“But today, right before we completed that third down pass [on the final drive], we said, guys, this is it. This is game. We get this first down, we’re gonna win. We don’t, we can put it on the defense. Anything can happen. They had two or three timeouts at the time, so it was gonna be tough, but we got it. We persevered.”
Colorado (3-4, 1-3) got on the board first for the third consecutive game, but trailed by a field goal, 10-7, at the half. The Buffaloes outscored the Cyclones 17-7 in the second half, aided by a key fourth-quarter interception from Tawfiq Byard and a late fourth-down defensive stop helped stave off an ISU comeback.
CU quarterback Kaidon Salter bounced back nicely from a rough outing at TCU last week, leading the Buffs’ offense with 255 passing yards on 16 completions and two touchdowns. The transfer signal caller closed with a QB rating of 176.1 with zero interceptions or sacks.
“We challenged everybody, not just Kaidon,” Coach Prime noted. “He stood up and stood out. He did his thing. I don’t think it was a play in the game bigger than that third-down throw. First of all, we gave him a clean pocket. Hats off to the darn line, they’re blocking their butts off run as well as pass. And he stood in there, and he delivered a great ball. Joseph (Williams) went up and got that thing. It was a great execution of what we practice. And I’m happy for him. I’m happy for him. I truly am.”
Salters spread the ball around to five different targets on Saturday. Joseph Williams emerged as his favorite on the day, making good on all eight of his targets for a season-high 128 yards. Omarion Miller hauled in three catches for 82 yards, including a 70-yard third-quarter score.
Defensively, Jeremiah Brown led the way with 10 total tackles, including 1.5 tackles for loss. Byard had seven tackles to go along with the interception.
“We’re looking for consistency of the entire defense, not just Jeremiah,” Coach Prime added. “Once we get consistency, especially in the linebacker position, you’re going to see some big changes. You know, I love to applaud the guys on defense, but you’ve got to understand, we gave up 236 yards rushing, so I cannot sit up here clap with my feet, knowing that.”
How it Happened
Iowa State opened with the game’s first possession, but stalled on a 9-play, 42-yard drive. The Buffs have held the opposition scoreless on their first drives in six of seven games this season.
The first quarter was a 0-0 stalemate for almost the full 15 minutes with the two teams combining for five punts.
Colorado got the scoring started in the final seconds of the opening quarter as Micah Welch capped a 12-play, 90-yard drive with an 8-yard touchdown run. The scoring drive was the second-longest in terms of yards this season for the Buffs.
Iowa State responded with 10 unanswered points as the CU offense struggled to move the ball in the second quarter. The Cyclones had a 96-yard drive that ended on a 38-yard field goal by Chase Smith, and then mounted a late second-quarter drive, capped by a 1-yard touchdown run from Abu Sama to go up 10-7 into halftime.
The Buffs wasted no time to start the third quarter, finding the endzone in two plays. Welch rushed up the middle for a gain of three to move the ball to the Colorado 27. Then Salter found Miller downfield for the 70-yard touchdown, putting the Buffs ahead 14-10. The 70-yard pitch-and-catch was the longest for Salter as a Buff and ties him for the second-most touchdown passes of 60 yards or more in the Big 12 this season.
“Everybody’s mentality coming out at halftime is to get points up on the board,” Salter said of the fast start. “They kind of busted coverage, so I did my three-step drop, and seeing that they had no safety out there, the corner kind of sat in cover two. Omarian ran right past him, so I just gave him a nice catchable ball.”
Iowa State responded on its next drive with a heavy dose of Sama on the ground. The Cyclone running back had 60 of the team’s 75 yards on the drive, culminating in a 1-yard touchdown run to move back in front 17-14.
The Black & Gold got back into the endzone with Salter connecting with Williams for a 3-yard touchdown pass, giving the Buffs a 21-17 lead going into the fourth quarter.
The CU defense set the tone early in the final quarter by halting Iowa State’s advance with back-to-back tackles for loss by London Merritt and Keaten Wade. Then the momentum shifted when Byard, who left the game earlier with a hand injury, undercut a pass from Rocco Becht, returning it 18 yards to the Colorado 19-yard line, leaving ISU with nothing to show for an 11-play, 68-yard drive.
“Got a little bruise on my hand,” Byard said of his playing with a cast the rest of the game. “I had to go get an X-ray, get it checked out, come back, we got to finish. We just kept harping, ‘We got to finish. We got to finish.’ And he threw the ball right to me, and [I] made a play.”
Colorado capitalized on the turnover, with Salter leading a drive that resulted in a 29-yard field goal by Alajandro Mata, extending the lead. The defense continued to hold strong, forcing Iowa State into a turnover on downs at their own 18-yard line.
The Buffs sealed off the win with a 10-play, 45-yard drive that featured a Dallan Hayden 37-yard rush and a key 3rd-and-16 conversion.
“We had to go get it [the first down],” Coach Prime reiterated. “Yeah, we had to go get it. It was a–3rd and 16? I might have changed my mind, I know, but we had a good play call. We felt like if they give us this look, we could take advantage of it, and we did.”
Up Next
The Buffs head into their first bye week of the season and will return to action at Utah on Oct. 25.