Colorado
3-2-0 , 0-1
Oregon
3-2-0 , 1-1
Brooks: Buffs Keep It Close For A Half, Can't Catch Ducks Thereafter
October 04, 2015 | Football, B.G. Brooks
BOULDER – The Colorado Buffaloes wanted to make a statement about the progress of their football program, the Oregon Ducks a proclamation about their resilience and the remainder of their 2015 season.
The Buffs' definitive progress report will have to wait. Saturday night's last word went to the Ducks, who rallied from a 17-17 halftime tie with a strong second-half ground game and left Folsom Field with a 41-24 Pac-12 win.
CU (3-2, 0-1) only trailed by a touchdown with 10:29 to play. But Oregon (3-2, 1-1) reeled off 10 quick points and left with its fifth consecutive win against CU since the Buffs joined the Pac-12 in 2011. The Ducks' four previous wins had been by an average of 41.5 points, with those games decided by halftime.
"Our kids definitely believe they can win," CU coach Mike MacIntyre said. "I don't know when the last time it was 17-17 at the half with Colorado and Oregon. But in no way, shape or form do we take any kind of moral victory . . .
"We had the opportunity to win the football game in the fourth quarter. You couldn't say that about the last two (CU-Oregon games) . . . I think we're making progress."
But, MacIntyre added, progress that eventually produces wins won't happen on nights with three turnovers. The Buffs suffered an interception and two fumbles, and the Ducks converted the two fumbles into scores.
"You have a hard time winning Pac-12 games if you don't win the turnover ratio," MacIntyre said. "I do believe our program's growing and we're going to win our fair share of Pac-12 games. But we do have to take care of the football."
In losing its 2015 conference opener, CU has now dropped 12 consecutive Pac-12 games. The Buffs entered Saturday night's game with a three-game winning streak, their first since 2008, while the Ducks were trying to avoid losing back-to-back conference games for the first time since 2007.
Embarrassed 62-20 at home last weekend by Utah, Oregon rolled up 361 yards rushing – 212 in the second half – and limited the Buffs to only 77, their lowest output of the season. CU quarterback Sefo Liufau passed for 231 yards and a touchdown, but was intercepted once and lost a crucial third-quarter fumble that enabled Oregon to take a two-touchdown lead.
The Ducks pressured him all night. After not being sacked in the past three games, Liufau was sacked a season-high five times - one more than in the opener at Hawai'i.
The Buffs' 308 yards of total offense was their lowest output in five games. "I wasn't satisfied with the offense altogether," MacIntyre said. "Our offense is better than that . . . we're not hitting on all cylinders and I've got to find a way to fix that."
Oregon's Royce Freeman, the Pac-12's No. 3 rusher at 112.5 yards a game, ran 27 times for 163 yards and two touchdowns, while teammate Taj Griffin added 110 ground yards and a score. The Ducks used two quarterbacks (Jeff Lockie and Taylor Alie), which coach Mark Helfrich said was his plan.
"We felt, looking at the game plan, we could parcel out aspects for each," he said. "We had it divvied up pretty well in our minds, unless something freaky happened."
THE FREAKINESS CAME PRIOR TO the kickoff. Scheduled for an 8:05 p.m. start, the game finally began at 9:08, making the weather-delayed kickoff the latest ever at Folsom Field. It surpassed the television-dictated 8:15 p.m. start for the 2007 CU-Florida State game.
The hour-plus delay wasn't the only effect of the unsettled weather and lightning that began rolling through the Boulder area shortly before 8 p.m. Fans were twice asked to take shelter in Balch Fieldhouse or the stadium's East Concourse, Buffs mascot Ralphie V wasn't allowed to run on the wet field, and the CU marching band didn't perform its usual pregame routine.
Buffs players claimed the delay didn't affect them: "We were fired up when we came out," defensive end Derek McCartney said. "Everyone was like, 'Ah, this is stupid. I just want to get out there and play.'"
But the evening was out-of-sync – and the Buffs offense opened the same way. Their first six plays were sabotaged by two turnovers – a Liufau interception that ended his streak of attempts without a pick at 107 and a lost Phillip Lindsay fumble.
Oregon linebacker Joe Walker gathered both CU turnovers, but the Ducks could capitalize on only his fumble recovery. His interception was matched by CU corner Akhello Witherspoon's end zone pick of Lockie. But less than three minutes later, the Ducks took advantage of Walker's fumble recovery at the Buffs 34-yard line.
Two Freeman carries – the second for 29 yards and the game's first touchdown – staked Oregon to a 7-0 lead. But CU's offense finally cleared the cobwebs, putting together an 11-play, 63-yard drive and tying the score at 7-7 on Christian Powell's two-yard run and Diego Gonzalez's PAT.
The game was tied twice more in the first half – including 17-17 at halftime. The Buffs took a 14-7 lead early in the second quarter on Liufau's eight-yard scoring pass to Shay Fields, but the Ducks matched that TD on a 39-yard wide receiver pass from Bralon Addison to Charles Nelson.
CU was caught off guard by the play, but there might have been good reason. Addison was a high school quarterback, but his TD to Nelson was his first career throw for the Ducks.
Two second-quarter field goals produced the halftime tie – CU getting a 52-yarder from Gonzalez and Aidan Schneider kicking a 39-yarder to produce the 17-17 score at intermission.
Liufau finished the first half 17-of-27 for 192 yards (one pick, one TD), while Oregon's two QBs – Lockie and Alie – combined for 10 completions in 16 attempts (one pick). In the running game, the Ducks' speed was becoming more apparent; they rolled up 149 first-half rushing yards to the Buffs' 41.
Oregon immediately went back to its ground success to open the second half, running on nine of 10 plays in a 74-yard scoring drive. Freeman ran three yards for the touchdown, Schneider kicked the extra point, and the halftime tie was broken.
"I think it was more of on each play someone just had a mental something and it just kind of didn't work out for us," McCartney said. "It is definitely frustrating and we have to be better as a front seven to stop the run if we want to win."
THE DUCKS LED 24-17, BUT ANOTHER TD – with help from the Buffs – was on the way. On the following CU series, Liufau fumbled when sacked by linebacker Rodney Hardrick. End Henry Mondeaux recovered at the Oregon 46, and 10 plays later Griffin scooted in from the two. Schneider's extra point put the Ducks up 31-17 and, with 2:12 left in the third quarter, seemingly in control of what had been a back-and-forth game.
But the Buffs had other thoughts. On the first and second plays of the fourth quarter, they halted Freeman on third-and-one and fourth-and-one at the Ducks' 45, with safety Tedric Thompson and linebacker Ryan Severson combining for the critical fourth-down stop.
Nine plays later – and after a lengthy officials review of a Liufau completion to Devin Ross and a fumble recovery by center Alex Kelley for a first down – the Buffs pulled to within 31-24 with 10:29 remaining. Liufau ran for 23 yards in the 45-yard march, including a seven-yard option keeper up the middle for the score.
Now it was up to Buffs defense to once again slow the Ducks runners to a walk. They couldn't do it. On a critical third-and-three at the Oregon 44, Addison sped around right end on a reverse for a 13-yard gain.
MacIntyre termed it "a good call" and "a huge play . . . we were inches away (from stopping it)."
On the next play, Alie teamed with receiver Jalen Brown, who had raced behind the CU secondary, for a 43-yard TD pass – Brown's only catch of the night. Schneider's PAT restored the Ducks' 14-point lead (38-24) and with 8:43 left, time was running out on the Buffs.
After CU failed to move on its next possession, Schneider added a 33-yard field goal with 2:37 remaining, putting Oregon ahead 41-24. The late night, the early morning and the Buffs, who play at Arizona State next Saturday (8 p.m., Pac-12 Networks), were done.
"I don't think we felt like we were outmatched by them; we just made some mistakes that ended up hurting us," said CU receiver Nelson Spruce, who finished with a game-best six catches for 87 yards, including a 42-yarder. "We felt like we had gotten better at finishing those close games, so this is kind of a step back in that respect."
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
Team Stats
ORE 7, COLO 0
ORE - Freeman, Royce 29 yd run (Schneider, A. kick), 2 plays, 34 yards, TOP 0:41
ORE 7, COLO 7
COLO - Powell,Christia 2 yd run (Gonzalez, Diego kick), 11 plays, 63 yards, TOP 3:36
ORE 7, COLO 14
COLO - Fields, Shay 8 yd pass from Liufau, Sefo (Gonzalez, Diego kick) 5 plays, 65 yards, TOP 1:53
ORE 14, COLO 14
ORE - Nelson, Charles 39 yd pass from Addison, Bralon (Schneider, A. kick) 3 plays, 78 yards, TOP 1:13
ORE 14, COLO 17
COLO - Gonzalez, Diego 52 yd field goal 8 plays, 40 yards, TOP 2:28
ORE 17, COLO 17
ORE - Schneider, A. 39 yd field goal 6 plays, 68 yards, TOP 1:25
ORE 24, COLO 17
ORE - Freeman, Royce 3 yd run (Schneider, A. kick), 10 plays, 74 yards, TOP 3:36
ORE 31, COLO 17
ORE - Griffin, Taj 2 yd run (Schneider, A. kick), 10 plays, 54 yards, TOP 3:24
ORE 31, COLO 24
COLO - Liufau, Sefo 7 yd run (Gonzalez, Diego kick), 9 plays, 45 yards, TOP 3:51
ORE 38, COLO 24
ORE - Brown, Jalen 43 yd pass from Alie, Taylor (Schneider, A. kick) 6 plays, 75 yards, TOP 1:46
ORE 41, COLO 24
ORE - Schneider, A. 33 yd field goal 10 plays, 57 yards, TOP 4:33
