Everything always feels better after a win! Especially when it is the first Pac-12 conference win on Senior Day to break a seven-game losing streak and prevent the first ever season at Folsom without a win! Especially when it is a BRICK game, as this was for all of the above reasons. A huge sigh of relief was let out across the region as Travis Sandersfeld, one of many seniors to make a big play today, snatched the third interception of the day for the Buff defense vs. NFL-bound Nick Foles. This 48-29 pounding of Arizona sets the tone for the rest of the season and the goal of breaking the twenty-whatever-it-is-now road losing streak next week at UCLA and ending the year with a three-game winning streak at Utah!
§ The “Buffalo Heart Award” very deservedly went to RB Rodney “Speedy” Stewart, who exemplified everything the honor is about by going out of the game with an injury, only to return in the second half to dominate and put the game away. He rushed for 181 yards and 3 TDs, caught a few balls as usual, and threw a 14-yard, perfectly executed pass back to Tyler Hansen for a score! It was so nice to see this team just run the ball and grind out the end of the game as it should, especially at Folsom.
§ Tyler also had a great day, throwing for over 200 and 2 TDs (although he also threw a pick six), over 50 rushing and his catch! Tony Clemons had a great day with a couple of really nice catches 115 yards. Ryan Deehan had a big catch to keep the chains moving late. Kyle Cefalo was sent back to fair catch or run away from punts in the wind.
§ On defense many seniors had big days: Sandersfeld had double digit tackles to go with his pick; Jason Espinosa “Island” had another pick; Patrick Mahnke a sack and a bunch of tackles; Josh Hartigan also had a sack and some tackles; Curtis Cunningham was his usual mainstay-nothing fancy, nothing bad-on the D-line and linemate Conrab Obi had a couple of pressures. Tyler Ahles also had a few tackles (and a stupid late hit on Foles that gave the Wildcats one last gasp).
§ The offense had 500 total yards and scored on its first two drives while the defense caused a ton of interceptions, fumbles and fourth down turnover (although one was their idiot punter touching his knee down as he tried to field a crappy snap). Those are stats we need to repeat in the future!
§ RBs Tony Jones (receiving) and Josh Ford (rushing) both had TDs. They looked decent, held onto the ball and are poised to take over the backfield next year.
§ LB Jon Major had a sweet stand up tackle of the RB behind the line of scrimmage. Wil Pericak also had a huge hit and recovered a fumble. Chidera Uzo-Diribe recovered a fumble by Foles (stripped by Mahnke) and was crushed beneath the pile with his arm trapped under and behind him, but still came back in the game! Greg Henderson had his first career interception. These guys are the heart of the defense next year.
§ Nice touches by Embree: The Buffs actually called a timeout before the last PAT to get senior Blake Behrens in the game. The last defensive series was all seniors except for So. S Terrel Smith and Jr. LB Jon Major. Even DBs Arthur Jaffee and Jonathan Hawkins got on the field for some defensive plays. Then, after Sandersfeld’s Int, the lineup for the “victory formation” snap was all seniors except Kawai Crabb at center with the rest of the line rarely-used seniors David Clark, Shawn Daniels, Blake Behrens and Sione Tau-I believe this was the first offensive snap that Ryan Miller has not been in.
§ Anthony Perkins and other seniors were fully dressed before the game but he was not able to play in his last game at Folsom Field. I hope he makes it back at least for the Utah game.
§ Unfortunately, Paul Richardson had only one catch and was injured in the second half and did not return.
§ The wind was interesting to say the least. It wreaked havoc on the kicking game as punts and kickoffs were all over the place. Will Oliver even pushed a PAT wide. It wasn’t as bad on the passing game on either side, although Henderson’s pick was probably aided by the wind.
§ The 10+ NFL scouts at the game to see QB Nick Foles might have walked away a little unimpressed. Although he was generally very accurate and threw some perfect bullets at times, he did miss a few passes badly that were not wind-related, and threw 3 picks against a defense that had been shredded by everyone else before it. He also holds the ball very loosely when he is pressured and we knocked it out a few times. For CU they saw that Speedy is small but has some great moves and will be an intriguing guy to some teams. Ryan Miller had a bad penalty for the scouts, but both he and Adkins had some nice blocks, especially on the last drive to free up Speedy for some nice gains. Clemons made some nice catches when he was blanketed by DBs that might get him a look. Not sure if anyone else did anything to really impress any scouts.
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