No. 17 BYU’s stout defensive effort shut down No. 23 Colorado’s explosive offense in the Cougars’ 36-14 Alamo Bowl win on Saturday night in San Antonio.
The Cougars, who had four sacks and two interceptions, held Colorado to just two rushing yards and 210 yards of total offense. The Buffaloes averaged 34.5 points and nearly 400 yards of offense per game entering the Alamo Bowl.
“The guys believed in each other,” BYU coach Kalani Sitake said. “We’ve been working on this and I’m really proud of the staff, the coaches and I’m happy all our fans are here. I’m definitely happy for the seniors. These guys love each other, and I am happy we got that win.”
BYU’s Parker Kingston had a 64-yard punt return touchdown. Jake Retzlaff completed 12-of-21 passes for 151 yards and two interceptions.
LJ Martin (93 rushing yards) had two touchdowns on the ground and Sione I Moa ran one in for the Cougars (11-2). Evan Johnson and Isaiah Glasker had interceptions.
Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders completed 16-of-23 passes for 208 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter caught four passes for 106 yards and a touchdown. Sav’ell Smalls added a touchdown catch.
“We’re not happy with the results, but we are happy with the journey of getting here,” Colorado coach Deion Sanders said. “Wonderful job by BYU. They are well coached. They did a phenomenal job of running the football.
“Their special teams kicked our butts. We couldn’t do nothing much at all on offense. Defensively, we had some sound stops, but we didn’t have enough and came up short.”
DJ McKinney, Anquin Barnes Jr. and Cam’Ron Silmon-Craig had interceptions for Colorado (9-4).
Martin gave BYU a 7-0 lead with a 1-yard touchdown run midway through the opening quarter. A 28-yard pass to Martin on a wheel route out of the backfield was the key play on the drive.
After BYU forced a three-and out, Will Ferrin gave the Cougars a 10-0 cushion with a 51-yard field goal.
At the start of the second quarter, Sanders hit Hunter on a short crossing route he turned into a 58-yard gain. But the drive stalled when Sanders was sacked by Logan Lutui for a 23-yard loss. On the next play, Alejandro Mata missed a 48-yard field goal.
Kingston used a wall of blockers down the sideline on his 64-yard punt return for a touchdown that gave the Cougars a 17-0 lead late in the second quarter. BYU went into halftime up 20-0 on Ferrin’s 54-yard field goal.
On Colorado’s first possession of the second half, Johnson picked off a pass that set up BYU’s nine-play scoring drive. The Cougars took a 27-0 lead on Moa’s 13-yard touchdown run.
Hunter made three Cougars defenders miss on a 43-yard touchdown reception that cut the BYU lead to 27-7 with 6:14 left in the third.
Martin’s second TD run gave BYU a 33-7 cushion in the fourth quarter. Colorado tacked on a late score when Sanders hit Smalls with a 2-yard pass.
–Field Level Media
