Bears Fall in Brutal Overtime Loss to Previously Winless Colorado

BOULDER, COLORADO -50,471 Colorado fans saw their team put together their best game of the season Saturday at Folsom Field, pulling off an upset over the Bears with a dramatic 20-13 overtime win over Cal.

It’s unusual for a midseason game against a winless opponent to be considered a must-win game but with a tough stretch against Washington, Oregon and USC (a combined 15-3 headed into this weekend) coming up, a loss to Colorado would almost certainly throw the season into disarray.

Consider it in disarray.

Head coach Justin Wilcox was as angry and frustrated as he’s ever been, justifiably so after today’s poor performance by both players and coaches.

“You can’t win scoring one touchdown,” said Wilcox. “You’ve got to put the ball in the end zone. Credit to them. They did it more than we did.

“Every week is hard to win, regardless of who you’re playing at this level and what their record may or may not be. Our guys didn’t have a lackadaisical week of practice. We didn’t take the week off the week prior. We knew we would come in and they would have renewed energy. We’d get their best game and everybody at this level can play.

“We have to execute better. We have to block, run, throw, catch, move the ball down the field, put it in the end zone. On defense, we need to tackle on the perimeter, you have to bat the ball down on the deep ball. When you have the opportunity to kick a field goal, you make the field goal. If you don’t, you’re gonna get beat. I don’t care who you’re playing. That’s what happened...You give them credit but boy, looking at ourselves, you just don’t win football games playing like we did today.”

The Bears’ offense was dreadful in the first half. Seven first-half possessions resulted just two missed Dario Longhetto field goals, a Jack Plummer interception, a turnover on downs at the Buffs’ 19 and two punts.

The lone points in the half came on a 31-yard Cole Becker field goal with 4:11 left in the half to give Colorado their 3-0 halftime lead.

Plummer was out of sync all half, completing just 11-of-22 passes for 80 yards along with the interception. The line was also unable to open holes in the running game, giving up 5 TFLs and gaining only 23 net yards on the ground.

The Bears were finally able to get things going in the third quarter, putting together a 7-play, 47-yard drive culminating on a beautiful diving 14-yard TD grab by receiver J.Michael Sturdivant to go up 7-3 with 5:49 left in the third quarter.

The Bears took the 7-3 lead into the fourth quarter but it didn’t last long as the Buffs took advantage of a short field for a 58-yard TD drive. Trying to shake things up, the Buffs replaced McCown with backup JT Shrout but most of the damage on the drive was done on a tailback pass from Jordyn Tyson to receiver Montana Lemonius-Craig for 37 yards to the Cal 5. Two plays later, tailback Anthony Hankins and the Colorado OL powered it in from 1 to take back the lead at 10-7 with 14:25 left in the game.

With Colorado driving at midfield on their next possession, receiver Deion Smith took in a Shrout pass and was stopped on a thundering hit by cornerback Collin Gamble, forcing a fumble recovered by OLB Xavier Carlton at the Colorado 45. A 15-yard illegal hands-to-the-face call on Colorado moved the ball to the Buffs’ 30. A big catch and run by TE Jermaine Terry moved the ball to the Colorado 15. The drive stalled there, however as the Bears had to settle for a 27-yard Longhetto field goal to tie the game with 10:20 remaining. 

Colorado got the ball moving the next possession with a pair of 12 and 19-yard completions to Lemonius-Craig and 17 yards to Arias to move into scoring territory. A Hankerson run pushed the ball to the Buffs’ 4 but the Bears’ defense stood strong, forcing a short Colorado field goal to give the Buffs a 13-10 lead with 4:30 left.

The Bears went on the move on the next possession, using 6, 10 and 5 yard completions to receiver Mason Starling, who received his first playing time of the year after being held out by a fall camp injury and a pair of completions to receiver Mavin Anderson for 15 and 20 yards but the Bears’ drive stalled at the CU 16. Longhetto converted on the 34-yard field goal as time expired with the game knotted at 13. 

The Bears won the coin toss, opting to go on defense first. They appeared to hold Colorado to a field goal opportunity when Buff receiver Lemonius-Craig was ruled out of bounds on an acrobatic catching the corner of the end zone but the call was overturned to put the Buffs up 20-13 after the PAT.

The Bears had a chance to tie it and force a second overtime but a pair of catchable balls to Starling and tight end Keleki Latu fell harmlessly to the end zone turf as the joyous Colorado fans rushed the field to celebrate their first win of the season.

As poorly as the Bears executed, Colorado on their end played inspired football from start to finish, clearly responding well to interim head coach Mike Sanford’s challenge to up their game as they prepared for the chance to get on the board with a win. Colorado players talked in the postgame after about the renewed energy they were feeling and several pregame traditions the new coach brought back for the game today. The Colorado fans deserve an assist, as well, as the 50k crowd sensed the upset possibility from the opening snap and nothing about the Bears’ play throughout most of the day gave them reason to think otherwise.

Plummer, possibly playing tentatively after still being substantially sore from the beating his took at WSU, never found a rhythm, finishing 29-52 (56%) for 262 yards and 1 TD and 1 INT. He was sacked twice on the day, with the biggest one coming on 3rd-and-goal at the CU 9 as the Bears were attempting to win at the end of regulation, forcing the final field goal.

How do the 3-3/1-2 Bears move forward after today?

“You show up ready to work on Monday, you eat the loss and you internalize it,” said Wilcox. “It should feel terrible. You should be outraged about how you played. if you don’t perform to your best, then you’ve got to come back and work. You can’t put your hood on and hide from everybody. You stick your chest out and go to work and you own it. Everybody- coaches, players, everybody. The entire program owns it. It started with me. I take responsibility for the performance and the team. That was not good enough.”

“I was never not confident in the guys or our team’s ability,” said Sirmon. “There’s no sense of give-up or not caring. I think people are upset and rightfully so. I would be concerned if people weren’t upset. Being upset at something like this shows you care. People are upset and we’ll try to use that to our advantage.”

“There’s no trust lost. No love lost,” said Sturdivant. “We’re still close. This is a tough one. We’ve got to take this one on the chin. It’s not the last game of the season. We’re just going to keep pushing forward. We’ve got a whole season ahead of us. We’ve just got to keep going. We trust each other. We love each other. We’ve got a lot of football to play with each other.”

Receiver Mavin Anderson had his best game of the season with 6 catches for 61 yards, including a late game 20-yarder. Sturdivant also had 6 catches for 45 yards including his TD grab. Running back Jaydn Ott saw little daylight much of the day, totalling 47 yards on 16 carries in the loss.

On defense, the Bears were led by MLB Jackson Sirmon with 8 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 interception and 1 pass breakup. Cornerback Collin Gamble also had his best game of the season with 7 tackles, 3 TFL, a pass breakup and a forced fumble. Overall, the Bears were outgained 328 to 297 yards.

The Bears will be back to Memorial Stadium for the first time in three weeks in next Saturday’s 7:30 pm kickoff vs. Washington.

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