Three takeaways from Colorado's 45-15 loss to Utah

SALT LAKE CITY — The Colorado Buffaloes fell 45-15 to the No. 6 Utah Utes Saturday night in the final game of the season.

Here’s what you need to know:

The Buffs looked solid early

Obviously, Colorado wanted to beat Utah. But taking down a legitimate College Football Playoff contender this late in the season is nearly impossible.

For those outside of the program, beating the 28.5-point spread seemed like a better target and Colorado just about did. The outcome was probably what should have happened.

But for a minute there, it looked like the Buffs could actually come outof Rice-Eccles Stadium with a straight-up win.

The Colorado defense forced three-straight three-and-outs to open up the contest and, on the heels of the two best defensive performances since the start of 2017, it looked like it was time to buy in.

Meanwhile, the Colorado offense wasn’t spectacular but considering the competition it performed about as well as one could hope. It scored a touchdown late in the first quarter and carried the 7-0 lead into the start of the second.

But Utah responded with three consecutive scoring drives to take a 17-7 lead into halftime and things just spiraled from there.

Not covering the 28.5-point spread may feel like a moral loss on top of the actual loss.

It shouldn’t.

The Buffs showed that when they play clean football they can compete with anybody. They also showed that they don’t have enough talent to waste opportunities with fumbles, missed tackles and blown assignments.

None of that is a surprise.

Now, with nine months to develop his talent and bring even more into the locker room, head coach Mel Tucker has a chance to buy his team a little more leeway.

It’s still about the details

While it’s fun to think about the path Colorado was carving to an upset and what could have happened if it had carried its play forward for three more quarters, it’s important to identify what exactly went wrong.

Heading into the game, it was clear that Colorado wouldn’t be able to overcome more than one or two mistakes.

It cashed those couple of bailouts in early.

On Utah’s first possession of the game, the Colorado defense blew up a couple of plays and forced a punt. But when the Utes kicked the ball downfield returnman Dimitri Stanley watched the ball bounce a couple of times before trying to dive on top of it to prevent it from bouncing deeper into Buffs territory.

Part of the thought process behind Stanley’s decision made sense: If Colorado was going to stick close to Utah, this was going to be a field-position based game. Every yard would count. The extra five or 10 on the punt could be massive.

But stopping the ball wasn’t worth the risk of letting it bounce off of his chest and allowing the Utes to regain possession in CU territory, which is what happened.

That was mistake No. 1 and Colorado was lucky to survive it.

Not only did the Buffs defense knock the Utes back a few yards and out of field goal range over the three-and-out, the Utah punter also kicked the ball into the end zone for a touchback.

Colorado avoided giving up points for its mistake and then Utah couldn’t even take advantage of the situation by flipping the field.

That’s a bailout.

A few possessions later, after blowing a couple of coverages and missing a couple of tackles, Colorado was still right in the game.

With two minutes left in the first half, Colorado took over at it’s own 25 with a chance to answer a Utah touchdown that gave the Utes a 7-point lead.

But right out of the gate, CU took a delay of game penalty and put itself behind the sticks. Gains of four and seven on the first two plays would have been enough for a first down under typical circumstances, but the penalty set up a 3rd-and-4 instead. All-conference defensive end Bradlee Anae was able to pin his ears back and sack Steven Montez.

The Utes took a timeout before fourth down, setting up a punt with 58 seconds on the clock.

Colorado still had a chance to negate the mistake of taking a penalty that stopped the Buffs from putting points on the board or, at the very least, running out the clock.

But they didn’t negate the mistake.

Utah returned the punt 35 yards and Colorado took a 15-yard penalty.

The Utes kicked a field goal to bring a 17-7 lead into halftime.

This one sequence all but determined the outcome of the game.

The Steven Montez era is over

The biggest storyline of the game is that the senior class, and likely junior wideout Laviska Shenault, is on it’s way out. Perhaps no loss will change the face of the program more than the departure of quarterback Steven Montez who first started in 2016.

Montez’s time in Boulder has been decisivie. He sits atop plenty of all-time leaderboards but his game-to-game performances have varied widely enough to cast a negative tint over his entire career. It didn’t help that his teams peaked at 5-7.

The Montez era will be remembered for the high rate of turnover in the offensive staff, the general lack of offensive talent and incosistent quarterback play. There’s no telling whether Montez held Colorado back or if one of these other factors is to blame for  the Buffs never making a bowl game during his tenure.

Whatever the problem was during the last few seasons, the page is now turned.

Incoming freshman quarterback Brendon Lewis could take the offensive reigns, or a graduate transfer could get the call. The coaching staff will likely look largely the same in 2020 as it did in 2019. The level of incoming talent — at least in terms of recruiting stars — should be higher than the talent that is leaving.

The tide is changing.