BOULDER, Colo. — It was a slugfest. One of Washington State’s messiest, grittiest games of the season.
The first matchup of this decade between ranked teams at Colorado’s Folsom Field was a back-and-forth affair that featured four lead changes, but when it was all over, the 22nd ranked Cougars (8-3, 7-1 Pac-12) stood defeated, 38-24, their win streak snapped at eight as Colorado handed them their first loss since their Sept. 10 defeat at Boise State.
No. 10 Colorado improved to 8-3, 7-1 in the Pac-12, and with Utah’s defeat to Oregon earlier in the afternoon, the Buffaloes could clinch the Pac-12 South with a USC defeat to UCLA later this evening.
The good news for WSU is that this game had no bearing on their Pac-12 North title hopes. The Cougars and Huskies go into next week’s Apple Cup with one North Division loss each, and the winner will earn passage to the Pac-12 championship game.
In a game billed as a matchup of the league’s top passing offense against the league’s top passing defense, the difference maker was the run game.
The Cougars’ defense never quite managed to corral Colorado quarterback Sefo Liufau, who ran for three touchdowns. The Tacoma product finished with 345 passing yards and 108 rushing yards. Colorado tailback Phillip Lindsay was equally unstoppable. He had 27 carries for 132 yards and two touchdowns in the Buffaloes’ win.
WSU, also, had some dynamic plays from its running backs.
Trailing Colorado 21-17 at a crucial juncture late in the third quarter, WSU — which to that point had scored on two Luke Falk touchdown passes and an Erik Powell field goal — finally found some traction with its run game.
On fourth-and 1, Jamal Morrow broke through the line and found grass, motoring upfield for a 30-yard pickup. Two plays later, it was Gerard Wicks with a 21-yard gain that set up Falk’s third touchdown pass of the night — this time a 7-yard score to John Thompson to put the Cougs’ back in front, 24-21.
Not for long, however.
From that point on, the Buffaloes took over, scoring 17 unanswered points. Liufau had his third rushing touchdown of the day, an 11-yard score. Colorado kicker Chris Graham nailed a 46-yard field goal and Phillip Lindsay punctuated Colorado’s late surge with a 13-yard rushing touchdown to give Colorado a 38-24 lead with 4:18 remaining.
The Cougars had their chances to mount a comeback late in the game with 3:24 remaining. But their final offensive drive ended with Falk taking a sack from Jimmie Gilbert and fumbling the ball. Addison Gilliam — who’d also ended WSU’s previous drive with a huge third down sack on Falk — recovered.
Colorado turned the ball over on downs, and the Cougars got one final crack on offense with under a minute left. That ended when Tedric Thompson intercepted Falk with 15 seconds remaining to ice the game for Colorado.
Falk finished 26-of-52 for 325 yards with three touchdowns and an interception.
Colorado got on the board first with a 9-yard touchdown run from Lindsay. Then, down 7-0 on the road with receivers dropping passes left and right, the Cougars offense got a tremendous boost from Morrow, who pulled a Houdini-esque escape on a defender at the line of scrimmage, cut up field and sneaked away from a horde of onrushing Buffaloes to scamper 32 yards to the Colorado 14.
That run, WSU’s first big play in a first-quarter performance rife with mistakes, seemed to give life to the Cougars’ offense.
On the next play, Falk connected with Robert Lewis in the end zone on a 14-yard pass that put WSU on the board while simultaneously resulting in a targeting penalty on Colorado’s Afolabi Laguda, who drilled Lewis headfirst as he pulled in the touchdown.
WSU couldn’t capitalize on a Phillip Lindsay fumble recovered by Frankie Luvu. But the Cougars’ quick-scoring abilities were on full display on their third offensive possession, when Tavares Martin caught a beauty of a pass from Falk to pick up 26 yards that got WSU to midfield.
Falk hit Jamal Morrow up the middle for a 46-yard touchdown and the Cougars were up 14-7.
With both defenses playing well, the pendulum continued to swing back and forth, giving each offensive possession added weight.
The Cougars almost went up 21-7 when Falk connected with Gabe Marks in the end zone, only to have Marks uncharacteristically drop the ball at the last second. That drive ended in a turnover on downs.
The Buffaloes pieced together a 10-play, 74-yard scoring drive, getting some help from WSU’s defense after Shalom Luani barely missed a big sack on Liufau that Colorado turned into a 12-yard first down conversion by Jay MacIntyre on third-and-two from the WSU 26.
The Cougs called timeout to regroup at that point, but couldn’t stop Liufau from running into the end zone on a 3-yard touchdown three plays later that tied the game 14-14.
Erik Powell missed an early 51-yard field goal, but connected from 28 yard out in the second quarter to give WSU a 17-14 lead to end the first half.
Colorado had a chance to tie it at the end of the second quarter, but shanked a 38-yard attempt with eight seconds left on the clock.
The Buffaloes opened the second half in commanding fashion and capitalized on several missed tackles by WSU’s defense and a face mask penalty from Nnamdi Oguayo to once again drive downfield and score on a 7-yard run from Liufau to go up 21-17.
