BOULDER, Colo. (AP) – The Colorado Buffaloes were ready to celebrate a win in their Pac-12 debut. Two touchdowns in the final 2:35 ended the party for the conference newcomers.
Marquess Wilson sped past two defenders and hauled in a 63-yard touchdown pass from Marshall Lobbestael with 1:10 left to lead Washington State to a stunning 31-27 comeback win over Colorado on Saturday.
Wilson’s grab capped a furious comeback by the Cougars, who trailed by 10 in the final three minutes. The rally left the Buffaloes angry and searching for answers.
Afterward, Buffaloes coach Jon Embree declared he was tired of losing and ripped into his team for finding a way to lose another winnable game.
“I asked them when is it going to be enough. When is enough enough?” he said. “You put in all this work, you do all this stuff you’ve done from spring ball to coaches’ week to training camp for this? So when is it enough? When are they going to get tired of losing?”
Colorado has suffered through three straight losing seasons and last went to a bowl game following the 2007 season.
“We’ve been losing for the past five years,” senior linebacker Doug Rippy said. “I’m tired of it. I’m tired of losing; I want to win. You walk around campus, you’ve constantly got people coming up to you asking, ‘What happened in the game?”’
Colorado appeared to have answered those questions Saturday. The Buffaloes (1-4, 0-1) led 27-17 with 5:11 left after Rodney Stewart’s 1-yard TD run, which he set up with a 52-yard scamper to the Washington State 21.
Lobbestael led Washington State 77 yards in seven plays, hitting Isiah Barton from 19 yards out with 2:35 left to pull the Cougars within a field goal.
With three timeouts remaining, Washington State coach Paul Wulff elected to forgo a risky onside kick. Colorado got the ball at its 34 and drove to the WSU 46 before Tyler Hansen threw incomplete on third-and-6.
“We’ve got to make that play,” Hansen said. “We’ve got to find a way to make that play.”
The Cougars forced a punt and got the ball back with 1:50 left. This time, they needed just 40 seconds to cover 90 yards.
Bottled up for much of the afternoon – 58 yards on five catches – Wilson sped past cornerback Greg Henderson and safety Anthony Perkins and was wide open as he hauled in the pass and raced into the end zone.
“They ran a double move and we got beat,” Perkins said. “It doesn’t matter, they ran a double move and we got beat. We lost the game.”
Colorado had thwarted Washington State’s high-powered aerial attack most of the afternoon with a patchwork secondary that included two converted offensive players.
Lobbestael threw for 376 yards and three touchdowns in leading the Cougars (3-1, 1-0) to just their second road win in four years under Wulff.
The Buffs had one more chance, but receiver Paul Richardson was stripped of the ball by cornerback Damante Horton after a 23-yard gain and linebacker C.J. Mizell recovered for Washington State at its 39 with just under a minute left.
Until the final few minutes, it looked like the Buffs were going to win despite a rash of injuries that has sidelined six cornerbacks – a seventh missed the game while tending to a family matter – forcing converted wide receiver Jason Espinoza and converted tailback Brian Lockridge to line up as defensive backs when the Cougars went with multiple-receiver sets.
Espinoza had a quarterback hurry that forced a punt, and Lockridge, who had never played defense before Monday, had five tackles and a sack.
“I have a lot to learn, but picking it up in three days, I thought I did pretty well,” Lockridge said.
Hansen threw touchdown passes of 9 yards to Richardson and 4 yards to Toney Clemons, the latter giving Colorado a 20-10 lead in the third quarter. Lobbestael responded with an 11-yard TD strike to fullback Jared Byers to keep it close.
Will Oliver’s third field goal, a 48-yarder as the first half expired, gave Colorado a 13-10 halftime lead. It came just 16 seconds after Andrew Furney tied the game with a 28-yarder following Hansen’s first interception in 133 passes.
With a tough schedule ahead, including a game against Andrew Luck at Stanford, the Buffaloes felt like they let a win slip away.
“We were picked to finish 13th, so right now we’re proving everyone right,” Embree said. “It’s a good league, but I don’t see us being the worst team in the league. This isn’t the league to be in learning by trial and error.”
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