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Un-Lucky 13 – Buffs fail to break through (again) against the Trojans
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The beatings date back to 1927.
On November 12, 1927, the University of Colorado Silver-and-Gold football team – still seven years away from taking the nickname “Buffaloes” – traveled to Los Angeles to take on the University of Southern California Trojans.
USC won that day, 46-7, setting the tone for the series, which now stands at 13-0 after the 31-20 setback in the Coliseum.
The Buffs tried again in the early 1960’s to earn a victory over the Trojans, but the result was a pair of shutout losses. USC triumphed in Boulder in 1963, 14-0, then won again the next year in Los Angeles, 21-0.
Nine more losses in the series followed, beginning in 2000 with a 17-14 loss, ending with a 38-24 loss in Boulder in 2017.
Twelve games … twelve losses … with most by lopsided scores (the Trojans had out-scored the Buffs 419-169 in those 12 games, for an average score of 35-14 … making the 31-20 final in 2018 right in line with tradition.
For their part, in the week leading up to match No. 13 against the Trojans, the Buffs tried to downplay the 0-12 all-time record.
“We are going to go in this game just like we’ve gone in these past five games,” said quarterback Steven Montez. “We come in, put in our work in the week and hopefully we play well on Saturdays. It is another game for us. It’s the next team on our schedule.”
“Our main goal is that we focus on one team and the most important team is us,” defensive lineman Mustafa Johnson said. “We know that if we go out there and we do what we’ve been training on all week, talking about all week and our game plan and execute it, we plan to be victorious. That’s just kinda how our mindset is. We focus on one team, that’s us, and we go game by game.”
The Buffs appeared to be the more focused team when linebacker Drew Lewis intercepted USC freshman quarterback J.T. Daniels on the first play of the game.
Instead of capitalizing, however, the Colorado offense went backward – losing 12 yards in three plays – a sign of how things were to go for the Buffs on the night.
At the end of the first quarter, the Buffs had one yard rushing on nine attempts, with 21 yards of total offense. By halftime, the Buffs had had nine possessions, and had punted seven times … going three-and-out six times. At the break, Colorado had 111 yards of total offense, with 49 of those coming on one play – Laviska Shenault’s 49-yard run which gave the Buffs a 7-0 lead.
But for two interceptions by the CU defense, the score at the half could have been worse than 21-7, USC.
The Colorado coaching staff, which has made good halftime adjustments all season long, again won the second half. The Buffs out-scored the Trojans, 13-7, after the break, with a pic-six in the third quarter the only points surrendered.
Small consolation, though, for a team which had high hopes coming into the game.
“Getting it going in the second half is not cutting it,” said Steven Montez, who was held without a touchdown pass for the first time in the 2018, with an interception and four sacks. “Especially playing good teams like USC and Washington. You can’t come out in the first half and not play ball. We need to start a lot earlier. We have struggled in the first half. And a lot of that is on me.”
“We won the turnover battle (2-1) and the penalty battle (USC had 13 penalties for 123 yards; CU had eight for 81 yards), you should have a chance to win the game”, said Mike MacIntyre. “We kind of had a chance but just shot ourselves in the foot.”
The fact that the 5-0 Buffs lost to the 3-2 Trojans was not a huge surprise – the Buffs were seven-point underdogs, after all – but still a jolt to the system for a fan base which had quickly forgotten about the 5-7 debacle of 2017, and had gotten used to winning again.
Here’s the thing … while history might prove me wrong (as has often been the case. Hell, I thought in 2006 that Dan Hawkins, who had won 50 games in five seasons at Boise State, was a good hire), this loss may prove beneficial to the Buffs in the long run.
Hear me out.
First, if this summer you had offered almost any Buff fan a 5-1 first half record, they would have taken it, sight unseen. So let’s not get too disappointed with loss No. 1 of the 2018 season.
Second, it might not be a bad idea for “The Rise II” to be more gradual.
Two years ago, the Buffs made an unlikely run to the Pac-12 South championship, going from worst to first in the division. The next two games, beat downs by Washington in the Pac-12 title game, and then again in the Alamo Bowl by Oklahoma State, left the program with a sour taste in its mouth for the entire off-season (exacerbated by off-field issues).
The result was a crash … with Colorado going from worst-to-first-to-worst, finishing 2-7 in Pac-12 play in 2017.
This fall, the Buffs opened the season with a 5-0 record, the best start for the program since 1998. Colorado rose to No. 19 in the nation, and the Buffs were finally getting some national recognition.
Again, it may have been a bit too much, a bit too fast.
With the loss to USC, the naysayers will be out in force … “Never played anybody before the Trojans” … “Over-rated” … “Told you they would crash and burn once they played a team with a pulse”.
Perhaps that criticism is justified. Perhaps not.
The Buffs will now be double-digit underdogs against Washington, another team which Colorado has failed to beat as a member of the Pac-12. The game will be on the road in Seattle, and another beat down is, at least on paper, in the offing.
After that, however, the “mediocre” Buffs will settle in, at 5-2, and have a chance to demonstrate that they belong in the top half of the Pac-12.
Not the top tier of the conference, mind you, but in the top half.
The Oregon State home game is a likely win, which will make the Buffs bowl eligible before Halloween.
November includes two home games – Washington State and Utah – which are looking more difficult than before, as well as two road games – at Arizona and at California – which are looking more winnable than before.
Colorado has not returned to the status of a preeminent college football … at least not yet.
There are plenty of reasons to believe, however, that this team is an upper division Pac-12 program, and can maintain that status for the foreseeable future.
“It’s what we’re going to learn on Monday, what we’re going to learn on Tuesday,” Montez said. “Our guys are going to come out and play hard. This team is a brotherhood. Something like this is going to make us even closer.”
“We’ll get over this,” said linebacker Drew Lewis, who had his first career interception against the Trojans. “We’ll learn from our mistakes and move on to Washington.”
On to Washington … and beyond.
–
—-
Stuart
Continue reading...
Un-Lucky 13 – Buffs fail to break through (again) against the Trojans
—
The beatings date back to 1927.
On November 12, 1927, the University of Colorado Silver-and-Gold football team – still seven years away from taking the nickname “Buffaloes” – traveled to Los Angeles to take on the University of Southern California Trojans.
USC won that day, 46-7, setting the tone for the series, which now stands at 13-0 after the 31-20 setback in the Coliseum.
The Buffs tried again in the early 1960’s to earn a victory over the Trojans, but the result was a pair of shutout losses. USC triumphed in Boulder in 1963, 14-0, then won again the next year in Los Angeles, 21-0.
Nine more losses in the series followed, beginning in 2000 with a 17-14 loss, ending with a 38-24 loss in Boulder in 2017.
Twelve games … twelve losses … with most by lopsided scores (the Trojans had out-scored the Buffs 419-169 in those 12 games, for an average score of 35-14 … making the 31-20 final in 2018 right in line with tradition.
For their part, in the week leading up to match No. 13 against the Trojans, the Buffs tried to downplay the 0-12 all-time record.
“We are going to go in this game just like we’ve gone in these past five games,” said quarterback Steven Montez. “We come in, put in our work in the week and hopefully we play well on Saturdays. It is another game for us. It’s the next team on our schedule.”
“Our main goal is that we focus on one team and the most important team is us,” defensive lineman Mustafa Johnson said. “We know that if we go out there and we do what we’ve been training on all week, talking about all week and our game plan and execute it, we plan to be victorious. That’s just kinda how our mindset is. We focus on one team, that’s us, and we go game by game.”
The Buffs appeared to be the more focused team when linebacker Drew Lewis intercepted USC freshman quarterback J.T. Daniels on the first play of the game.
Instead of capitalizing, however, the Colorado offense went backward – losing 12 yards in three plays – a sign of how things were to go for the Buffs on the night.
At the end of the first quarter, the Buffs had one yard rushing on nine attempts, with 21 yards of total offense. By halftime, the Buffs had had nine possessions, and had punted seven times … going three-and-out six times. At the break, Colorado had 111 yards of total offense, with 49 of those coming on one play – Laviska Shenault’s 49-yard run which gave the Buffs a 7-0 lead.
But for two interceptions by the CU defense, the score at the half could have been worse than 21-7, USC.
The Colorado coaching staff, which has made good halftime adjustments all season long, again won the second half. The Buffs out-scored the Trojans, 13-7, after the break, with a pic-six in the third quarter the only points surrendered.
Small consolation, though, for a team which had high hopes coming into the game.
“Getting it going in the second half is not cutting it,” said Steven Montez, who was held without a touchdown pass for the first time in the 2018, with an interception and four sacks. “Especially playing good teams like USC and Washington. You can’t come out in the first half and not play ball. We need to start a lot earlier. We have struggled in the first half. And a lot of that is on me.”
“We won the turnover battle (2-1) and the penalty battle (USC had 13 penalties for 123 yards; CU had eight for 81 yards), you should have a chance to win the game”, said Mike MacIntyre. “We kind of had a chance but just shot ourselves in the foot.”
The fact that the 5-0 Buffs lost to the 3-2 Trojans was not a huge surprise – the Buffs were seven-point underdogs, after all – but still a jolt to the system for a fan base which had quickly forgotten about the 5-7 debacle of 2017, and had gotten used to winning again.
Here’s the thing … while history might prove me wrong (as has often been the case. Hell, I thought in 2006 that Dan Hawkins, who had won 50 games in five seasons at Boise State, was a good hire), this loss may prove beneficial to the Buffs in the long run.
Hear me out.
First, if this summer you had offered almost any Buff fan a 5-1 first half record, they would have taken it, sight unseen. So let’s not get too disappointed with loss No. 1 of the 2018 season.
Second, it might not be a bad idea for “The Rise II” to be more gradual.
Two years ago, the Buffs made an unlikely run to the Pac-12 South championship, going from worst to first in the division. The next two games, beat downs by Washington in the Pac-12 title game, and then again in the Alamo Bowl by Oklahoma State, left the program with a sour taste in its mouth for the entire off-season (exacerbated by off-field issues).
The result was a crash … with Colorado going from worst-to-first-to-worst, finishing 2-7 in Pac-12 play in 2017.
This fall, the Buffs opened the season with a 5-0 record, the best start for the program since 1998. Colorado rose to No. 19 in the nation, and the Buffs were finally getting some national recognition.
Again, it may have been a bit too much, a bit too fast.
With the loss to USC, the naysayers will be out in force … “Never played anybody before the Trojans” … “Over-rated” … “Told you they would crash and burn once they played a team with a pulse”.
Perhaps that criticism is justified. Perhaps not.
The Buffs will now be double-digit underdogs against Washington, another team which Colorado has failed to beat as a member of the Pac-12. The game will be on the road in Seattle, and another beat down is, at least on paper, in the offing.
After that, however, the “mediocre” Buffs will settle in, at 5-2, and have a chance to demonstrate that they belong in the top half of the Pac-12.
Not the top tier of the conference, mind you, but in the top half.
The Oregon State home game is a likely win, which will make the Buffs bowl eligible before Halloween.
November includes two home games – Washington State and Utah – which are looking more difficult than before, as well as two road games – at Arizona and at California – which are looking more winnable than before.
Colorado has not returned to the status of a preeminent college football … at least not yet.
There are plenty of reasons to believe, however, that this team is an upper division Pac-12 program, and can maintain that status for the foreseeable future.
“It’s what we’re going to learn on Monday, what we’re going to learn on Tuesday,” Montez said. “Our guys are going to come out and play hard. This team is a brotherhood. Something like this is going to make us even closer.”
“We’ll get over this,” said linebacker Drew Lewis, who had his first career interception against the Trojans. “We’ll learn from our mistakes and move on to Washington.”
On to Washington … and beyond.
–
—-
Stuart
Continue reading...