For three quarters, the Colorado Buffaloes put up a fight, enough to have a shot at an upset in the home finale.
An odd personnel decision, a costly fumble and a porous defense put an end to that.
Arizona State, No. 25 in the College Football Playoff rankings, pulled away late and rolled past the Buffs, 42-17, at Folsom Field on Saturday night.
CU slipped to 3-8 (1-7 Big 12) with its fourth consecutive loss, while ASU improved to 8-3 (6-2) with its third straight win.
Aided by four ASU turnovers, CU had a shot to win going into the fourth quarter. The Buffs pulled within 21-17, and a 25-yard pass from freshman JuJu Lewis to Sincere Brown gave them first-and-10 at the ASU 26-yard line early in the final quarter.
Then, CU put walk-on, converted receiver Ronald Coleman in at running back, despite regular backs Dallan Hayden and Micah Welch running well all night. On the first touch of his career, Coleman fumbled and ASU recovered at its own 12-yard line.
On the next play, ASU’s Raleek Brown raced untouched through the Buffs’ defense for an 88-yard touchdown and a 28-17 lead.
Brown’s backup, Kanye Udoh, added a 3-yard touchdown run less than five minutes later to essentially shut the door on the Buffs, at 35-17. And Jason Brown Jr. scored on a 3-yard TD run with 1:20 to go to cap the scoring.
ASU overcame its four turnovers to rack up 580 yards, including 355 on the ground — 205 of those in the fourth quarter. Brown finished with 255 yards on 22 carries.
Lewis, making his second career start — and first at Folsom Field — was under pressure all night and finished 19-of-38 for 161 yards and a touchdown.
CU’s defense started strong, forcing a three-and-out on ASU’s first possession and holding the Sun Devils to a 39-yard Jesus Gomez field goal on its second.
The Sun Devils also punted on their third possession, while CU’s Tawfiq Byard forced a Demarius Robinson fumble on the next possession.
Offensively, however, CU couldn’t take advantage of that. The Buffs went three-and-out on their first three possessions. After the Robinson fumble, CU took over at the ASU 22-yard line and still couldn’t convert, going four-and-out after Lewis was stuffed for no gain on fourth-and-1 from the 13.
ASU’s fifth possession ended in another punt and CU finally got some offense going. Micah Welch had a 39-yard run on first down, setting up Hayden for a 7-yard TD run. That gave the Buffs a 7-3 lead with 3 seconds left in the first quarter – their first lead since a 24-17 win against Iowa State on Oct. 11.
CU maintained its lead until late in the second quarter. ASU’s Jeff Sims hit running back Raleek Brown on a wheel route for a 33-yard touchdown and a 10-7 lead. ASU tacked on a 39-yard Gomez field goal just before the half, going into intermission with a 13-7 lead.
To open the second half, Lewis led the Buffs on a six-play, 79-yard drive, capping it with a 22-yard touchdown pass to Omarion Miller to put the Buffs back on top, 14-13.
That lead didn’t last long, however. Just three plays later, Sims hit Derek Eusebio across the middle and he sprinted untouched for a 68-yard touchdown. ASU was successful on a two-point conversation to regain the lead at 21-14 with 10:35 to play in the third quarter.
Midway through the third, the Buffs’ Shaun Myers recovered a Sims fumble and returned it to the Sun Devils’ 9-yard line. The CU offense went backwards, but still got a 28-yard field goal from Alejandro Mata to pull within 21-17 with 5:25 to play in the third.
The teams traded punts after that, but Raleek Brown fumbled near the end of the third quarter to give CU a bit of momentum. That, too, didn’t last long, though.
Four plays later, Coleman fumbled to set up Brown’s 88-yard touchdown, which changed the complexion of the game.
Arizona State 42, Colorado 17
Arizona St. 3 10 8 21 — 42
Colorado 7 0 10 0 — 17
First quarter
ASU FG Gomez 39, 9:23.
COLO Hayden 7 run (Mata kick), :03.
Second quarter
ASU R.Brown 33 pass from Sims (Gomez kick), 3:19.
ASU FG Gomez 39, :05.
Third quarter
COLO O.Miller 22 pass from Lewis (Mata kick), 12:02.
ASU Eusebio 68 pass from Sims (Anderson pass from Sims), 10:35.
COLO FG Mata 28, 5:25.
Fourth quarter
ASU R.Brown 88 run (Gomez kick), 13:30.
ASU Udoh 3 run (Gomez kick), 8:48.
ASU Ja.Brown 3 run (Gomez kick), 1:20.
ASU COLO
First downs 23 12
Total net yards 588 301
Rushes-yards 45-363 30-136
Passing 225 165
Punt returns 6-48 2-33
Kickoff returns 0-0 3-55
Interceptions ret 0-0 2-10
Comp-att-int 12-27-2 20-39-0
Sacked yds lost 1-3 4-20
Punts 4-48.25 9-46.556
Fumbles-lost 2-2 1-1
Penalties-yards 7-55 8-78
Time of poss 32:51 27:04
INDIVIDUAL Stats
Rushing — Arizona St., R.Brown 22-258, Udoh 9-62, J.Brown 3-17, Sims 8-17, D.Robinson 3-9. Colorado, Hayden 10-66, Welch 5-51, D.Miller 6-23, Lewis 9-(minus 4).
Passing — Arizona St., Sims 11-25-2-206, Floyd 1-1-0-19, Tyson 0-1-0-0. Colorado, Lewis 19-38-0-161, Allen 1-1-0-4.
Receiving — Arizona St., Eusebio 4-87, Tyson 2-61, Metayer 2-9, R.Brown 1-33, McClain 1-25, Lono-Wong 1-19, D.Robinson 1-(minus 9). Colorado, J.Williams 7-39, S.Brown 3-50, O.Miller 3-35, D.Miller 3-14, Atkins 2-32, Welch 1-(minus 1), Hayden 1-(minus 4).
Missed field goals — None.