Buff Defense Falters Late Vs. Arizona

BOULDER — There's pain in losing, and then there's the agony of letting victory slip through your fingers. Or, in Colorado's case, having it ripped from your grasp. The Colorado Buffaloes had the lead — and control of the game — late in the third quarter of their 38-31 loss to Arizona on Saturday night.

Then the Wildcats subbed Jerrard Randall for Anu Solomon at quarterback, and the Buffs fell apart in the span of three drives. After that came the pain that Colorado has become all too used to.

"I hurt for my team," Buffs coach Mike MacIntyre said. "I hurt for those kids. We just have to find a way to get it done."

For a time, Colorado seemed to have found its way. The Buffs' defense stifled Arizona's attack after a rough start. Wildcats running back Jared Baker exploded for a 79-yard touchdown in the first quarter, and Arizona scored on its first three drives. After the first quarter, though, Solomon and the Wildcat offense accomplished nothing.

Colorado shut Arizona out in the second and third quarters.

"It goes quick, the game is going fast and they are good at what they execute," MacIntyre said. "We kind of tried to simulate it in practice as best we can. We settled in and the kids started playing well and making plays."

Colorado got pressure on Solomon in creative ways. Cornerback Chidobe Awuzie blitzed off both sides; he sacked Solomon once, and created a sack for defensive tackle Justin Solis, when Awuzie's pressure forced Solomon to step up into Solis' oncoming rush. The Buffs stunted pass-rushers Derek McCartney and Jordan Carrell, which helped them get pressure with only a four-man rush, and they sent inside linebackers on delayed blitzes.

The Buffs had sacked Solomon four times and knocked him down five more. During second and third quarters, Arizona punted six times, lost two fumbles and missed a field goal.

Randall replaced Solomon with 54 seconds left in the third quarter, the ball on Arizona's three-yard line, and Colorado ahead by a touchdown. He took a zone read off of left tackle for 18 yards on his first play, then busted two more long outside runs.

Randall's athleticism outside the tackles opened up the inside run for Baker, and he finished off Randall's first drive with an untouched up-the-gut run off of a zone read for a 45-yard touchdown.

"We prepared," MacIntyre said. "We knew that he would run the ball more."

Linebacker Rick Gamboa echoed his coach: "We were prepared for it, but there were just things that we weren't doing as a defense. We weren't executing like we were earlier in the game."

Arizona's next drive was more of the same — Randall ran outside to spread out Colorado's defense, then Baker gashed them up the middle. Randall left the field with an injury, but Solomon threw a touchdown to a wide-open Baker on a wheel route the next play.

"It was just a defensive breakdown," Gamboa said. "They hadn't ran that play and we hadn't seen it and it was just a play on our part that we didn't execute."

Randall came back for the next drive and capped it off with a touchdown of his own. His final line was astounding — 11 carries for 81 yards and one touchdown, 3-of-3 passing for 42 yards, three straight touchdown drives, and thousands of hearts broken.

"You don't want to dwell on it all the time so much where you get depressed and you can't keep moving forward," MacIntyre said. "You work and you work and you push and you push and we're trying to climb and you work and you're so close and you can taste it."