Nov. 12th – Arizona – Time to Get a Little Greedy

Colorado ran its record to 8-2 with a harder-than-it-looked 49-24 victory on the road against Arizona. The Buffs were out-gained by the Wildcats, 412 yards to 388, but costly penalties (13 for 138 yards) and three missed field goals kept the Wildcats from making it a game.

The Colorado offense did produce a 100-yard rusher (Phillip Lindsay, 25 carries for 119 yards and three touchdowns), and a 100-yard receiver (Shay Fields, six catches for 108 yards and two touchdowns), but the Buff offense seemed out of sync for much of the evening. Sefo Liufau had his first three-touchdown pass game since the Michigan contest in September, finishing with 19-of-27 passing for 213 yards.

The Colorado defense struggled at times as well. The Buffs came into the game surrendering only 117.6 yards per game rushing (17th in the nation), but gave up 186 yards rushing to the Wildcats in the first half alone (and 262 yards for the game). The 412 total yards surrendered were over 100 yards over the 296.9 yards per game the Buffs had posted in the first nine games of the season.

The victory gave the Buffs an 8-2 overall record, 6-1 in Pac-12 play. The eight wins represented the highest total since 2004, with the team’s first four game winning streak the longest since 2002.

“It was a good win for us”, said Mike MacIntyre. “Rich Rod(riguez) does a heck of a job and they’ve beat us three years in a row now and we finally got them. The last time we were here, we got beat pretty good, so I am excited about what we have done and we are going to get some In-n-Out Burger after this.”

The fan base was getting irritated:

— “Sacko Lefo is having his ups and downs. Sacks killing us – AZ D-Line getting past our O-Line”;

— “They are bashing us with a wide receiver playing running back”;

— “They are gonna bring the house on Sefo. If the coaches can’t figure out this out then I give up.
Teams have kind of figured this out”;

— “Defense sucks so far. WTF”

… and that was as Colorado was building a 28-10 halftime lead on Arizona.

Such is the life of a division-leading team.

Colorado won its eighth game of the season in defeating Arizona on the road, 49-24. The eight wins are the most since 2004, the same year the Buffs last won two straight conference games on the road.

And yet the Colorado fan base is – in some respects justifiably – concerned about the state of the Buffs.

Is this a “trap” game for CU? (I think not) … Your “T.I.P.S.” and prediction for Buffs v. Wildcats …

Arizona (114th in scoring offense; 117th in scoring defense) is no match for CU, right? … Right? …

Game time set for CU/Washington State … ESPN GameDay will not be coming to Boulder for the game

CU up to No. 12 in College Football Playoff rankings … Mike MacIntyre: No. 5 in Coach-of-the-Year rankings

CU at No. 61 (Athlon); No. 71 (Lindy’s) … Last in the Pac-12 South (everyone) … A look at preseason projections (along with my game-by-game forecast)