BOULDER — Colorado and No. 25 BYU came down to late fourth-quarter possessions Saturday night at Folsom Field, with the Cougars pulling away in the end, 24-21.
Colorado (2-3, 0-2) led 14-10 at the half, and used a late third-quarter score to pull ahead 21-17. BYU opened the fourth quarter with a touchdown and kept the Buffs from getting into scoring position the rest of the night.
“Tough fought game, I can’t say I’m highly upset,” head coach Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders expressed. “I’m upset with a few things, but sometimes it seems like you have more talent, but you didn’t quite win the game. We had opportunities, a tremendous amount of opportunities, but nevertheless, we didn’t cash in on them. And sometimes it felt like the moment was just too big for some of our athletes, and they got to do something about that at halftime. We challenged certain positions to go out there and up their game, challenge their opponents. We didn’t get that. We got the same thing that we had in the first half. We got to do better as a staff, as a team, and I’ve got to do better.”
Quarterback Kaidon Salter led the Buffs on a pair of touchdown drives to open the night. Salter finished 11-of-16 passes for 119 yards and one touchdown while also rushing 17 times for 49 yards and an additional touchdown. Dre’Lon Miller, debuting in the backfield for the first time this season, contributed with 52 rushing yards on eight carries and caught two passes for 27 yards, scoring once on the ground and once through the air. Joseph Williams led the receiving corps with five catches totaling 56 yards.
Defensively, Tawfiq Byard registered his second double-digit tackle game of the season, leading the team with 10. Carter Stoutmire added seven stops and two pass breakups.
BYU (4-0, 1-0) was led by quarterback Bear Bachmeier and his 179 yards passing and two scores in the air, while leading the Cougars with 98 yards rushing on 15 carries. Chase Roberts was the beneficiary of both of Bachmeier’s TD passes, closing his night with 49 yards on five receptions.
“Utmost respect for the coaching staff over there, especially the head coach [Kalani Sitake],” Coach Prime added. “[They are a] Disciplined team, fundamentally sound. Fundamentally sound team that played their butts off. The young quarterback [Bear Bachmeier] is phenomenal. Proud of him. He did what he had to do to win the game. He made the plays that he was supposed to make to win the game.”
How it happened
Colorado capitalized on its opening drive with Salter leading an impressive 11-play, 75-yard march down the field. Salter accounted for 70 of the 75 yards, going 3-for-3 for 39 yards passing and rushed the ball five times for 31 yards. His 3-yard scamper to cap the drive was his 25th career rushing TD. Alejandro Mata added the extra point to put Colorado ahead 7–0.
Colorado’s defense got off the field on BYU’s subsequent drive, limiting the Cougars to eight plays and turning them over on downs. The Buffs quickly extended their lead when Miller scored a 5-yard rushing touchdown with 5:08 remaining, and Mata’s extra point made it 14–0.
BYU responded with an 8-play, 65-yard drive culminating in a 28-yard field goal by Will Ferrin with 45 seconds left in the quarter, narrowing the score to 14–3.
BYU’s offense found momentum in the second quarter, with a touchdown pass from Bear Bachmeier to Roberts for 5 yards with just 46 seconds remaining, narrowing Colorado’s lead to 14–10 right before the half. BYU out-totaled CU 96 yards to 50 in the second quarter, with CU coming up empty on both its possessions in the quarter.
“We had opportunities. We just didn’t make it happen,” Coach Prime added. “If you slow down and watch the film, you’re going to see tremendous opportunities. We just didn’t make it happen. And that’s unfortunate, because you go over and over those same situations at practice all week, and you see it happening in the same defense. It’s not like you were tricked into anything. It was there. We just didn’t make it happen.”
In the third quarter, BYU struck first with a 4-yard touchdown pass from Bachmeier to Roberts at 5:26, followed by a successful extra point from Ferrin, giving BYU a 17-14 lead.
Colorado quickly responded with a drive highlighted by Salter’s 26-yard completion to Joseph Williams and a 19-yard touchdown pass to Miller at 2:42, helping the Buffs take a 21-17 lead.
BYU took the ball over with 2:35 to play in the third quarter and was pinned back in a 3rd and 17 from its own 35 with just over a minute to play in the period. Bachmeier used his legs to pick up 16 yards, and the Cougars converted on 4th and 1 to end the third quarter.
D.J. McKinney broke up a long pass down the CU sideline to open the fourth quarter, but BYU seized the lead on the very next play with a 32-yard touchdown run by Cody Hagen at 14:02, pushing the score to 24-21.
“We’re just not doing our jobs,” Coach Prime commented on the team’s inability to get defensive stops. “That’s it. We’re not doing our jobs. It’s not like it’s a surprise what they’re going to do. It’s not at all. We’re just not doing our jobs. We have to do a better job of preparing these young men to do their jobs in front of the multitudes.”
Colorado’s response was derailed on a 3rd and 3 on the CU 32, resulting in a 22-yard sack of Salter for a 22-yard loss, forcing a punt. As time waned, the Buffs attempted a final drive but were halted when Salter’s pass was intercepted by Isaiah Glasker at the Colorado 40-yard line with under a minute remaining. BYU maintained possession and ran out the clock, securing the victory.
Up Next
CU hits the road next week, making a visit to Fort Worth, Texas, to take on TCU.
***
Originally published on CUBuffs.com. Content courtesy of the University of Colorado.