DENVER — It almost happened.

Colorado played Texas A&M tough, but still fell 10-7 at Empower Field in Denver. The Aggies ripped off a long scoring drive in the game’s final minutes, and the Buffs couldn’t bounce back with two minutes on the clock facing a three-point deficit.

Here’s what you need to know.

The defense is legit

If there’s one thing we learned about Colorado on Saturday, it’s that the defense is elite.

Isaiah Spiller is one of the top running backs in the NCAA. He averaged over 100 yards per game last season. He’s only had two rushing performances under 50 yards in that time. One was against Alabama, when he carried the ball 11 times for 25 yards.

The other was Saturday, when he carried the ball eight times for 20 yards.

We could list stats that pump up Colorado’s defense all night—one first down in the entire first half?!?—but we don’t need to waste the space.

Here are the key points:

• Christian Gonzalez is a lockdown cornerback. He smothered A&M’s receiver and he’s no longer somebody opponents will try to pick on.
• Nate Landman is fully back. His four tackles last week were underwhelming, but his impact was much larger than the stats would lead you to believe. This week, though, Landman picked up 10 solo tackles, two for losses and he broke up two passes. He’s an animal and the key to this defense.
• The defensive front is stout against the run. It was a little underwhelming when it came to rushing the passer, but there’s little to complain about. The return of stud interior rusher Mustafa Johnson in a few weeks could be the final piece of the puzzle.
• Outside of Gonzalez, the rest of the coverage unit is also legit. Mekhi Blackmon is a straight-up stud and linebacker Robert Barnes was solid in his first action as a Buffalo.

Brendon Lewis is coming along… slowly

Saturday was a step forward for Brendon Lewis compared to what we saw last weekend against Northern Colorado.

He completed 13-of-25 passes for 89 yards and an interception, and he ran the ball nine times for 76 yards. But he was better than the stats would indicate.

Lewis saw blitzes and shifted plays. He made some nice throws. He stressed the defense with his running ability. He was a monster on bootleg passes.

Is he a top-half of the Pac-12 quarterback?

No.

But he’s one step away from being there and if he takes a couple of steps this season then the rest of the league will be on notice.

The running game pulled its weight

I wish I could say more about Colorado’s running game.

The standards are so high that a 173-yard performance is pretty disappointing. Especially when you consider that Brendon Lewis did a bulk of the work from the quarterback position.

It didn’t help that Jarek Broussard didn’t carry the ball in the second half, probably because he was hit hard and low on a dump off from Lewis.

Alex Fontenot was serviceable. He picked up 39 yards on 12 attempts. Broussard had 51 on his 12 attempts. Ashaad Clayton picked up eight on his three carries

Running on A&M is hard and the Buffs put up 171 yards on 4.5 yards per carry. That’s solid. But it isn’t enough to drag a fairly lifeless passing game to a win over the No. 5 team in the country.