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Colorado knocks off Colorado State 17-3 in weird game full of controversy

Sam Cooper
College football writer
Colorado quarterback Steven Montez, left, kisses the Rocky Mountain Showdown Trophy as wide receiver Shay Fields holds the cup after defeating Colorado State in an NCAA college football game Friday, Sept. 1, 2017, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Colorado quarterback Steven Montez, left, kisses the Rocky Mountain Showdown Trophy as wide receiver Shay Fields holds the cup after defeating Colorado State in an NCAA college football game Friday, Sept. 1, 2017, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Colorado State could not muster the same offensive firepower against Colorado that it did last weekend.

The Rams throttled another Pac-12 team, Oregon State, 58-27 in the triumphant opening of new Colorado State Stadium last Saturday. On Friday night against the in-state rival Buffs, CSU managed only three points in a 17-3 loss.

Entering the season, the worry for Colorado was the amount of talent it lost on its defense. So far, so good. Despite giving up 397 yards of offense to the Rams, the Buffs forced three turnovers and stopped CSU on fourth down three different times.

Colorado opened the scoring with a 45-yard touchdown run by Phillip Lindsay and ended the first quarter with a 10-0 lead. The lead grew to 17-0 when Steven Montez, now CU’s full-time starting quarterback following the graduation of Sefo Liufau, made a big play. Montez managed to avoid the rush and extend the play by rolling left. The redshirt sophomore then threw back across the field and connected with Shay Fields on a deep ball for a 31-yard score.

(via Pac-12 Network)
(via Pac-12 Network)

That 17 points was all the Buffs would need, but the defense’s stellar performance wasn’t without some controversy.

Colorado State had two touchdowns called back by penalties early in the third quarter. The first, a TD pass from Nick Stevens to Detrich Clark, was overturned because of an offensive pass interference call against Clark. Two plays later, another TD pass — from Stevens to Olabisi Johnson — was brought back because of an illegal hands to the face call against an offensive lineman. On the next play, Stevens was intercepted.

Both of the calls before the interception were questioned by the CSU sideline and fans, as were two additional offensive pass interference calls on big gains by the Rams. Here’s a look at the three OPI calls, though there’s not a good angle on the first one (the overturned TD to Clark).

(via Pac-12 Network)
(via Pac-12 Network)

Colorado State, which has lost three straight to CU, will be stewing about some of those calls for quite a while.

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Sam Cooper is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!