Woelk: Buffs 'Brotherhood' Now Faces Toughest Test Yet
October 27, 2018 | Football, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — The Colorado Buffaloes' goal this week should be a simple one:
Win a game.
Forget any designs on the Pac-12 South, forget bowl eligibility, forget about anything else other than one, simple task:
Go to work on Monday, tune out the noise — and there will be plenty of that — and figure out a way to go to Arizona next Friday and end a three-game losing streak.
It won't be easy. Saturday's 41-34 loss to Oregon State in overtime was, in the words of head coach Mike MacIntyre, "a gut-wrencher." The manner in which it happened certainly fits the description. The Buffs let a 31-3 lead melt away, and with it, any serious hopes of thrusting themselves into the heart of the Pac-12 South race.
"We were rolling and I guess the wheels just rolled off," MacIntyre said. "We didn't play well enough. They made some plays on us in the end and we didn't."
But while the Buffs will have to look at Saturday's game, figure out what went wrong and address those problems, they will do themselves no good by looking back and wondering what might have been.
Instead, they must look ahead and know there is still time to reap a reward from this season. With four games remaining, the opportunity to produce a successful year exists — but it has to start with one game.
It will be a task that will test their mental resilience. After a 5-0 start that saw them reach into the nation's top 20, they must now regroup, regain their confidence and concentrate on rebuilding their season.
No doubt, there will be plenty of criticism from the outside. But the most difficult questions will come from within.
"It's tough," quarterback Steven Montez said. "In a game we were supposed to win against Oregon State, we kind of gave it away. How are our guys going to react to that? How are we going to respond? How is the team going to act after a tough loss like this?"
It will be easy for those on the outside to speculate on the answers.
But the only people who can truly respond to the questions Montez posed are in the Colorado locker room. CU's coaches must make sure the loss doesn't splinter a team that just a month ago was flying high; CU's players must make sure the locker room remains strong.
"I told them you can't point fingers either way," MacIntyre said. "We've got to stay together, work hard and get ready to play a game on Friday night."
It's hard to imagine any finger pointing going on in the Colorado locker room, simply because virtually every phase of the game played a part in the collapse.
The offense went stone cold after hitting the 31-point mark on the first play of the second half. The defense couldn't find a way to stop OSU quarterback Jake Luton. Even special teams had a role, with a blocked field goal — which seemed relatively unimportant at the time — playing a huge role in the end.
"It's devastating," said CU linebacker Drew Lewis. "It's difficult to go from having momentum to losing it, then trying to get that back. I feel like by the time we started realizing that Oregon State was still in it, it was too late for us to try to make up for that. Whether the score is 31-10 or 31-0, we still need to fight like it's a tie game."
There will be plenty of analysis over the next few days and plenty of criticism flying in the Buffs' direction.
Their task will be to ignore the noise and stick together.
All season, CU's players have spoken about the "brotherhood" they have developed in the locker room. They have talked about how close this team is, how they all believe in each other — and most of all, how they have stuck together through thick and thin.
That brotherhood will receive its toughest test yet this week. If the Buffs truly can stick together, they still have the opportunity to enjoy success.
But passing that test will take every ounce of resilience and mental toughness these Buffs can muster.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
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