Early 2-point conversion goes a long way

As Colorado inched closer and closer to a potential game-tying touchdown in the closing minutes of Hawaii’s 28-20 victory on Thursday night, that eight-point margin loomed large.

Say the referees don’t fumble the ball away in the final seconds and say Colorado gets one more play off. Heck, maybe the Buffaloes do find a way to put the ball in the end zone. Even then, instead of the nearly automatic extra point that would have sent the game into overtime, Colorado would have had only one shot to score from the 2-yard line to play on.

Why’s that?

You have to go all the way back to less than three minutes into the game to find one crucial decision that wound up paying huge dividends for Hawaii for much of the game.

The Rainbow Warriors had all of the momentum on their side following Keelan Ewaliko‘s blocked punt. Three plays later, Max Wittek had his first touchdown pass in a Hawaii uniform, tossing an 11-yarder to Quinton Pedroza for a 7-0 lead.

Check that, an 8-0 lead.

Hawaii coach Norm Chow and his staff weren’t satisfied with just a touchdown. Nope, they had already come up with a plan that if they scored first, they would go for two. It left Colorado looking befuddled as Pedroza was wide open to the right on a busted coverage by the Buffs defense. A seven-point lead was an eight-point lead, and it gave Hawaii fans and players that extra level of comfort down the stretch, knowing it was going to take more than a touchdown and an extra point to steal the game away.

“We met as a coaching staff and I told (offensive coordinator) Don (Bailey) that’s what we’re going to do if we scored first — if they had scored first we probably would have matched them to stay with it — but because we scored first, Keelan did a great job blocking that punt and we said we were going to do it and we did it.

“They didn’t adjust to the motion guy and they made it easy for us.”

It kept Hawaii in front of Colorado the entire way, even when each team had scored a touchdown apiece. But the biggest difference came in the second half, and especially the end of the fourth quarter, when instead of tightening up knowing a touchdown meant overtime, the ‘Bows knew in the back of their minds it would still take a two-point conversion to play on.

Fortunately for UH, it never got to that point. Colorado running back Phillip Lindsay was tackled in bounds and as the referees went to spot the ball, it hit off Hawaii defender Benetton Fonua and bounced away, keeping Colorado from running one more play and giving Hawaii a rare win over a Pac-12 school.

“As the time went down and down, I realized we got it in the bag,” defensive lineman Kennedy Tulimasealii said. “We prayed they didn’t get another play.”

The defense made the final play after playing aggressive all night long. Just like the aggressive play call by Chow and his staff to go for two so early in the game.

It was just one point at that time, but a point that loomed very large down the stretch.