Bobo stepped up in crunch time for Buffs with two fourth quarter TDs
Being a redshirt senior, Colorado wide receiver Bryce Bobo experienced plenty of losing in his first three years (2013-15) in Boulder prior to last season's turnaround, so he doesn’t take winning for granted.
So, while some fans and media might moan and groan about the Buffs needing a late touchdown to beat lowly Oregon State, 36-33, Saturday in Corvallis, Bryce appreciated the result for what it was regardless of how it happened – a much-needed Pac-12 victory that put the Buffs over the .500 mark at 4-3 heading into Saturday night’s cross-divisional clash against Washington State at Martin Stadium in Pullman, Wash. (8:45 p.m. MT, ESPN).
“I came here in 2013 and we’ve always been that team that stayed in the game but could never finish,” Bobo told the Pac-12 Network afterwards. “Some of the older guys like men have tried to instill that in the team, to never give up and fight through our battles we need to fight through.”
What made Saturday’s win, the Buffs’ first in the Pac-12 this season after losses to Washington, UCLA and Arizona, all the more sweeter for Bryce as he enjoyed a significant role in beating the Beavers with a season-high nine receptions for 126 yards and two touchdowns, his first multiple TD game in three years.
Crunch time? Indeed. Both of his TD grabs came in the final nine minutes of the fourth quarter and both gave the Buffs the lead.
Bryce realizes the huge difference between being 1-3 and 0-4 in the Pac-12 as the calendar reaches mid-October.
“(This victory) means everything,” Bryce said. “We didn’t expect our season to be like this. We expected to come back and have the same exact type of success we had last year. But sometimes things don’t happen like that. For us to come here and get this win, it assured us that we have it in us. We just have to keep it going. We know we needed a win for us to get thing rolling. Getting a win in this environment was huge.”
For good measure, he also threw a TD to Montez on a reverse throwback pass into the left corner of the end zone with 1:42 remaining until halftime. The well-executed trick play closed the gap to just five points at halftime (19-14).
Quarterback Steven Montez targeted Bryce 13 times in the game, most importantly on the game-winning 13-yard slant pass with 1:34 left when Montez’s laser throw between a pair of OSU defenders hit Bryce perfectly in stride for the decisive score.
Bryce’s best performance of the season raised his total to 40 receptions for 432 yards and 5 touchdowns. With five games left on the regular season schedule, he has just four fewer catches than all of last season when he had 44. Bryce ranks 9th in the Pac-12 in receptions per game (5.7) and 12th in receiving yards per game (61.7).
Bryce and the Buffs now begin preparations for Saturday night’s encounter in Pullman against a Washington State team coming off a flat 37-3 loss to Cal last Friday night. However, the Cougars remain one of the most prolific offensive teams in the Pac-12, if not the country, with quarterback Luke Falk.
“This was a pretty big game,” Montez said of Saturday’s win in Corvallis. “We were on the road and 0-3 in the Pac-12. We didn’t want to go to 0-4 in the Pac-12. Now we can take this momentum into Washington State.”
On the game-winning TD connection between Montez and Bobo, the Buffs had the perfect play call (slant) for the defensive alignment. The OSU safeties and linebackers lined up as if they were expecting the run. Instead, Montez faked a handoff and rifled a throw to Bryce, who ran a flawless route on his way into the end zone.
”I think they expected us to run the ball,” Montez said. “I just saw Bryce beat their guys off the line and he was open. He’s a bigger-bodied guy so I just tried to put in on him. It ended up working out.”
NOTES:
-- Colorado’s 18-play, 88-yard TD drive bridging the third and fourth quarters gives the Buffs four scoring drives this season of 15+ plays (two against Arizona, the other at UCLA). The Buffs, Duke, Georgia Tech and Minnesota were the only Power 5 programs with three scoring drives spanning 15 or more plays this year going into Saturday’s games.
-- Colorado has now played three straight games – and 13 quarters - without committing a turnover. The last turnover by the Buffs came in the third quarter of the Washington game on Sept. 23 when the Huskies intercepted a pass. The Buffs have tied the school record for most turnover-free games in a single season with four. The other seasons with 4+ turnover-free games are 1989, 1993, 2006 and 2011. The Buffs have not committed a turnover in 13 of MacIntyre’s 58 games as head coach. CU is 8-5 in those games.
-- On a related note, Steven Montez has thrown 95 consecutive passes without an interception.
-- Phillip Lindsay’s 74-yard touchdown run in the first quarter Saturday was CU’s first offensive play of more than 50 yards this season. The Buffs came into the game as one of only two Pac-12 teams (Utah was the other) without an offensive play from scrimmage spanning 50 yards or longer.
PAC-12 WEEK 7 RESULTS
Fri., Oct. 13
California 37, Washington State 3
Sat., Oct. 14
Colorado 36, Oregon State 33
USC 28, Utah 27
Arizona 47, UCLA 30
Arizona State 13, Washington 7
Stanford 49, Oregon 7
PAC-12 SOUTH STANDINGS:
USC 4-1 (6-1)
Arizona 2-1 (4-2)
Arizona State 2-1 (3-3)
Utah 1-2 (4-2)
UCLA 1-2 (3-3)
Colorado 1-3 (4-3)
