BOULDER — Taking your foot off the gas is one thing. But attempting to drive while half asleep is asking for trouble, something Colorado learned the hard way Saturday.
The Buffaloes lost their third straight contest, and this one was the most painful of the bunch — a 41-34 home setback in overtime to Oregon State, a team that had come in winless in the Pac-12 and just 1-6 overall.
CU saw a chance to keep pace with Utah in the Pac-12 South chase go up in smoke, along with the opportunity to reach six wins and bowl eligibility with a month left in the regular season.
This despite the efforts of wideout K.D. Nixon, who did the heavy lifting while things were working, posting new single-game personal bests in receptions with (13), receiving yards (198) and touchdown catches (two).
But those stellar numbers were lost in the one that got away — a 3rd-and-goal throw from CU quarterback in overtime that Nixon, open in the back of the end zone, bobbled and couldn’t corral. The Beavers stoned the Buffaloes (5-3, 2-3 Pac-12) on Montez’s next attempt, ending the game as Oregon State players and coaches swarmed the field in celebration.
Montez (24-for-39, 319 passing yards) was strong in the middle of the game and less so early and late. Nor was he helped by the fact that CU’s clock management was all over the map once the game got close, although you wouldn’t be alone in wondering why the devil it got so close in the first place.
Credit Oregon State coach Jonathan Smith, who swapped starting quarterback Jack Costello with Jake Luton and got the Beavers to flip a switch, putting together scoring drives on four of their first five possessions of the second half and reeling off a 25-0 run.
A 31-3 CU lead three seconds into the third quarter — thanks to tailback Travon McMillian’s 75-yard touchdown run on the first play of the period — was whittled to 31-28 with 7:13 left in the contest after a 7-yard Luton touchdown pass to Isaiah Hodgins and a Hodgins grab for a 2-point conversion.
A tale of two games — heck, two narratives — was on a completely different track before things got goofy, although it took CU a few healthy whacks at the dike before water burst through. A four-minute, 71-yard march midway through the second period stalled at the Beavers’ 4 on a fumbled Montez snap, forcing the hosts to settle for a 21-yard Evan Price field goal and a 10-3 lead.
Costello had found the sledding even tougher — the Buffs sacked him five times in the first half and a gift pick-6 snatched by CU cornerback Dante Wigley with 8:48 to go in the half pushed the hosts’ cushion to 16-3.
The Buffs’ signal-caller tightened up from there, completing his first six pass attempts of the second quarter, including a 47-yard rainbow up the left boundary to Nixon with 6:20 left in the first half that stuck a dagger in the Beavers’ collective backs. And three plays later, Montez twisted said dagger, firing a 7-yard scoring strike to Nixon that puts the hosts up 23-3 with 4:44 left in the half.
Montez led CU on four straight marches into the Oregon State red zone in late in the first quarter and early in the second, putting the Beavers in a sleeper hold and putting a homecoming crowd at ease.
The big Texan completed eight of his last nine pass attempts in the first half, but it was a handoff that delivered what the locals thought was the final nail, as McMillian opened the third quarter by squirting free to daylight. It was the second time this season McMillian has opened the second half with a long touchdown scamper, having done the same in a 45-14 win over New Hampshire on September 15.
Only instead of being a sequel to that rout, the Beavers found a way — somehow — to flip the script. And keep the Buffaloes’ once-promising season spinning out of control.