BOULDER — The University of Colorado was a football team without an identity before Saturday night. Undefeated but underwhelming. Promising but premature. Through a September mist at Folsom Field, the Buffaloes sought clarity against No. 7 Washington.
Retribution, too, in a rematch of last season’s lopsided Pac-12 championship defeat.
Different game. Same story.
The Huskies defeated the Buffaloes, 37-10, with a formula all too familiar from their last meeting: CU scores a first-quarter touchdown, trails by one possession at halftime, and then gets blown out.
“We just didn’t handle business,” CU safety Afolabi Laguda said, “simple as that.”
Rain poured relentlessly in the hours before kickoff as a late-arriving crowd filled out at 47,666. Soaking-wet grass prevented CU mascot Ralphie from making either of her runs, however, it didn’t stop UW players from warming up without shirts in sub-50 degree temperatures. The Buffaloes, in the beginning, were hardly impressed with Huskies’ machismo.
CU (3-1, 0-1 Pac-12) received the opening kickoff and drove 75 yards on 11 plays, capped with a Phillip Lindsay goal-line rushing score. Laguda then intercepted UW quarterback Jake Browning on the Huskies’ first possession. UW (4-0, 1-0 Pac-12) reached the red zone one drive later, but the Buffs held stout on a third-and-seven, and UW kicker Tristan Vizcaino missed a 32-yard field goal attempt.
“We were in it,” CU coach Mike MacIntyre said.
But one Buffaloes’ special teams mistake flipped momentum.
Forced to punt early in the second quarter, CU’s Alex Kinney’s boot was blocked and recovered by UW defensive lineman Levi Onwuzurike at the Buffaloes’ 12-yard line. UW tied the game four plays later with tailback Myles Gaskin’s rushing score, and after a chip-shot field goal, led 10-7 at halftime.
Suddenly, CU’s 2016 Pac-12 championship woes appeared resurrected with elements of that 41-10 defeat on full display some nine months later. Like Sefo Liufau before him, quarterback Steven Montez threw three interceptions and a pick-six. The Buffaloes once again couldn’t stop the run, especially in the second half, with 161 of UW’s 254 rushing yards coming after the break. MacIntyre called it “pitiful.”
It all begs the question: Has CU taken the next step as a program, and if so, in which direction?
The Buffaloes touted their offensive line as among the most talented units through MacIntyre’s five seasons in Boulder, and yet even with the return of formerly suspended left tackle Jeromy Irwin, Montez was sacked four times against the Huskies.
CU’s defense hadn’t allowed a red-zone touchdown through nonconference play and limited the Huskies to 10 rushing yards in the first quarter. But the Huskies offense feasted on the Buffaloes with five consecutive scoring drives after halftime.
CU has eight more regular season games to prove it belongs among Pac-12 royalty, but as the calendar nears October, the jury is still out on the Buffaloes’ identity.
Are the Buffs still contenders to win the league?
“Most definitely,” Montez said.
Said MacIntyre: “I hope that we always keep plowing along. Teams have won it before with three loses, I think. You just keep playing. You never know what happens.”