Buffs Defense Delivers Big Second Half
September 29, 2018 | Football
BOULDER — After a 38-16 win over the UCLA Bruins on Friday night, the Colorado Buffaloes are 4-0 for the first time since 1998.
The Buffs fell behind in the middle of the first quarter on UCLA's second drive of the game, an eight play, 47-yard touchdown scoring drive.
That was the only time the Bruins found the end zone.
"We just made some adjustments on the sideline," said senior safety Evan Worthington. "We had to stop the run on the edge and it just came down to that and a little bit of route concepts and that was about it."
The defensive efforts carried on into the night as CU allowed just nine more points on three field goals. The Buffs ended up giving up just three points in the second half, while forcing three-and-outs on three straight occasions in the later part of the third quarter and the early portion of the fourth.
Colorado's offense took advantage of those three-and-outs, as they scored 17 points off of those vital stops and helped the Buffs win convincingly.
"The big emphasis that our coaches told us was to come together as a team and do what we do best," said senior linebacker Drew Lewis. "We have brotherhood, we have mental toughness, and we showed it in the second half."
Colorado was able to limit the Bruins to only 98 total yards in the second half, compared to 191 yards in the first half.
"I thought (defensive coordinator) D.J. (Eliot) did a good job of mixing up his pressures," said head coach Mike MacIntyre. "We pressured a little bit more which I thought was good. Those were some of the changes we made."
A good chunk of the UCLA yardage early was thanks to junior running back Joshua Kelley, who ran for 124 yards on 12 carries, with 113 of those yards coming by the earliest portions of the third quarter.
"Early in the game we did a stunt and didn't get across," MacIntyre said. "He kind of ran through an arm tackle and took off. Then in the first part of the second half, we fit a run wrong. We kind of settled in, kids understood what was going on, that's really what happened. He's a good, hard runner. He hit downhill quick, if you're now right there he can pop one."
Heading into Friday night, Colorado was unsure as to who would start under center for the Bruins. The Buffaloes once again took on the challenge of facing a dual-threat quarterback, freshman Dorian Thompson-Robinson.
Lewis was able to make Thompson-Robinson uncomfortable on both the first and second UCLA drives by coming up with two sacks.
"Drew (Lewis) was amazing tonight," Worthington said. "He really helped us a lot, got plenty of pressure on the quarterback, helped out all of the defensive backs. That's what we need every game, we just love that."
Thompson-Robinson later in the game used his athleticism to avoid sacks, as only one more sack was made on the true freshman. He finished 17-for-35 for 138 yards and a touchdown.
"I think the offense got put in certain situations where it's hard to move the ball, especially with Colorado's game plan," Thompson-Robinson said. "They like to blitz on third down a lot and when you have to gain a lot of yards to push it down the field it makes it hard."
This isn't the first time this season where the Buffaloes had to make a bounce back defensively.
Against Nebraska, Colorado allowed 21 points in the first half on 329 total yards, while in the second half they allowed only seven points on 236 total yards. They were also able to limit the damage they had given up on the ground as well by allowing just 86 rushing yards in the second half compared to the 243 rushing yards in the first half.
