Colorado University Athletics
Buffs Gold Games, Montez And Lindsay In Spotlight
November 02, 2017 | Football, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — It's a saying associated with college football across the country every year when the calendar flips to the 11th month:
"The games they remember are played in November."
At Colorado, head coach Mike MacIntyre calls them the "gold games," the final four on the schedule (yes, one is sometimes played at the end of October, but the emphasis is the same). Those final four games are the stretch run, the games that oftentimes determine how an entire season is judged.
A year ago, the Buffs were golden in their gold games, knocking out four consecutive wins, part of a six-game win streak that ultimately produced a Pac-12 South title.
This year, those division title hopes have fallen by the wayside, but the final four games still hold plenty of impact. With a win in the first of those gold games — a 44-28 victory over Cal last week— 5-4 Colorado (2-4 Pac-12) is now poised to clinch bowl eligibility with one more win in the final three.
But there is more at stake in November than just bowl eligibility. Two more wins would clinch a winning record, something CU has managed to produce just once since 2006 (last year's 10-4 mark). A bowl berth, meanwhile, would give CU its first back-to-back bowl appearances since the 2004-05 seasons.
"The gold games are when you want to win all of them," CU wide receiver Shay Fields said earlier this week. "Like Coach Mac says, 'The last four is what they remember.' They don't remember the first eight, the first seven. The last four is where you make your statement in the Pac-12."
A year ago, the schedule played in the Buffs' favor, with three of their final four at home. This season, the Buffs get just two of the last four at home, including last weekend's game with Cal.
Now ahead are a Saturday matchup at Arizona State (7 p.m., Pac-12 Networks), the Nov. 11 home finale with USC (2 p.m., Fox) and the Nov. 25 regular season finale at Utah.
"We still have a lot of season left and a lot of things that we want to accomplish," MacIntyre said. "(The Cal win) was one more step in the right direction. We need to hopefully do that again Saturday. It's, 'What have you done for me lately?' We'll see again Saturday."
DOWNFIELD SUCCESS: Buffs quarterback Steven Montez was honored earlier this week by ESPN as one of the nation's top five quarterbacks for Week 9 after his 20-for-26, 347-yard, three-touchdown performance in the win over Cal.
Montez's best game of the season came one week after a dismal effort at Washington State that saw him benched at halftime of a 28-0 loss.
Perhaps most notable from Montez's performance against Cal was his efficiency in throwing deep downfield. On throws of at least 15 yards past the line of scrimmage, he was 5-for-7 for 189 yards — and all three of his touchdowns came on those throws. Prior to Saturday, he had completed barely 34 percent of those 15-yard-plus throws downfield for just four touchdowns.
"I just saw a confident quarterback," Buffs wide receiver Jay MacIntyre said. "(At) Washington State the weather was kind of bad. You could tell his confidence was a little down after the game. But he stepped up all week. I told him after the game, 'That was a heck of a performance. I'm so proud of you.' Not many people can do that. Not many people can go in that situation and do what he did."
The win over Cal produced CU's two longest passes of the season, a 65-yard touchdown throw to Shay Fields and a 58-yard toss to Laviska Shenault Jr. that led to another touchdown.
"We have to hit deep ones," Jay MacIntyre said. "Coach (Darrin Chiaverini, co-offensive coordinator) says every time we hit a deep one it's going to change the game. We hit the one to Viska and hit the one to Shay, it just opened up the underneath stuff and we were able to hit those as well."
Montez, by the way, has thrown 15 touchdowns against six interceptions this season, a TD-to-INT ratio of 2.5 that is the same as UCLA's Josh Rosen (he is 20-8). Montez's active streak of consecutive pass attempts without being picked off is now at 134. His last interceptioin was a pick six against No. 7 Washington in the third quarter on Sept. 23.
Montez's streak is currently the longest active streak in the nation, as North Carolina State's Ryan Finley saw his streak end at 340 last week in a loss to Notre Dame and San Diego State's Christian Chapman's ended at 168 in a win at Hawai`i. Montez's streak is also the third-longest in Colorado history, trailing Sefo Liufau's 158 straight and Joel Klatt's 139.
LINDSAY VS. SUN DEVILS: Saturday's game would seem to be a good opportunity for Colorado running back Phillip Lindsay to add to his rushing totals.
Lindsay, currently third in the nation in total rushing yardage (1,254 yards), has run for 725 yards and five touchdowns in the last four games, averaging more than 5.5 yards per carry and 181 yards per game in the stretch.
ASU, meanwhile, is ninth in the Pac-12 in rushing defense, giving up nearly 187 yards per game on the ground — but the Sun Devils have been a true Jekyll and Hyde defense in that regard.
In the last four games, ASU has yielded an average of nearly 220 yards per game on the ground. That, however, includes a 328-yard performance by Stanford and 341 yards last week by USC, both ASU losses. In between, the Sun Devils limited Washington to just 91 yards rushing and Utah to just 110 — both ASU wins.
The Sun Devils have also given up big yards to some of the nation's best backs. Stanford's Bryce Love, currently No. 1 in the nation in total yards, ran for 301 yards and three scores in a Stanford win over ASU. San Diego State's Rashaad Perry (No. 2 in the nation) had 216 yards against ASU in an Aztecs win, and last weekend, USC's Ronald Jones had 216 yards and two scores in the Trojans' win over ASU.
But, in that same vein, ASU also limited Washington's Myles Gaskin to just 67 yards in a 13-7 Sun Devils win.
Lindsay is no stranger to big games vs. the Sun Devils. Last year, he ran for 219 yards and three touchdowns in Colorado's 40-16 win in Boulder, including CU's longest play of the year from scrimmage, a 75-yard touchdown gallop.
Lindsay, already Colorado's all-time leader in career all-purpose yards with 5,476, needs 454 rushing yards in these last three games to break the school's all-time career rushing record. Eric Bieniemy (1987-90) has been CU's all-time leader for the past 27 years, as he ran for 3,940 yards. Lindsay will have to average 151.3 yards in these last three games in order to set a career mark.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
