Brown, Montez Connect To Help Buffs Sink Sun Devils
September 22, 2019 | Football, Neill Woelk
TEMPE, Ariz. — Arizona State was bound and determined Saturday night not to let Colorado's star receiver inflict big damage.
Mission … not accomplished. The Buffaloes have more than one star receiver, a fact Tony Brown made oh-so-clear to the Sun Devils. The CU senior hauled in a career high nine catches for 150 yards and three touchdowns to help the Buffs to a 34-31 win over No. 24 ASU.
ASU entered the game focusing on Colorado's Laviska Shenault Jr., who last year scored four touchdowns for CU in a 28-21 win over Arizona State. When Shenault went out in the first quarter with an injury Saturday, the Sun Devils probably liked their chances.
But Brown and Colorado quarterback Steven Montez never blinked. The two hooked up for a 29-yard touchdown in the first quarter to give CU a 14-0 lead, then connected again in the second quarter for a 31-yard score to give Colorado a 21-14 edge.
Their final connection came late in the third quarter, when Montez found Brown in the end zone for a 20-yard touchdown, a catch Brown made with a defender virtually draped on his back.
"There's a lot of a lot of guys went down out there, the guys had to step up tonight," Brown said. "It was a huge team win. Everybody's got to step up and we have a role to play. If a guy goes down, it's next man up."
Saturday was Brown's second big game this year against a ranked team. Two weeks ago, he caught five passes for 60 yards and a touchdown in a 34-31 win over No. 25Â Nebraska.
"He's extremely talented," Montez said of Brown. "Just a super hard-working guy. He just worked his butt off and now is his time. He's starting to get touches and show everyone he's a dynamic player. Very excited for Tony, very happy for Tony. I hope to see him do this all year."
It was also an outstanding game for Montez, who finished with a 23-for-30 night for 337 yards and three touchdowns, a game that should silence the critics for at least a couple of weeks.
"Great game," said CU coach Mel Tucker. "I believe in Steven. He's taking what the defense gives him, he's not pressing, he's trusting the plans and his teammates. And that's what good quarterbacks do."
Brown became just the fifth receiver in CU history to have three touchdown catches in a game, joining Richard Johnson (1982), Rae Carruth (1996), Nelson Spruce (2014) and Shay Fields (2016). Montez was also the quarterback who threw the TD passes to Fields, thus making him the only quarterback in CU history to throw three touchdown passes to one receiver in two different games.
Montez also surpassed the 8,000-yard mark in passing (8,005), though he is still in second place on CU's all-time list, trailing Sefo Liufau (9,568). It was his 12th career 300-yard passing game, a CU record, and his 55 touchdown passes are third behind Liufau and Cody Hawkins (60).
STEFANOU ON TARGET: Saturday produced CU kicker James Stefanou's second game-winning field goal this year. Stefanou had the game-winner in overtime of a 34-31 win over No. 25Â Nebraska in early September, and his 44-yarder with two minutes left Saturday was the difference in a 34-31 win over No. 24 Arizona State.
BUFFS BITS: Sophomore D-lineman Janaz Jordan made his first career start, stepping into the lineup for Terrance Lang. But Lang came up with one of the biggest defensive plays of the game, a sack on ASU's last possession … Players seeing their first action of the year included DE DE Jeremiah Doss, S Mark Perry and CB K.J. Trujillo … Colorado has now won 33 of the last 42 coin flips … The Buffs were flagged for just three penalties in the game … Colorado is 2-0 against ranked teams this year, matching the total number of wins over ranked teams in the previous nine seasons combined … Although the Buffs are 3-1, Saturday's game was the first time this year they have outgained an opponent (475-453) ... Saturday's victory, by the way, was not the first for a CU team in Sun Devil Stadium. Along with five previous games against ASU, the Buffs also played in the stadium in three Fiesta Bowls (1993, 1995 and 2002). Colorado came away with a victory in the 1995 Fiesta to wrap up the 1994 season, a convincing 41-24 win over Notre Dame in Bill McCartney's final game as the Buffs' head coach.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
