The Colorado Buffaloes finally got their first Pac-12 victory on Saturday against winless Arizona in Boulder. The Buffs were thinking of this game for the past two weeks and made easy work of the Wildcats, walking out with a 34-0 shutout.
Brendon Lewis played well, completing 12 of 19 passes for 248 yards and a pair of scores while taking care of the football. Jarek Broussard had a career day last time they faced Arizona, but the Buffs running back had just 53 yards on 13 carries this time around.
That means the Buffs player of the game is wide receiver Brenden Rice, who had a wild stat line of three catches for 111 yards and a touchdown.
The son of NFL legend Jerry Rice channeled his father on Saturday afternoon, including a spectacular 62-yard touchdown catch.
Brenden Rice, the son of Jerry Rice, hauls in a 62-yarder!pic.twitter.com/gOnxzKGuN1
— Covers (@Covers) October 16, 2021
It had been a rough start for Rice, who had only eight catches all year and tied his season-high on Saturday with three grabs. Rice had also failed to go over 25 yards in a game and torched the Arizona defense on that touchdown grab.
The 248 passing yards for Lewis were also a career-high, and it was refreshing to see the Buffs move the football efficiently through the air– even if it was against Arizona.
Oddly enough, Rice had 111 receiving yards, and Arizona as a team had only 153. Even more strange is that the Buffs ran for 117 yards, nearly the amount of Rice’s yardage total on Saturday.
Maybe Colorado has something up their sleeves, and perhaps they utilize Rice more moving forward.
Up next for Colorado is a game against 1-5 Cal, although the Bears pushed Oregon to the brink on Friday night before the Ducks found a way to squeak out the victory.