Two weeks ago against Nevada, quarterback Ryan Colburn had an opportunity to march the Bulldogs to a game-winning field goal, but Colburn and the offense sputtered and failed to even move the ball past midfield and eventually lost in the final minutes, 35-34.

But on a cold, wet and chilling night on Saturday in front of a number far less than the announced 25,965 fans in attendance at Bulldog Stadium, Colburn had another shot at a final game-clincher drive.

This time, Colburn delivered with a clutch performance, accounting for 59 yards on a nine-play 60-yard drive in the final two minutes to rally Fresno State (7-4, 5-3) from a 20-16 deficit to a 23-20 victory over Western Athletic Conference foe Idaho (5-7,2-5).

“That was a hard fought football game,” head coach Pat Hill said. “We made it pretty hard on ourselves today. We had some critical penalties starting with the opening kickoff [and] four turnovers. Despite all of that, this team was resilient enough to find a way to win.”

After holding the Idaho Vandals to a field goal through three quarters and 49 yards of total offense, the stout Bulldogs defense finally gave way to quarterback Nathan Enderle and Co. in the fourth quarter.

Enderle drove the Vandals 81-yards on 10 plays to tact on another Trey Farquhar field goal, cutting the Bulldogs lead to 13-6.

But Colburn and running back A.J. Ellis would respond by moving the ball 49 yards on seven plays to add kicker Kevin Goessling’s final field goal of the night from 35-yards out.

Ellis, who filled in for an injured Robbie Rouse in the second half, made a beautiful 33-yard scamper. On 3rd-and-2 from the Fresno State 41, Ellis took the handoff, crashed into his blockers, spun away and found the cut back lane to sprint deep into Idaho territory.

“There’s a lot of young players contributing on this football team,” Hill said. “A.J. Ellis had to step up today.”

However, on the ensuing kickoff, receiver Justin Veltung took Goessling’s kick and returned it 84-yards for a touchdown, narrowing the score to 16-13 in favor of the Bulldogs.

Idaho would force Fresno State to go three-and-out on their next possession to give the Vandals the ball back with 5:19 to play in the fourth quarter at the Idaho 29.

With momentum on the side of the Vandals, Enderle torched the Bulldogs secondary for 43 yards while completing all five pass attempts. Running back Deonte’ Jackson would punch in the game’s first offensive touchdown with a four-yard run to give Idaho its only lead of the game, 20-16.

“We should have easily stopped them on that last drive,” linebacker Travis Brown said, who returned an interception 30-yards for a touchdown in the third quarter. “It should have been 16-13 [still]. We’ll take the blame on that. The way we were stopping them in the first half, they should have not moved the ball at all in the second half.”

All night long, Fresno State was able to march the ball at will into Idaho territory, but the offense fell short of reaching the end zone on seven possessions: The offense turned the ball over on downs on their first drive, Colburn fumbled three times in Idaho territory and the Bulldogs had to settle for three field goals.

So, when the Bulldogs got the ball back trailing by four with 2:01 to play in the fourth quarter, there was a lot of doubt in the stands if Colburn and Co. would be able to score the game-winning touchdown. But after giving up the go-ahead touchdown, the defense had faith in Colburn and the offense.

“We knew in the heat of the moment that they get it done,” Brown said. “They always find a way to pull through so we weren’t really worried about them too much. “

On the final drive, Colburn ran for 25 tough yards on three carries and completed three passes for 34 yards to set up the game-winning touchdown. On 2nd-and-10 from the Idaho 25, Colburn connected with receiver Jamel Hamler for 24 yards. Hamler leaped high into the air, snagged the pass, broke a tackle, and rumbled all the way to the Idaho 1.

“Jamel Hamler made a great play,” Hill said. “That’s a great football play by Jamel Hamler and a hell of a pass by Ryan Colburn.”

On the very next play, Ellis would take the handoff to jump and dive over the line of scrimmage into the red-and-white checkered end zone to clinch the game for the Bulldogs.

Colburn finished the game throwing for 219 yards on 21-of-33 passing while A.J. Ellis combined for 81 total yards.

“I knew we could play,” Colburn said. “I knew we could put a drive together. We were moving the ball all day. It was clutch, guys [were] making plays and we got it done.”