Junior Wide Receiver, Devin Ross, attempts an catch the ball against Utah during the Buffs’ 27-22 win on Nov. 26, 2016 (Jesse Hughes/CU Independent)
The Colorado Buffaloes and the Utah Utes competed for bowl eligibility Saturday night in Salt Lake City, as both teams sat at 5-6 heading into the game.
Unfortunately for the Buffs, they got simply outmatched and outplayed by the Utes, losing 34-13. This ended Colorado’s season with a disappointing 5-7 record.
“We just didn’t get it done,” senior tight end and defensive end George Frazier said. “We had a lot of opportunities to make plays this year, lots of opportunities to win games but we just didn’t pull through.”
From the getgo, Colorado once again was vulnerable defensively against the ground game.
Fans will recall the show Arizona quarterback Khalil Tate put on en route to racking up 327 rushing yards against CU’s defense on Oct. 7. A few weeks later, at Arizona State, the Buffs gave up 384 yards on the ground to Manny Wilkins, Demario Richard and company.
A big proponent of Utah’s strong ground game Saturday night was sophomore tailback Zach Moss, who ran for 196 yards on 26 carries — good for 7.5 yards per carry — and two touchdowns.
“He ran over us,” head coach Mike MacIntyre said. “He was a very powerful runner tonight. We didn’t do a good job of tackling him; we work on it all the time. [We] should’ve been tackling him low on the legs and getting him down.”
In the first half alone, Moss ran for 140 yards while claiming his two touchdowns. Thanks to Moss and Utah’s solid drives, the Utes led convincingly at the half 28-0.
“[Moss] was running like a mad man,” Frazier said. “He was putting his shoulder down and running through people, and literally running over them too … he was a dog tonight … you can’t beat too many good teams after going down 28 points. We didn’t get it done and they did.”
Colorado’s offense on the other hand couldn’t find any sort of spark in the first half.
Senior tailback Phillip Lindsay only ran for 33 yards on eight carries. Sophomore quarterback Steven Montez was equally lackluster, throwing for just 57 yards on 5-of-12 passing.
“It came down to who was going to be more physical,” Lindsay said after the loss. “We’re equally matched, but they came out with more fire. They wanted it more than we did. It just comes down to fundamentals.”
While the Buffs’ chances in the game at halftime were astronomically slim, they played better in the second half.
Montez finished the game with 195 yards through the air on 14-of 28 passing with a rushing touchdown. This helped Colorado outscore Utah in the second half, 13-6.
“[We] played harder in the second half than they did in the first half,” MacIntyre said. “There was more energy, more emotion.”
Lindsay finished his day with only 72 rushing yards on 18 carries. Senior wide receiver Bryce Bobo and junior wide receiver Juwann Winfree had identical stat lines. They led the Buffaloes in receiving with 53 yards on four catches.
Utah senior quarterback Troy Williams was solid. He threw for 181 yards on 15-of-24 passing with two rushing touchdowns.
Unlike last season, Colorado won’t play in a bowl game. After finishing the season 5-7, it will be on MacIntyre to assess what his team did this year and look forward to correcting the mistakes from an underwhelming season that was supposed to build off of 2016’s dream season.
“I’ll look at it,” MacIntyre said of 2017’s results. “I learned that from Bill Parcells. You don’t look at it and say it right now when you are emotionally involved in everything. We’ll look it over the next couple of weeks and look at it over Christmastime now that we don’t have to go to a bowl, evaluate everything and make decisions from there.”
Contact CU Independent sports staff writer Drew Sharek at andrew.sharek@colorado.edu and follow him on Twitter @drew_sharek.
