The Colorado Buffaloes just barely missed being voted back into the Top 25 this week after a blowout 40-16 win against the Arizona State Sun Devils.
In the AP and Coaches Poll, the Buffs are the next team out, essentially ranking them as the No. 26 team in the country.
The last three times the Buffaloes played the Sun Devils, the team lost by a combined 80 points. Yes, that’s right, 80!
This Colorado Buffaloes gave them a taste of their own medicine, though, and are showing the rest of the country that they’re here to win the PAC-12 South division and possibly more.
Coach Mike MacIntyre has now led this team to an impressive 5-2 record and a 3-1 conference record. In the past five seasons the team has only won five conference games total. Now they’re one game away from securing their place in a bowl game, but the fight doesn’t stop there.
“There were a lot of things to be proud about with our team,” MacIntrye told reporters at the postgame press conference. “We’re one step closer to going where we want to go. We’ve got a long ways to go, but we’ve done pretty well so far.”
Arizona State was held to 199 total yards (50 yards rushing), compared to Colorado’s 580 (315 rushing). Coming into the game, the Sun Devils were giving up the most yards through the air per game (404.3) in the country, but it was the ground game that totally blew up their game plan.
The Tasmanian Devil, or as some like to call him Phillip Lindsay, rushed for 219 yards and three touchdowns. On the first play of the second half, Lindsay ran for a 75-yard touchdown before the fans could get back to their seats. The offensive line is looking better and better throughout the season, protecting both quarterback Sefo Liufau — who returned in his first start since Michigan — and Lindsay.
“It starts out from these guys,” Lindsay told reporters as he pointed towards his offensive line, who were on stage with him during his postgame press conference. “These men right here work hard, and these men are the reason for all of our success.”
Behind that line, Lindsay felt like he could do anything
“As a running back, when you can get through the line 5 yards without getting touched, that’s a running back’s dream,” Lindsay said.
He didn’t hold back from the love he felt for the group of men blocking for him.
“These guys right here make me, and I appreciate you guys, man,” Lindsay said.
The star of the night averaged 8.4 yards a carry, a truly remarkable stat.
A win like this one might have been more of a statement than the wins against CSU or even Oregon. Arizona State was ranked No. 24 in the Coaches Poll and was tied with Colorado and Utah atop the PAC-12 South. Now, Colorado controls its own destiny as they’re tied with Utah at the top of the PAC-12 South and are still vying for an opportunity to face the No. 5 team in the country, the Washington Huskies, in the PAC-12 championship game in Pasadena.
There is still a long ways to go and next week the Buffaloes travel to Stanford to take on the struggling Cardinals and their injured superstar Christian McCaffrey.
“I’m excited about where we are, but we gotta go back to work and keep marching on. We got a a lot of really good football teams to play,” MacIntyre said. “Stanford beat us pretty good out here last year, and they got a really good football team, and they’re very hard to beat at Stanford, but we’re going to have to get ourselves ready to go there and play. It’s going to be a tough play for us, but we’ll be ready to go.”
Saturday’s game will be aired on PAC-12 Network at 1PM.