BUFFS BLOW 313 LEAD, LOSE TO OREGON ST.
Forget bowl eligibility: Buffs squander 28point advantage to lowly Beavers
BOULDER» Taking your foot off the gas is one thing. But attempting to drive while half asleep is asking for trouble, something Colorado learned the hard way Saturday.
The Buffaloes lost their third straight contest, and this one was the most painful of the bunch — a 4134 home setback in overtime to Oregon State, a team that had come in winless in the Pac12 and just 16 overall.
CU saw a chance to keep pace with Utah in the Pac12 South chase go up in smoke, along with the opportunity to reach six wins and bowl eligibility with a month left in the regular season.
This despite the efforts of wideout K.D. Nixon, who did the heavy lifting while things were working, posting new singlegame personal bests in receptions with (13), receiving yards (198) and touchdown catches (two).
But those stellar numbers were lost in the one that got away — a thirdandgoal throw from CU quarterback Steven Montez in overtime that Nixon, open in the back of the end zone, bobbled and couldn’t corral. The Beavers stoned the Buffaloes (53, 23 Pac12) on Montez’s next attempt, ending the game as Oregon State players and coaches swarmed the field in celebration.
“We weren’t supposed to lose this game,” tailback Travon Mcmillian said. “We shot ourselves in the foot.”
Montez (24for39, 319 passing yards) was strong in the middle of the game and less so early and late. Nor was he helped by the fact that CU’S clock management was all over the
map once the game got close, although you wouldn’t be alone in wondering why the devil it got so close in the first place.
Credit Oregon State coach Jonathan Smith, who swapped starting quarterback Jack Costello with Jake Luton and got the Beavers to flip a switch, putting together scoring drives on four of their first five possessions of the second half and reeling off a 250 run.
A 313 CU lead three seconds into the third quarter — thanks to Mcmillian’s 75yard touchdown run on the first play of the period — was whittled to 3128 with 7:13 left in the contest after a 7yard Luton touchdown pass to Isaiah Hodgins and a Hodgins grab for a 2point conversion.
A tale of two games — heck, two narratives — was on a completely different track before things got goofy, although it took CU a few healthy whacks at the dike before water burst through. A fourminute, 71yard march midway through the second period stalled at the Beavers’ 4 on a fumbled Montez snap, forcing the hosts to settle for a 21yard Evan Price field goal and a 103 lead.
Costello had found the sledding even tougher — the Buffs sacked him five times in the first half and a gift pick6 snatched by CU cornerback Dante Wigley with 8:48 to go in the half pushed the hosts’ cushion to 163.
The Buffs’ signalcaller tightened up from there, completing his first six pass attempts of the second quarter, including a 47yard rainbow up the left boundary to Nixon with 6:20 left in the first half that stuck a dagger in the Beavers’ collective backs. And three plays later, Montez twisted said dagger, firing a 7yard scoring strike to Nixon that puts the hosts up 233 with 4:44 left in the half.
Montez led CU on four straight marches into the Oregon State red zone in late in the first quarter and early in the second, putting the Beavers in a sleeper hold and putting a homecoming crowd at ease.
The big Texan completed eight of his last nine pass attempts in the first half, but it was a handoff that delivered what the locals thought was the final nail, as Mcmillian opened the third quarter by squirting free to daylight. It was the second time this season Mcmillian has opened the second half with a long touchdown scamper, having done the same in a 4514 win over New Hampshire on September 15.
Only instead of being a sequel to that rout, the Beavers found a way — somehow — to flip the script. And keep the Buffaloes’ oncepromising season spinning out of control.
“I feel like by the time we started realizing that Oregon State was still in it,” linebacker Drew Lewis said, “it was practically to late for us to try to make up for that. Whether the score is 3110 or 310, we still need to fight like it’satiegame.”