Colorado head coach Mike MacIntyre expresses his disappointment after his team failed to convert the first down on their final drive during their loss to Oregon State on Saturday. Click here for more photos. (Matt Sisneros/CU Independent)
For the second time in two weeks, the University of Colorado appeared ready to secure an emotional win. For the second time in two weeks, they came up just short.
The Buffaloes lost Saturday in a shootout to Oregon State. The final score was 36-31. In a back and forth game in which neither team could keep momentum, Colorado almost managed to overcome an early 14-0 deficit for what would have been its first win in the Pac-12 this season. Instead, all they got was yet another heartbreaking loss. Despite coming so close two weeks in a row, there are no more moral victories available for Colorado.
“There’s no such thing as a moral victory,” head coach Mike MacIntyre said. “I do know our team fights and believes they can win. We’ve come a long way. We just gotta punch through and get some W’s. Those kids in that locker room are really hurting. They deserve some wins.”
After the game, senior tight end Tyler McCulloch, who scored two touchdowns, was one player who was clearly upset with the loss.
“…Especially me being a senior, its just [you] leave every game with such a sick feeling in your stomach,” McCulloch said. “I can’t even sleep at night after games ‘cause we’re just so close every week. We’re so close. We’re making changes but we just can’t find a way to finish. We gotta dig deep and find a way.”
Going into halftime, it looked like CU was going to get the win. After trailing early via two quick Oregon State touchdowns, CU clawed back behind some solid defensive play.
In the first quarter, the Buffs could not get any pressure on Oregon State quarterback Sean Mannion, giving him plenty of time to set his feet and scan the field. Lack of pressure is part of what put Colorado in such an early hole. The other part is the same thing that has plagued the Buffs all year: their run defense. They allowed 62 yards on the ground in just the first quarter. Oregon State running back Terron Ward ran 50 of them.
Then, CU’s defense adopted a ‘bend don’t break’ mentality, allowing just two field goals for the rest of the half. This defensive resurgence was spurred by the Buffs making big plays when it counted. They held the Beavers to just 2-6 on third down conversions in the first half. Colorado’s secondary came up big on long third downs time and time again, with cornerback Kenneth Crawley and Chidobe Awuzie making key plays.
CU quarterback Sefo Liufau rebounded from an early interception to lead two touchdown drives. One was a 31-yard pass to McCulloch. Then, after getting the ball on Colorado’s 25 yard line with 2:30 left in the first half, Liufau marched the offense all the way down the field, ending with tailback Tony Jones punching in the touchdown. Colorado held a 21-20 lead going into halftime.
The third quarter was, again, a defensive struggle. The only points came when Oregon State took the lead with a field goal.
Then, a game-changing play happened late in the quarter.
Mannion launched a pass deep, which was intercepted by Crawley for what would have been a huge momentum shift in the Buffs’ favor. But the referee said Crawley interfered with the Oregon State wide receiver, negating the interception despite an apparent lack of contact.
As a chorus of boos cascaded from the Colorado fans, MacIntyre sprinted onto the field and furiously confronted the referee about the call. The Beavers would capitalize on the penalty with a 24-yard touchdown pass from Mannion, giving them a 30-21 lead.
After the game, MacIntyre declined to comment on the call specifically. But the penalty clearly flustered him, as he considered it to be a turning point.
“I thought it was a big momentum changer,” MacIntyre said. “That was a big play for us. I thought it was a big momentum changer for sure.”
Even though they lost momentum, Colorado still managed to put themselves in a position to win. With 5:00 left to play, the Buffs strung together a 75-yard drive, resulting in a second McCulloch touchdown. The score read 36-31.
After forcing the Beavers to punt, Colorado got the ball back at the Oregon State 44 yard line with 2:08 to go. This is a situation the Buffs are familiar with. A two-minute drive to tie the game last week against California sent that game to overtime. The Buffs found no such success on Saturday though. Liufau threw three incomplete passes to dash any hope of a comeback.
“We just didn’t get it done,” MacIntyre said of the failed final drive. “They made a couple plays. We felt we had a couple of opportunities that didn’t materialize there. … We’ve got to do a better job of coaching in that situation and a better job of executing.”
Liufau managed to finish with 308 yards, despite the Buff’s star wide receiver Nelson Spruce being held to a season low of 35 yards. It was Spruce’s first game of the season without a touchdown, snapping his seven game streak. Liufau didn’t feel the Beavers did anything specifically to stop Spruce.
“They didn’t take him away. No one can cover Spruce on that team,” Liufau said. “It’s just a matter of executing and taking what the defense gives us. No one is going to have a big game every play. You can’t just rely on Spruce. … If they want to take Spruce away, you have everyone else.”
Colorado has a chance to rest this week before traveling to play USC in two weeks. While disappointed, McCulloch believes the Buffs will stay confident with their chance to get a signature win against the Trojans.
“There’s a whole different mindset about this team I’ve noticed,” McCulloch said. “This team is just resilient … We’re going to come back with even more of a hunger to get better and go beat USC after our bye week.”
Note: Sophmore linebacker Addison Gillam left the game in the third quarter with a concussion. Oregon State’s Brandon Arnold was ejected from the game for a targeting penalty on the hit Gillam was injured from.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Sean Kelly at Sean.D.Kelly@colorado.edu
