Woelk: Buffs Must Learn From Missed Opportunities
September 24, 2017 | Football, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — Now they know.
The Colorado Buffaloes entered Saturday night's game against Washington anxious to prove they belonged on the same stage as the nation's seventh-ranked team.
They left knowing what they must do to get there.
On the surface, Saturday night's 37-10 Huskies win was eerily similar to last season's Pac-12 title game, when the Huskies pulled away for a 41-10 win. The comparison is striking, right down to the Huskies outscoring the Buffs 27-3 in the second half of both games and CU's quarterback throwing three interceptions in both games — including a third-quarter pick six that turned the tide in Washington's favor for good both times.
But beyond the numbers, there was a significant difference.
A year ago, CU's players left the field acknowledging that they had been physically outmatched.
Saturday night, the Buffs left the field knowing they had their chances, but simply gave the Huskies too many opportunities. The Buffs were beaten by a better team — at least on this night — but they also did themselves no favors, shooting themselves in the foot at too many junctures.
"Good teams make you pay," Colorado head coach Mike MacIntyre said. "When something happens, they make you pay for it."
Indeed. They make you pay for three interceptions, dropped passes, a blocked punt, overthrown receivers and missed tackles. They make you pay — and then they wear you down, which is exactly what the Huskies did Saturday night. They pounded away and seized every opportunity, first scoring 17 points off CU's miscues, then ground the Buffs into submission down the stretch.
"When you play a team like that, you can't have blocked punts, you can't have interceptions — you have to be on the other end of that," Buffs safety Ryan Moeller said. "You have to be the one taking the ball from the other team, you have to be the one stealing possessions away. Otherwise, it's not going to happen. A great team like Washington, you can't give them the ball that many times. They're a great team. They kicked our butts tonight."
It's not as if the Buffs didn't do some good things Saturday. They opened the game with a picture-perfect, 11-play, 75-yard touchdown drive. They followed that with an Afolabi Laguda interception and another 11-play drive — but this one stalled near midfield and ended with a punt after quarterback Steven Montez couldn't connect with a wide-open Devin Ross on a deep ball downfield.
Then came the blocked punt. Then an interception — after the Buffs had crossed midfield — and then another interception, again after they had crossed midfield.
Finally, there was the interception return for a touchdown that turned the tide in Washington's favor for good in the third quarter.
It wasn't that the Buffs weren't moving the ball; they simply couldn't finish what they started — and a CU defense that did an outstanding job of stemming the tide early finally wore down in the second half.
"You can't throw three picks and expect to win the game — you just can't do it, point blank," Montez said. "That's on me. I have to take that, go watch film, take it to practice and just get better.
Montez's miscues weren't the only CU errors of the night. Normally sure-handed Phillip Lindsay allowed a pass to slip through his hands for one of those interceptions. The Buffs also gave up some big plays defensively and in the end, Colorado simply wore down on both sides of the line of scrimmage.
But if there's a lesson to be learned, if there's any consolation from Saturday night's loss, take out the silver lining microscope and remember this: the Buffs have eight conference games remaining. Their task now will be to figure out what went wrong, fix those mistakes and bounce back in a hurry.
They don't have a choice — not, at least, if they still want to be a factor in the Pac-12 title chase.
"They'll bounce back and get ready to go," MacIntyre said. "We have another one quickly. We have a ton of games in a row here, so we'll just keep playing."
More than anything, this will be a great test for a team that opened the season with high goals. Losing to the No. 7 team in the country is no embarrassment.
But how they respond, beginning with next week's date with an up-and-down UCLA squad in the Rose Bowl, will be quite telling. This will be a test of the Buffs' leadership and fortitude.
What we know is this: there is still plenty of season left for these Buffs, plenty of opportunities to get back on the road they planned to travel when the season began.
But how far they travel down that road will depend upon how much they learned from Saturday's night's lesson from the defending Pac-12 champs. It will depend on whether they can create opportunities for themselves in the future — and not toss them away at crucial junctures.
Most of all, the Buffs must make sure Saturday night's painful experience does not go to waste. If they take those lessons to heart, there's still plenty of reason to believe a successful season is well within reach.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
