Sophomore quarterback Steven Montez reacts following a deep dropped pass early in the first quarter of play at Sun Devil Stadium. Nov. 4, 2017 (Nigel Amstock/CU Independent)
Fresh off an impressive 44-28 victory over California, the Colorado Buffaloes hit the road for Tempe, Ariz. for a showdown with the Arizona State Sun Devils.
On paper, Arizona State came off as the type of team that could give Colorado trouble. Sun Devils quarterback Manny Wilkins plays a highly mobile type of game indicative of Arizona’s Khalil Tate.
Buffs fans should need little reminder of how the team’s defense performed against him a few weeks ago.
And that was exactly the theme of the night, as Wilkins made the Buffs pay on the ground and also threw the ball well. He and tailbacks Demario Richard and Kalen Ballage stole the momentum from CU, which led at halftime, propelling ASU to a 41-30 victory.
“Those powerful running backs did some damage to us,” head coach Mike MacIntyre said after the loss. “[ASU’s offense] definitely wore us down, there’s no doubt about it.”
The Sun Devils racked up 583 yards of total offense against CU’s defensive 11, 381 of which were on the ground. The Buffs (5-5, 2-5 Pac-12) now face increasingly grim prospects of making a bowl game.
Colorado won the opening coin toss and deferred. The Sun Devils didn’t do much of anything on their first drive, gaining just six yards.
ASU looked pretty flat in the opening 15 minutes, as the Sun Devils gained just 66 yards on 18 plays. The team’s only real departure from total ineptitude in the first quarter was a 45-yard field goal attempt, which was missed.
CU hung onto a 3-0 lead after the first quarter thanks to the leg of freshman kicker James Stefanou, who drilled a 34-yarder at the 9:33 mark.
The Buffs almost blew things open early on. Sophomore quarterback Steven Montez floated a beauty to senior wideout Shay Fields, Jr. on what would have been a 76-yard touchdown.
Fields had 10 yards of separation between himself and the ASU defense but dropped the perfectly placed ball. Such instances were a common sin among CU’s receving corps on Saturday.
“We dropped balls that senior wide receivers should have caught,” MacIntyre said. “[If] we make those plays, it’s a different game, but we didn’t.”
Colorado took a 10-0 lead early in the second quarter, capping a 13-play, 73-yard drive with a six-yard touchdown courtesy of senior tailback Phillip Lindsay.
The second quarter saw Arizona State start to figure things out on offense. Wilkins led the Sun Devils to their first points of the evening, finding wideout N’Keal Harry in the right corner of the endzone for a 20-yard touchdown.
Harry recorded six catches for 81 yards in the win, and his nightly battle versus CU sophomore defensive back Dante Wigley was one of the more interesting matchups in the game. If it was a boxing match, Harry probably would have received a unanimous victory ruling.
After ASU scored, the Buffs and Sun Devils traded punts before Lindsay found the endzone again, this time from one yard out. Montez made two key connections to propel the drive.
He found junior wideout Jay MacIntyre for a 20-yard gain that put the Buffs at ASU’s 28-yard line. Montez later threw a bullet to senior wide receiver Bryce Bobo, who was downed at the 1-yard line.
Montez played well. He finished the night with 345 yards through the air, completing 23-of-41 passes for a lone touchdown. He was picked off in the game, but it was in the endzone on a final Hail Mary attempt.
The momentum in the game began to shift significantly even before halftime ended.
Arizona State was far from perfect in the game. The Sun Devils settled for far more field goals than they should have (while missing two additional attempts), but Wilkins and the ground attack proved to be much more than Colorado could handle.
“I think guys were trying to do a little to much,” said junior linebacker Rick Gamboa, who had nine tackles in the loss. “Guys were getting out of their gaps and trying to make a play. Against a team like this . . . when someone gets out of their gap, that’s when long runs start happening.”
Trailing 17-7 as the second half winded down, the Sun Devils looked far from demoralized. Wilkins marched the offense downfield in 54 seconds, finding wideout Kyle Williams for a 25-yard touchdown.
The Sun Devils’ Brandon Ruiz kicked the ball off after converting the extra point and disaster nearly struck for the Buffs. Ruiz’s kick was a laser beam that traveled 11 total yards. ASU came up with the ball, setting up Ruiz for a 55-yard field goal attempt with just four seconds on the clock.
He missed and the Buffaloes took a 17-14 lead into halftime.
The Buffs failed to do any immediate damage in the third quarter, but about four minutes into things, Colorado forced a Sun Devils punt from deep inside their own territory. Colorado’s drive stalled rather quickly, but Stefanou drilled a career-long 53-yard field goal to put CU up 20-14.
“He’s kicking it great,” MacIntyre said. “He played well enough for us to definitely win tonight.”
Arizona State answered with a field goal on its next drive. Colorado got the ball back and scored a touchdown in 55 seconds, as Fields, Jr. at least partially redeemed his earlier sin by catching a 54-yard bomb. The Buffs took a 27-17 lead that was maintained into the fourth quarter.
But the Buffs’ 10-point lead was short lived. Arizona State outscored CU 24-3 in the final 15 minutes, as Wilkins, Ballage and Demario increasingly had their way with Colorado’s defense.
“I saw a lot of missed tackles,” MacIntyre said. “We worked on tackling low and the kids didn’t tackle low. Some of them are new out there in pressure situations and they [have to] do exactly what we tell them to do or we’ll have this result again.”
The Sun Devils were driving and in CU territory at the start of the fourth quarter. After beginning from its own 5-yard line, ASU moved the ball downfield and converted a field goal. This made the score 27-20 in favor of Colorado.
The Buffs’ next possession very well may have been the formal turning point in the game. Junior Alex Kinney had his punt blocked, which was recovered by ASU. Seven plays and 40 yards later, Demario found the endzone.
It was a career evening for him, as he rushed for 189 yards on 25 carries. Late in the game, Demario broke out for a 63-yard rush that helped put the nail in Colorado’s coffin.
With the score tied, the Buffs got three more points courtesy of Stefanou, this time from 28 yards out.
Arizona State took its first lead of the game on its ensuing possession. The Sun Devils eventually went up 34-30 thanks to two incredible runs. The first was by Demario and the second, a 19-yard touchdown rush was from Eno Benjamin. On both plays, the two tailbacks seemed to be wearing Buffalo repellent — Colorado simply could not bring them down.
Colorado’s offense gained just 20 yards on six plays during its final possession, eventually punting the ball back to ASU on a 4th and 14. With just under three minutes to play, it was up the Buffs’ defense.
On 2nd-and-5, with the Sun Devils at their own 15-yard line, Richard delivered his 63-yard knockout punch. From there, not even three timeouts and a few goal line stops could save the Buffaloes. The team got the ball back with just 46 seconds left.
Colorado will likely be doing some soul searching as its matchup next week with No. 17 USC Trojans gets closer.
“[We have to] go back to work on Monday and just prepare for USC, because they’re going to be coming to Boulder to kick our ass too,” Montez said.
The Buffs and Trojans will kickoff from Folsom Field on Saturday, Nov. 12 at 2 p.m.
Contact CU Independent Head Sports Editor Justin Guerriero at justin.guerriero@colorado.edu and follow him on Twitter @TheHungry_Hippo.
