Arizona Wildcats Complete Fourth Quarter Comeback, Defeating Colorado Buffalos

The Buffs (3-4, 0-3), who matched their school record with their 14th consecutive loss in league play, tried an onside kick but Arizona safety Will Parks recovered.

Jared Baker ran for a career-high 207 yards and scored three touchdowns, helping Arizona overcome a late deficit to down Colorado 38-31 Saturday night.

In beating Oregon State, the Wildcats might have proved, at minimum, that they are not the conference’s worst team. Maybe because Solomon is coming off a recent concussion, but there was virtually no hint of the QB run game against Colorado, which tilts the numbers advantage to the defense.

Wilson was ruled out of Saturday’s matchup at Colorado with a foot injury despite having a quiet yet productive performance against Oregon State the week prior, with 78 yards and two touchdowns.

Baker burst through a big hole, shot past a surprised secondary and outran defenders for a 79-yard touchdown that gave Arizona a quick 10-0 lead less than five minutes in. 330 of his 470 yards compiled during the 2015 campaign came in his last two games.

“The run game was very devastating”, Buffaloes linebacker Rick Gamboa said. After their next drive stalled and the Buffs were forced to punt, the ball ended up hitting a Wildcats’ player. Arizona pulled ineffective quarterback Anu Solomon near the end of the third quarter, and Randall, infusing the offense with a running threat from the position, immediately led a 97-yard drive that was capped by Baker’s 45-yard run that tied the game at 24. Solomon completed 17 of 30 passes for 276 yards before he sat out in the fourth quarter. So it’s likely that Rodriguez could incorporate Randall into the Arizona offense on a few packages next weekend.

It could go down as the beginning of the resurgence of the Colorado Buffaloes football – or just another embarrassing footnote in the program’s current stretch of ineptitude.

Despite allowing 616 total yards of offense to the Wildcats’ offense, the injury-plagued Buffaloes defense played great for most of the game. It didn’t take a football genius to see that the Buffs’ defense was keeping things watchable for most of the game. “We weren’t executing like we were earlier in the game”. “You work and you work and you push and you push and we’re trying to climb and you work and you’re so close and you can taste it”. His final line was astounding – 11 carries for 81 yards and one touchdown, 3-of-3 passing for 42 yards, three straight touchdown drives, and thousands of hearts broken. Fields finished the day with eight receptions for 168 yards and two touchdowns.

The Buffaloes best chance to win a conference game will now have to come on the road.