No. 21 Arizona rallies to beat Colorado, extends winning streak to four games

BOULDER, Colo. — The fourth quarter proved again to be winning time for the Arizona Wildcats, even when they were facing a potential let-down game after an unprecedented three straight wins over ranked opponents.

Arizona has outscored its opponents 90-37 in the fourth quarter this season. In a showdown with Colorado, the 21st-ranked Wildcats scored 10 points in the final period — while holding the Buffaloes scoreless — to win 34-31 Saturday.

The Wildcats never led until kicker Tyler Loop nailed a 24-yard walk-off field goal to win the game. 

Arizona's triumph extended the Wildcats' winning streak to four straight games — their most in Pac-12 play since 2017. It also marked Arizona's first win as a ranked team since 2015. Arizona has seven wins for the first time since the ’17 team that went 7-6. The Wildcats will face No. 13 Utah this coming Saturday in their final home game of the 2023 season.

Less than 24 hours after Arizona men's basketball's road win over No. 2 Duke, several UA fans chanted, "Football school! Football school!" as they departed Folsom Field.

"Love our team," Arizona head coach Jedd Fisch said. "Love the way our team battles in the fourth quarter. Love the way our team embraces physicality at the end of games. Guys are enjoying playing football around here. It's nice for Arizona to be 7-3.

"I'm really excited about the way the program is going and the way we played today."

Tied 31-31 with just under five minutes left, Colorado kicker Alejandro Mata missed a 44-yard attempt, giving the Wildcats the ball back.

"If you look at the way we finish games recently, we like to use all the clock there at the end," Fisch said. "If a team wants to give us the ball with six minutes left, we want to use it all. We felt like we could mix the run and the pass as needed, keep the ball in bounds."

With the game on the line, Arizona leaned on sophomore running back Jonah Coleman. As part of his 11 carries for a career-high 179 yards, he had runs of 21 and 24 yards on that final possession, allowing the Wildcats to power their way down the field on a 11-play, 67-yard drive.

"Jonah Coleman is a fantastic running back," Fisch said. "He's going to be a captain in our program I'm sure starting next year. He's a leader in our program."

Former Colorado receiver Montana Lemonious-Craig nearly scored on a screen pass with over a minute left but was ruled down at the 1-yard line — a potential blessing in disguise for the Wildcats.

"I thought we did score," Fisch said. "When we didn't score, now you're on the 1 and you're doing quick math."

Colorado would've had the ball with 1:04 on the clock and one timeout. 

“Now it’s a whole different ball game," Fisch said. "Now you gotta hold them, stop them and there's chances for if they did score, 'Are they gonna go for (a two-point conversion)?' You don't know what's going to happen in the game. Clearly we were fortunate … but we’ll take it." 

Arizona milked the clock to set up Loop for the 24-yard walk-off field goal. It's the first late-game, go-ahead field goal for Arizona since its upset win over Washington in 2014. 

"Practice execution is game of reality," Coleman said. "Loop does it practice with pressure kicks literally almost every day and prepares for moments like this — and he executed."

Arizona defensive tackle Bill Norton said Arizona's win over Colorado "proved we have some fighters on the team."

"Being in a tough situation, being down and stuff, no one ever gave up," he said. "No one thought it was going to be over any time soon. We have a lot of stuff to work on following that."

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Added Coleman: "We had a great week of preparation and we knew the plan going in and we executed it," Coleman said. "Kept fighting, fighting, fighting and that's all you could ask." 

Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita completed 21 of 35 passes for 214 yards and two touchdowns. Fifita finished with his highest number of incompletions as a Wildcat; his previous worst completion-to-attempt ratio was 27 for 39 in his first collegiate start against Washington. 

After a 29-yard punt return by Colorado's Xavier Weaver to Arizona's 36-yard line following the Wildcats' three-and-out possession to start the contest, Buffs star quarterback Shedeur Sanders — who completed 22 of 35 yards for 262 yards and two touchdowns — darted a pass over the middle to Javon Antonio for 17 yards, before scrambling up the middle for the first score of the game. Sanders led the Buffs with 42 rushing yards. 

"He's a great athlete. He's one of the best quarterbacks in the country for a reason," Norton said. "We all respected that and knew that coming in."

The Buffaloes had 250 yards of total offense in the first half but finished with just 352 total. 

Weaver had five punt returns for 73 yards on Saturday. Arizona's Jacob Cowing, who exited the game in the fourth quarter with an injury after a punt return, had two returns for six yards.

Colorado had three drives start inside Arizona territory — all of them resulted in touchdowns. Colorado's average drive start on Saturday was at the CU 37-yard line, while Arizona averaged its drives at the UA 21-yard line. 

For the second straight game, Arizona started defensive back Martell Irby at linebacker, but the senior captain suffered a left knee injury in the second quarter and was replaced by Washington transfer Daniel Heimuli and freshman Kamuela Ka'aihue instead of usual starter Justin Flowe. Safety DJ Warnell replaced Irby in Arizona's "dollar" package defense that uses seven defensive backs. 

In zone coverage inside the red zone, Ka'aihue lost Colorado tight end Michael Harrison, who extended the Buffaloes' lead to 31-24 in the third quarter. Ka'aihue and defensive ends Dominic Lolesio and Sterling Lane II were among the underclassmen to play significant snaps in the second half.

"I'm confident we have the best depth in the country," Norton said.

The Wildcats struggled to generate pressure on Sanders, but then deployed more blitzers, which left pockets open over the middle in the first half. Colorado had nine explosive plays (15 or more yards) against the Wildcats, including six passes for 150 yards.  

The Wildcats hoped to establish the passing game early, but reverted back to their backfield carrying the ball against a Colorado rushing defense that ranked 11th in the Pac-12 coming into Saturday. Arizona senior running back Michael Wiley, after re-injuring the same leg that sidelined him for three games, was limited on Saturday. Freshman right guard Raymond Pulido returned to the starting lineup for his second start of the season — first since the Pac-12 opener at Stanford.

Arizona had four rushes for 32 yards, including DJ Williams' 11-yard untouched run up the middle into the end zone, for its first touchdown on Saturday; it marked Williams' first score since the UA's blowout win at Washington State. Williams had nine carries for 33 yards and two touchdowns — the first multi-touchdown game of his five-year college career. 

Arizona's second first-half touchdown was set up by Coleman's 49-yard run up the middle, highlighted by his stiff-arm on Colorado safety Shilo Sanders. Coleman's 54-yard — once again, between the hashmarks — to begin the second half. Fifita connected with wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan, who hauled in a highlight one-handed catch over Colorado star Travis Hunter. 

The Buffaloes, the most penalized team in college football, committed 11 penalties for 83 yards, including a roughing-the-passer call preceding Fifita's 3-yard screen pass to wide receiver Cowing. Arizona defensive end and former Buffalo Taylor Upshaw was flagged for roughing the passer on third-and-15 in the third quarter, which resulted in a touchdown for the Buffs.

Loop, who was recently named a Lou Groza Award semifinalist, notched a career-high with a 52-yard field goal on the Wildcats' final possession of the first half.

For live updates of Arizona-Colorado, click here. 

Photos: No. 21 Arizona ekes out 34-31 win at Colorado with last-second field goal