BOULDER — When the Colorado Buffaloes hit the locker room Saturday with a 28-7 lead over Arizona, Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders had a little reminder for them.
Just a year ago, the Buffs were in a very similar position. They were 4-2 and held a big lead — 29-0 over Stanford — at halftime of their seventh game.
Then the roof collapsed. CU lost the lead and ultimately the game in two overtimes, the beginning of a six-game losing streak to end the season.
Coach Prime made sure his Buffs weren’t going to have a repeat performance.
“We were in a similar situation to this last year and we got our butts kicked in the second half,” he said after Saturday’s game. “We harped on them that we got to finish, finish, finish.”
The Buffs did exactly that, walking away with a 34-7 win over the Wildcats while sending a message to the rest of the Big 12 in the process:
Colorado is a complete team. The Buffs are far, far more than a great passing team with a couple of standout players. They have a competent run game, an attacking, opportunistic defense, all kinds of depth — and a swagger that says “Big 12 contender.”
Guaranteed, no one in the Big 12 will argue the point this morning.
In terms of year-over-year improvement, the biggest difference in this year’s Buffs is on the defensive side of the ball. Coordinator Robert Livingston‘s group has made steady, consistent improvement as the year has progressed and Saturday’s effort presented a clear picture of what kind of defense the Buffs want to have:
That would be a defense that recorded seven sacks against a team that had given up just six in the previous six games combined. A defense that held Arizona to just 3-for-11 on third-down conversion attempts. A defense that made UA star receiver Tetairoa McMillan a non-factor, limiting him to just 38 yards on five catches.
But most of all, a defense that operates in attack mode from virtually every position on the field.
Five different Buffs had sacks on Saturday, led by two apiece from Samuel Okunlola and Keaten Wade. Defensive back Colton Hood produced his second interception in as many weeks, returning his second for 46 yards. Defensive end BJ Green II had a forced fumble and a sack. Linebacker Nikhai Hill-Green recorded eight tackles and a sack.
Meanwhile, the offense produced a balanced attack that kept the Wildcats on their heels all day.
Quarterback Shedeur Sanders was by no means at his best, completing 23 of 33 attempts for 250 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions, the first two-interception game of his CU career.
But even an “average” day from CU’s star quarterback should be seen as a positive sign.
The Buffs won without Sanders having to turn in a superstar effort. They won because they produced 148 yards on the ground. They won because they averaged 5.1 yards per play on first down rushing attempts, which put them in manageable second and third down situations all day long, and they gave up just one quarterback sack.
And they won without a big contribution from star Travis Hunter, who played the first half before sitting out the last two quarters as a precaution for his injured shoulder.
“Truly a balanced effort,” said Coach Prime.
Did we mention depth?
Keaten Wade, the transfer from Kentucky who had two sacks on Saturday, was making his first appearance on defense for CU. Hood, he of the two big interceptions in two weeks, is a backup who gets more playing time when Hunter is out.
As for those sacks, Livingston continues to find creative ways to get his defenders into the opponents’ backfield. After recording just five sacks in the first four games this year, the Buffs have recorded 16 in the last three games. They’re getting them from interior linemen, rush ends, linebackers and defensive backs.
All told, it adds up to a complete team. The opponents’ “blueprint” of a year ago — don’t worry about the run, get pressure on Sanders and hit CU’s defense with big plays — is no longer a working plan.
The Buffs can now beat opponents in a variety of ways. They are no longer a one-dimensional bunch. Since the halftime of the early season loss to Nebraska, they have made steady, consistent improvement on a weekly basis.
Now they are legitimate Big 12 contenders. There’s not a team on the remaining schedule they can’t beat.
Not to say they will run the table. There are plenty of quality teams ahead, beginning with next week’s visit from Cincinnati, who knocked off Arizona State on Saturday.
But there’s nobody the Buffs can’t match up with head on. Nobody whose talent level is any better than Colorado.
The Buffs are contenders. That much is clear. After years of watching from the outside, Colorado is now squarely in the mix of earning a shot at the title.
If you’re a CU fan, that’s something that might not have seemed possible even two short years ago.
FIVE THINGS TO KNOW:
— Colorado has won back-to-back road games by 27-plus points for the first time in 37 years, since 1987 when the Buffs beat Iowa State 42-10 on Oct. 31 and Kansas State 41-0 on Nov. 21. CU is the first Big 12 team to accomplish that feat since Oklahoma in 2015. CU has also won three straight road games for the first time since the end of the 2001 and start of the 2002 seasons.
— Sack Party: Colorado’s seven sacks are a season high and the most in a road game since having eight at Washington State on Sept. 11, 2004. Colorado had five sacks in the first four games of the season combined and has had 16 in the last three. Four Colorado players have multiple sacks in a game in the last three games, Taje McCoy (UCF), BJ Green (K-State) and Samuel Okunlola and Keaten Wade Saturday. Arizona had given up just six sacks entering Saturday’s game on the season.
— Travis Hunter did not play in the second half as a precautionary measure. In the first half he did see action on both sides of the ball, more so on offense. Coach Prime: “He’s sore and banged up. Travis wanted to play, I don’t know if he was quite 100 percent, but half of Travis is more than a whole of a lot of people.”
— LaJohntay Wester caught eight passes for 127 yards, both bests for him in a Colorado uniform. It’s his 11th career 100-yard receiving game and he now has 286 career catches for 3,148 yards and 28 touchdowns. At CU this season, he has 34 catches for 445 yards and 7 touchdowns.
— Colorado forced three turnovers against Arizona and has forced three or more in each of the last three road games, forcing 11 total in those three games. Colton Hood had his second interception of the season, both coming in the last two games, and BJ Green II forced a fumble that LaVonta Bentley recovered. Brendan Gant recovered the other fumble.
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Story by Neill Woelk, Contributing Editor for CUBuffs.com. Content courtesy of the University of Colorado at Boulder.