Colorado followed a suddenly familiar game script Saturday night at Folsom Field.
Lack of discipline. Lack of points. Lack of victory.
The Buffaloes threw four interceptions in the second half, one of them returned for a touchdown, and fell 29-7 to No.12 Texas Tech on homecoming night. It’s Colorado’s third straight loss after a 2-0 start, and it leaves the Buffs 0-2 in the Big 12 heading into their bye week.
When a reporter noted after the game that the offense hadn’t been producing, head coach Deion Sanders didn’t soften it.
“Don’t sugarcoat it,” Sanders said. “We’ve been horrible.”
For one fleeting moment, it looked as if Colorado had unlocked the Go-Go offense with Isaac Wilson as the signal-caller. Making his first start for the Buffs, Wilson led a nine-play, 75-yard opening drive. He hit Quentin Gibson for 30 yards, ran for 10 more and finished it with an 8-yard touchdown pass to Joseph Williams.
As has been the story for much of the Buffaloes’ season, things went south after the first series. Seven points were all Colorado had to its name when the final whistle sounded.
Special teams trouble
Special teams miscues kept piling up in the first half. The Buffaloes burned a timeout before Texas Tech field goal try when they lined up with seven players. Elliott Arnold missed a 29-yard field goal. Facing fourth-and-7 at their own 46, the Buffs ran a fake punt, and safety Naeten Mitchell was stopped three yards short.
“I’m going to take the blame for that foolishness,” Sanders said of the fake punt.
Late in the half, Colorado intentionally took a delay-of-game penalty just before the two-minute warning. On the punt that followed, the Buffs were flagged for a personal foul, then for unsportsmanlike conduct on the next snap — back-to-back 15-yard penalties that moved Tech to the Colorado 45. Stone Harrington missed from 51 yards, and Arnold’s 52-yard try at the end of the half missed as well.
The defense kept Colorado in front. The Buffs stopped Tech on fourth down twice, dropping J’Koby Williams for a 4-yard loss at the Colorado 41 and stuffing Quinten Joyner for no gain at the 7. Texas Tech had 147 yards and three points at halftime. Colorado led 7-3.
Second-half spiral
Any thought of an offensive adjustment at halftime was quickly put to rest. Colorado threw interceptions on its first three possessions of the second half. The first came on a throw by Joseph Williams, his second pass attempt of the game. Brice Pollack picked it off, and it turned into a 27-yard Harrington field goal.
Malik Esquerra intercepted Wilson on the next series. Two Colorado penalties on the ensuing drive — a pass interference and a personal foul — helped set up Will Hammond’s 11-yard touchdown pass to Terrance Carter Jr. Pollock picked off Wilson again just before the end of the third quarter, returning it 24 yards, and Harrington’s 46-yard field goal made it 15-7 early in the fourth.
The Buffs defense held it there. The game turned on one punt.
Will Karoll’s 66-yard punt went untouched to the Colorado 2. On the next snap, Wilson’s pass was intercepted in the end zone by John Curry for a touchdown with 7:10 to play, putting Tech up 22-7.
Sanders called it a great game until that point. “Then all hell breaks loose,” he said.
He pointed to the punt.
“That can’t happen,” Sanders said. “It can’t happen.”
The student section began to clear after the pick-six. Sanders said he didn’t hold that against anyone. “I can’t blame them for that,” he said. Joyner added a 30-yard touchdown run with 3:06 left.
Wilson finished 26-of-44 for 290 yards with a touchdown and three interceptions. He also led the team with 17 carries for 42 yards, while Colorado’s running backs combined for 14 carries. He put the night on himself.
“It’s got to start with the quarterback. It’s got to start with me,” Wilson said. Of the pick-six, he added: “That’s on me for sure.”
Asked whether the problem was quarterback play or the offense as a whole, Sanders called it a team effort.
“We all got our butts kicked,” he said.
Defense holds, again
Texas Tech didn’t need much offense. Hammond completed 17-of-26 passes for 134 yards, and Tech ran 37 times for 181 yards, with Williams carrying 17 times for 88. Linebacker Gideon Lampron led Colorado with 10 tackles, and defensive lineman Santana Hopper had five of the Buffs’ 11 tackles for loss.
The rest of the night went against Colorado in the margins. The Buffaloes finished with eight penalties for 84 yards, Karoll averaged 55.7 yards on three punts, and Colorado did not return a single punt.
“Hats off to Texas Tech,” Sanders said. “Played a wonderful game.”
Colorado has a bye next week before welcoming Utah to Folsom Field on Oct. 17. Sanders said the off week will be about more than rest.
“Figure out what direction we’re going to go with certain positions, not just the quarterback position,” he said.
