The Colorado Buffaloes (3-3, 0-3) task to repeat as Pac-12 South champs this year was rendered nearly impossible by losing their first three games of conference play. CU may be in jeopardy of falling short of the six wins required for bowl eligibility if they can’t right the ship sometime soon.

Their last chance to turn thing around is on Saturday, as they face off against another struggling team. The Oregon State Beavers (1-5) play host to the Buffs at 2pm in Corvallis. Finding ways for their defense to stop the run and building off of the offensive performance shown last week against the Arizona Wildcats (3-2, 1-1) is what they’ll need to do if they want to get their first Pac-12 win. It would also be their first win over a Power 5 team all season.

Someone stop the run

One of the biggest storylines of last week for the Buffaloes was how they were dismantled by Arizona’s backup quarterback, Khalil Tate who set a FBS QB rushing record for 327 yards and four touchdowns on just 14 carries. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that those numbers are astronomical and the Buffs can’t allow anything like that to happen again.

This week they face-off against talented runners again, albeit different than what Tate showed last week. Junior Ryan Nall, who has 62 attempts for 341 yards with 4 TDs as well as sophomore Artavis Pierce lead the Beavers in backfield. If they can stop Oregon State’s ground game run, the Buffs can cruise to elusive first conference win.

Timing is everything

Playing into Colorado’s favor, it would seem that the Beavers are more vulnerable than ever. Head Coach Gary Andersen resigned on Monday, as he oddly waived the remaining guarantee in his contract. The timing of the move came as a big surprise around the Pac-12 and time will tell what effect it has on the Oregon State team.

OSU ranks dead last in the Pac-12 in scoring at 19.3 points per game and also allows opposing offense’s over 320 yards per game. Defensively, the Beavers allowed 519 yards last week in a 38-10 loss to the (#13/#13) USC Trojans. The week before that, they allowed 509 yards to the (#5/#4) Washington Huskies.

Avoid disaster

Expect for Colorado quarterback Steven Montez to find his rhythm and build on a streak of solid performances. Against Arizona, Montez completed 19 of 32 passes for 251 yards and three touchdowns. However, the biggest storyline from last week was CU redshirt-senior tailback Phillip Lindsay.

Lindsay ranks fifth nationally with 810 yards on the season and became Colorado’s all-time all-purpose yards leader against the Wildcats. If it wasn’t for Tate, Lindsay would’ve been the talk of college football for the week as he rushed for 281 yards on 41 carries, both career highs. This should be a blowout game for Colorado as they return to the road where they will play four of their final six games in 2017.