Colorado University Athletics
Buffs Take Aim At Ending Pac-12 Skid
October 24, 2015 | Football, Neill Woelk
CORVALLIS, Ore. — Something has to give Saturday night at Reser Stadium.
Either the Colorado Buffaloes (3-4 overall, 0-3 Pac-12) or the Oregon State Beavers (2-4, 0-3) will walk off the field with their first Pac-12 win of the season (8:30 p.m. Pac-12 Networks), with the other team left as the lone team in the conference without a league victory.
If the Buffaloes get a win, it will end a 14-game conference drought that stretches back to Nov. 16, 2013, when the Buffs beat Cal 41-24 in Boulder in Mike MacIntyre's first season. A win over the Beavers would also end a 13-game road losing streak in Pac-12 play, one that stretches back to the 2012 season.
The Beavers have not fared much better in recent Pac-12 play. Since defeating CU in Boulder early last season, OSU has dropped nine of its last 10 conference games. The Beavers are now under the direction of Gary Andersen, who made the jump to Corvallis from Wisconsin after long-time OSU boss Mike Riley took the reins at Nebraska, and Andersen is still looking for his first Pac-12 win.
The Buffs have come close — painfully close — to breaking through and ending their Pac-12 skid. They were tied with Oregon 17-17 at the half and within a touchdown, 31-24, with 10 minutes left in the game against the Ducks. Last week, they carried a 24-17 lead over Arizona into the fourth quarter before yielding 21 unanswered points.
The Beavers have also been relatively close, trailing Stanford just 21-17 at the half before losing 42-24. But in their last two games, they've been thumped handily, first by Arizona (44-7) and last week by Washington State (52-31 in a game they trailed 45-17 at the half).
Saturday night, one of the two will have to come away with a win.
MacIntyre says it's a case of his players continuing to improve and his coaching staff continuing to do the same.
“You have to bounce back, look deeper into your soul, so to speak, and then you just have to find ways to win,” MacIntyre said. “You have to find ways to win and finish it off. … It all goes back truly to technique, and X's and O's and blocking and tackling, and making plays and not making plays. We have to do a good job of coaching it and the young men have to do a good job of playing in those situations.”
Defensively, the Buffs' No. 1 focus will be containing OSU quarterback Seth Collins, whose tendency has been to run first and throw second. Collins has rushed for a team-leading 486 yards and five touchdowns, while throwing for 813 yards and six touchdowns. The Beavers' lack of offensive consistency — they are 119th in the nation in passing — prompted Andersen to bring in former BYU head coach and Oregon offensive Gary Crowton in this week as an offensive consultant.
The Buffs will have some good news defensively this week, as inside linebacker Kenneth Olugbode is scheduled to return after missing two games with a leg injury. MacIntyre said Olugbode will rotate with freshmen Rick Gamboa and Grant Watanabe. The Buffs will be aiming to improve on last week's effort, when they held Arizona scoreless for two quarters before the devastating fourth quarter.
Offensively, the Buffs are expected to try to take emulate what Washington State did to the Beavers a week ago, when WSU quarterback Luke Falk threw for 407 yards and six touchdowns. They'll have to do so, however, without the services of wide receiver Shay Fields, who suffered a sprained ankle last week vs. Arizona. Fields leads the Buffs in receiving yards (504) and touchdowns (4).
On paper, the game has all the appearance of an offensive shootout. The Beavers are ranked last in the conference in scoring defense (46 points per game) and total defense (550.7 yards per game), but the Buffs aren't far behind in either category, ranked 11th in scoring defense (42.3) and total defense (548).
The Buffs continue to believe they are ready for a breakthrough game.
“Every team is desperate for a win if you don't have one, especially in conference,” quarterback Sefo Liufau said. “There are only six games left, for us at least. There is little room for error left in the season. For us especially, this is a really important game, not because of who we're playing, but because of how many games are left and what we want to accomplish.”
With six games remaining and four wins necessary to become bowl eligible, the Buffs haven't changed their preseason goal of earning a postseason bid. But they also know the clock is ticking.
“We're very frustrated right now, but we just have to keep playing,” senior cornerback Ken Crawley said. “We believe in ourselves. We know any time we can knock any team off; we are better than those teams. We've just got to keep fighting.”
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
