a play or two away from contention for all of the second half, until a Sun Devil touchdown with 1:33 to play made the spread 18 points.
The reality – the Buffs were in the ASU game until the very end.
The perception of reality – the Sun Devils won handily.
Such would hold true for the Oklahoma result. A 17-3 loss to a team which had been forecast by at least one preseason publication (Athlon) to win the national championship would not be perceived as a humiliating loss, but merely a stepping stone to building a better team. Now, the Buffs would be labeled a team which had been dominated, a team which had been eliminated from bowl consideration before Halloween, a team back amongst the “struggling” teams at the bottom of the NCAA pecking order.
Thanks, Bob Stoops, for running up the score, I thought to myself. I went to bed that night hoping we would get the chance to repay the favor someday.
Someday soon.
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October 22, 2017 – Pullman No. 15 Washington State 28, Colorado 0
In terrible conditions (41 degrees, 22-32 mph winds at kickoff), No. 15 Washington State handled Colorado, 28-0. Cougar quarterback Luke Falk threw for 197 yards and three touchdowns, while the Buffs used three quarterbacks but were shutout for the first time since 2012.
Phillip Lindsay became the first running back in Colorado history to rush for over 1,000 yards in consecutive seasons, with his 29 carries for 95 yards giving him 1,093 for the year. Lindsay, though, was the lone positive for the Buff offense, which was held to a season low 174 yards of total offense.
“That was the worst offensive performance we’ve had since I’ve been a coach here,” Colorado coach Mike MacIntyre said. The Buffs had just 13 first downs on the night, and converted just one of 17 third down opportunities.
“Mainly they just whipped us,” MacIntyre said. “Washington State played great tonight.”
… Continue reading Game Story here …
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Same Song, Different Verse …
It’s not like we haven’t seen this before.
In the final two games of an otherwise magical season, the 2016 Colorado offense looked awful in falling to Washington in the Pac-12 championship game, then again a month later against Oklahoma State in the Alamo Bowl.
The Buffs looked just as bad in falling to No. 15 Washington State, 28-0, on a dark and stormy night in the Palouse.
Against the Cougars, the Colorado offense looked inept. The Buffs posted a grand total of 174 yards of total offense, the lowest since gaining only 163 against Washington in a humbling 41-10 defeat in the title game last December.
“That was the worst offensive performance we’ve had since I’ve been a coach here,” Colorado coach Mike MacIntyre said.
Who can argue?
… Continue reading Game Essay here …
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