{"id":1315324,"date":"2019-10-05T20:12:01","date_gmt":"2019-10-06T02:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/tate-leads-arizona-past-colorado-35-30\/"},"modified":"2019-10-05T20:12:01","modified_gmt":"2019-10-06T02:12:01","slug":"khalil-tate-leads-arizona-past-colorado-35-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/khalil-tate-leads-arizona-past-colorado-35-30\/","title":{"rendered":"Khalil Tate leads Arizona past Colorado 35-30"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Arizona quarterback Khalil Tate, front, reacts after throwing for a touchdown against Colorado on Saturday. Tate foiled the Buffs again, 35-30.<\/strong>
David Zalubowski | Associated Press | AP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

BOULDER, Colo. \u2014 Nobody would have flinched had Khalil Tate knelt and kissed the grass at Folsom Field.<\/p>\n

\u201cColorado holds a special place in my heart,\u201d Arizona\u2019s senior dual-threat quarterback said after throwing for 404 yards and three touchdowns in the Wildcats\u2019 35-30 win over the banged-up Buffaloes.<\/p>\n

It was here in Boulder two years ago that Tate burst through so many tackles and onto the college football scene by rushing for 327 yards, an FBS record for a QB, in leading Arizona to a 45-42 win in relief of injured starter Brandon Dawkins.<\/p>\n

This time, he beat the Buffaloes with his arm, just like he did last year in Tucson, when he threw for five TDs in another shootout survival by the \u2018Cats.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love playing Colorado,\u201d said Arizona linebacker Tony Fields. \u201cIt\u2019s always an intense game. It always goes down to the wire.\u201d<\/p>\n

This one also featured an amazing nine lead changes, back-to-back touchdown throws on drives that took all of nine and 10 seconds, a razzle-dazzle touchdown , and, finally, a pair of fourth-quarter stands by Arizona, one at the goal line and the other a fourth-down game-stopper at midfield.<\/p>\n

Tate completed 31 of 41 passes and only ran four times, including a 7-yard scamper on third-and-6 from midfield in the closing minutes that allowed Arizona (4-1, 2-0) to run out the clock and leave Folsom Field as the Pac-12 South\u2019s last unbeaten team.<\/p>\n

The Buffaloes (3-2, 1-1) sorely missed star receiver Laviska Shenault (core muscle), CB Chris Miller (knee) and DE Mustafa Johnson (ankle), all of whom sat out and were joined on the sideline Saturday by safety Mikial Onu (torso), receiver K.D. Nixon (unspecified), and nose tackle Jalen Sami (knee).<\/p>\n

Onu had a first-half interception and Nixon a first-half touchdown throw.<\/p>\n

\u201cNext man up is not a cliche, it\u2019s what\u2019s required,\u201d Colorado coach Mel Tucker said. \u201cThere\u2019s really no excuse and no explanation\u201d for the Buffs\u2019 breakdowns with so many backups filling the field, he insisted.<\/p>\n

The Wildcats weren\u2019t whistled for a penalty until the final play of the third quarter \u2014 offside \u2014 during the Buffalos\u2019 longest drive of the day, a 14-play marathon that stalled with Colorado failing to score on three plays from inside the Arizona 5.<\/p>\n

They settled for James Stefanou\u2019s 20-yard field goal and a 30-28 lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the difference in the game,\u201d Arizona coach Kevin Sumlin said.<\/p>\n

Nathan Tilford\u2019s 5-yard TD run put Arizona back on top 35-30 with 6:51 left.<\/p>\n

The Buffaloes drove to midfield and converted a fourth down but on third-and-4 from the Arizona 46, quarterback Steven Montez didn\u2019t recognize two open receivers on slant routes up the middle when the Wildcats blitzed two linebackers. Instead, he overthrew a receiver on a go-route down the right sideline.<\/p>\n

That brought up fourth down and his throw to Dimitri Stanley was too high and Arizona took over with 2:23 remaining.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo get a fourth-down stop, that\u2019s the one everyone is going to point to,\u201d Sumlin said.<\/p>\n

WILD SECOND QUARTER<\/p>\n

Colorado took a 20-14 halftime lead after a wild second quarter that almost ended with a touchdown return on a squib kick.<\/p>\n

On third-and-3 from the Arizona 12, Montez scrambled before finding tight end Brady Russell for the score with 3 seconds remaining.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially, everybody was covered, so I just kind of figured I would scramble around,\u201d said Montez, who knew he could throw it away if no one was open, sending the field goal unit out. But with no timeouts left, \u201call I needed to do was not take a sack,\u201d Montez said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI avoided a couple of defensive linemen, saw Brady (Russell) sitting in the corner with his hands up\u201d and delivered the TD strike.<\/p>\n

The Buffaloes squibbed the kickoff and Jamarye Joiner scooped it up at his 10 and raced down the opponents\u2019 sideline for an apparent touchdown only to turn around and realize he\u2019d stepped out of bounds at the Colorado 46.<\/p>\n

The Buffs went ahead 14-13 when Montez got the ball into the hands of tailback Jaren Mangham, who flipped it to a reversing Nixon, who threw a pinpoint pass to Dimitri Stanley for a 39-yard score.<\/p>\n

Tate replied with a 75-yard TD toss to Peterson, who burned Onu, whose interception at midfield had set up Stanley\u2019s touchdown. Onu appeared to get hurt on the play.<\/p>\n

With Shenault and Nixon ailing, Tony Brown led Colorado with 10 catches for 141 yards.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arizona quarterback Khalil Tate, front, reacts after throwing for a touchdown against Colorado on Saturday. Tate foiled the Buffs again, 35-30.David Zalubowski | Associated Press | AP BOULDER, Colo. \u2014 Nobody would have flinched had Khalil Tate knelt and kissed the grass at Folsom Field. \u201cColorado holds a special place in my heart,\u201d Arizona\u2019s senior […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1315324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 20:47:04","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1315324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315324\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1315324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1315324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1315324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}