There was actually one team this week that had fewer than the 4 yards rushing that Washington State posted in their loss against Stanford. Colorado rushed 19 times in this game for a negative 7 yards. They actually would have out-rushed the Cougars if not for their QB Shedeur Sanders dropping 37 yards on seven attempts. In the air he was much better, connecting on 24-of-39 for 245 yards, 2 TD’s, and no interceptions with one of those scores going to his Sophomore Cornerback two-way player Travis Hunter who was also his leading receiver. The other TD went to Sophomore RB Anthony Hankerson while Xavier Weaver, Jimmy Horn Jr. and Dylan Edwards accounted for most of the rest of the yards in the air.
Watching Sanders it looks as if all the pressure, hits, and sacks that he has been subjected to this season has worn him down to the point of visibly struggling. This is the second week in a row he has taken an in-game injection to deal with the pain in his hip. He fumbled twice in this one, the first time about half-way through the 1st Qtr which led to an Oregon State TD and 7-0 lead. Although not their best game by far, the Beavers led from start to finish in this one with Colorado finally able to close within a possession with a TD in the last two minutes which gave us our final score of 26-19. For Oregon State, QB DJ Uiagalelei connected on 12-of-24 for 223 yards, 1 TD, and no picks while on the ground Damien Martinez carried the heavy load rushing 21 times for 115 yards with DJ and his backup Aidan Chiles actually running the ball into the end zone for their two rushing TD’s. On the other side of the ball the Beavers kept the pressure up all game long while sacking Sanders four times and recording six tackles for loss.
Oregon State had ten more 1st downs, 25-to-15; led in total yards of offense, 418-to-238; had possession of the ball for almost 12 more minutes; and converted on their 3rd down attempts 50% of the time. Colorado got some bad advice from their new play caller, Pat Shurmur, right near the very end of the first half. Sitting on their own 4 yard line and trailing just 7-3, instead of running the ball and running out the clock Shurmur, who took over those duties from Offensive Coordinator Sean Lewis, called two passes that fell incomplete and then a run that was stopped at the line of scrimmage. Colorado’s Mark Vassett punted the ball 49 yards that was returned for 28 yards back to the Colorado 25 yard line with 22 seconds still left on the clock. Oregon State picked up another five yards on an Illegal Formation Penalty before the Beaver QB connected in the end zone with DeShaun Fenwick to go up 14-3 at the break. As usual Coach Prime didn’t play the blame game and said; “We shouldn’t have been throwing there. We needed to run the ball. That’s on me.”
It’s hard not to cheer on an organization that’s trying to turn a losing program around and I’m really looking forward to seeing the improvements in Colorado next year. Shedeur Sanders, who came into the game as the nation’s second leading passer, is impressively mature about the struggle of the team and had this to say afterwards: “Whenever you win all the time you don’t ever really go through that grit, that pain, that suffering. So, sometimes it’s good to go through this process to make sure you don’t ever feel like that again. So, I’m fine with it.” As reported by the AP in their recap for ESPN; “Among the more than a dozen prospective recruits at the game was somebody who could help keep Sanders safe: five-star offensive lineman Jordan Seaton from Washington D.C. The 6’ 5” lineman who plays for the IMG Academy in Florida is also being heavily recruited by Ohio State. In the past if you had a choice between starting for Ohio State or Colorado the decision was a no brainer. But with regards to NIL money, two of the top ten players are Colorado Buffaloes with no-one from Ohio State in that group. It can certainly more than level the playing field.
Colorado gets to stay at home another week and will be hosting Stanford while the Beavers head back home to Corvallis to take on what has become a very tough Arizona Wildcat team.