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Arizona Football: Wildcats Beat the Buffs, Prove McIntyre Wrong

By Shereen Rayan

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One week after the Arizona football team beat the Oregon State Beavers at home, they fly to Boulder and take care of business in Boulder.

Arizona got on the board first, Casey Skowron kicked a 48-yard field goal for three points. Reggie Gilbert was able to read a Colorado trick play forcing a third down and 18 to go and stopped them on the next play forcing a punt. The Defense looked good at this point. We had yet to see Nick Wilson, who was questionable on Thursday, but still suited up on the sidelines.

Jared Baker on the second play of the next series scored a 79-yard rushing touchdown with 10:15 left in the first quarter! If it wasn’t for fullback Jamadre Cobb‘s block, the play wasn’t possible.

Arizona 10 and Colorado ZERO. Take that Coach McIntyre!

Maybe Wildcats fans shouldn’t have been celebrating so early on, a couple of plays later, Colorado receiver Shay Fields burned our defense with a similar play from last year’s game, a huge 72-yard pass completion from  for a touchdown.

Arizona 10, Colorado 7.

Cayleb Jones made a tremendous catch for 32 yards with a Buffalo hugging him, the unbelievable catch took the Wildcats down to the seven-yard line. Caleb was due for a thrilling catch and Arizona’s tight ends were due for their number to be called. And so it was, tight end Josh Kern scored his first touchdown of the year.  The last time a tight end scored was A.J. Simmons in 2009.

Arizona 17, Colorado 7.

Arizona was able to stop the buffs on the next series which ended with a missed field goal, bravo Wildcats defense!

At this point in the game, Nick Wilson is still wearing a baseball cap leaving Jared Baker to run the ball for the Wildcats. What was nice to see was Trey Griffey making his first catch after coming back from injury, followed by Terrell Johnson with an eleven-yard rush, who also came back from injury this week.

Signs of the UCLA game this year mixed with the Scooby play from the Oregon game last year, a high snap by Cayman Bundage followed by a Colorado grab of the football out of Anu Solomon‘s golden hands, and the first lousy turnover was in the books.

Arizona’s defense had a hard time stopping Colorado in the second quarter but did force a fourth down inside the ten yard-line and instead of going for the touchdown, McIntyre went for the field goal.

Arizona 17, Colorado 10.

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Cam Denson causes a fumble with a little over six minutes to go in the half, Arizona couldn’t convert for a first down. Unfortunately, Skowron’s field goal attempt failed, but not for lack of distance on the ball, but because it hit the goal post.

The Score remained Arizona 17, Colorado 10.

A freaky incident on a punt return, the ball heading to the Cats hits the back of Trey Griffey and popped right into the hands of the Buffaloes. Skip forward a bunch of plays, and Colorado’s quarterback Sefo Liufau ran the ball two yards for the touchdown. Ugh!

Arizona 17, Colorado 17, tie game going into the half.

Wildcats fans hoped so, time for the locker room pep-talk, or beat down. Arizona went cold in the second quarter, and the offense suffered due to pressure on Solomon who could not find an option to make a first down.

But wait, there’s a remedy, use your tight end more, or, change quarterbacks maybe?

Onto the next half.

Colorado started the half with the ball and marched down the field resulting in Sefo Liufau pushing himself in for his second touchdown on a pin-and-pull play.

Colorado 24, Arizona 17.

The Fox Sports announcers called the game at this point with a half of the football game to play, they thought Colorado would win.

Arizona, still struggling to score, were dealing with the Buffs defense who continued to pressure Anu. Solomon had been sacked four times thus far in the game. The Wildcats continued to not be able to convert on third down resulting in yet another punt.

Cornerback Jarvas McCall came in for Cam Denson who went out to a possible injury, both were subbing in for DeVonte Neal. Arizona’s defense needed to step it up, and Arizona’s offense had to score. Rich Rod sent in quarterback Jerrard Randall late in the third. Randall was able to run the ball several times in succession for 45 yards, followed by a 45-yard touchdown run by Jared Baker.

Arizona 24, Colorado 24, game tied, again.

With Randall in the game, the tide seemed to turn, he was averaging 12 yards a carry. After one of those great runs, he went down after a tackle and stayed on the field for a long time. Wildcats fans again holding their collective breath, but out went Randall and in came Anu. First play, after a wink from Coach Rich Rod before he went back in, a pass to Jared Baker for a 25-yard touchdown, his third on the day.

It’s was a miracle, Randall came back in at the helm after the Wildcats defense stopped the Buffs. The main reason? Jeff Worthy made humongous sack for 18 yards. With Randall back in, plays called for both Baker and Randall to rush the ball to take time off the clock. After a Baker run was deemed short of the goal line, Randall scored a touchdown on the ensuing play.

https://twitter.com/WorthyJ_55/status/655619738354102272

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Arizona 38 Colorado 24.

Baker had racked up 244 yards of offense with four minutes left in the game. Randall had earned 117 in the second half alone. Putting in Randall seemed to be a great call by Coach Rod and you had to give it to the offensive line who were making it possible for all the rushing.

Second sack on the night was made by Jack Banda, the defense was now running on all cylinders.

As Wildcats luck would have it, Colorado wasn’t done. Shay Fields once again caught a 30-yard pass for a touchdown but went down with an injury. He had run eight times for 168 yards and two touchdowns, with him out, Colorado would struggle.

In the final minute of play, Arizona was back in a fourth down situation. Randall was able to pull the defense offside, but only slightly after the coach called a time out. Arizona would punt, and the punt was excellent. Chants of U of A could be heard in the crowd and they were loud just to make sure we heard them on TV.

Colorado had 14 seconds left and one last play to win, but they couldn’t make it happen.

Arizona Won  38-31!

Next: Arizona Wildcats Basketball: Voted No. 1 by Pac-12 Media Poll

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