The Stanford Cardinal were able to get the University of Colorado Buffaloes to play their brand of football and Christian McCaffrey was back in the lineup, but even both those things couldn’t stop Sefo Liufau, Shay Fields and Phillip Lindsay from delivering a 10-5 victory and making the Buffs bowl eligible for the first time since 2007.
Liufau connected with Fields for 51 yards on four receptions, the most-important of which was the game’s only touchdown. The 15-yard score put Colorado ahead early in the second quarter and the Buffs would not relinquish the lead. Lindsay ran for 131 yards on 12 carries – an impressive 10.9 average.
Just last week the Cardinal held Notre Dame to 10 points and walked away from South Bend a 17-10 winner. It was the kind of low-scoring affair head coach David Shaw needed in order to have a chance against the Buffs. Stanford held a Colorado offense that was in the top-10 in the nation in total yards to just 10 points in part because of three missed field goals, but became their own worst enemy down the stretch.
Colorado forced four Cardinal turnovers including two interceptions in the fourth quarter by George Frazier and George Frazier to help seal the win.
McCaffrey, the Colorado native and 2015 Heisman Trophy runner-up who missed last week with an undisclosed injury, compiled 114 all-purpose yards
The win runs Colorado’s record to 6-2, bowl eligible for the first time in nearly a decade and equal to their total wins over the last two seasons combined and with now (at least) five more games to play.
