Three takeaways from Colorado's 26-3 loss to Cal

It happened again.

Colorado lost to Cal by a score of 26-3 in Berkeley. It’s Colorado’s fifth loss in six games, with four of those losses coming by at least 22 points. The game was Cal’s first win against an FBS team this season.

Here’s what we learned:

The Arizona game was a fluke

Colorado’s only win in the past seven weeks came against Arizona, last week in Boulder. The Buffs pounded the Wildcats 34-0, and the game was as lopsided as the score would make it seem.

It seemed like Colorado had turned a corner.

Brendon Lewis was making passes. The defense forced turnovers. The team, in general, looked like it was capable of playing competitive football.

But Arizona had lost 17 games in a row, so there was reason to be skeptical.

On Saturday, Colorado looked exactly like it did during every other game it has played over the course of the past seven weeks. The Buffs couldn’t throw the ball. They couldn’t run the ball.

All told, they put up 104 yards of offense. They held the ball for just under 36% of the game. It was even uglier than it sounds.

For one week, CU fans had hope that the Buffs had turned the corner. But that was an illusion. Colorado has a long way to go.

The defense starts slowly

The big surprise on Saturday was the defense’s inability to get a stop in the first half.

The defense didn’t play all that poorly but somebody blew an assignment on too many plays. Quinn Perry missed a run fit. Trustin Oliver blew a coverage. Mekhi Blackmon, who is usually one of CU’s most reliable pieces, also gave up a first-down grab.

By halftime, the Buffs had given up 23 points.

Colorado’s calling card is its defense. The winning formula for Colorado is holding the opponent under 20 points and setting the offense up with good field position. If CU wins, at least 75% of the success will be because of what the defense was able to do. It isn’t fair, but it’s the world the Buffs are living in.

Giving up 23 points in a half won’t cut it this year.

Who knows, it might not be possible to win if they give up 23 in the game.

The offensive line is atrocious

Colorado is loaded with problems on the offensive side of the ball.

On any given Saturday, the quarterback, the play-caller or any number of others could perform poorly enough to lose the team the game.

This Saturday, though, it was the offensive line that didn’t give the Buffs a chance to win.

Colorado gave up 12 tackles for loss in 46 offensive plays; over 25% of CU’s plays went backwards.

Of those 12 tackles for loss, six were sacks. Gerad Christian-Lichtenhan and Jake Wiley started at the tackle spots, and they couldn’t provide much resistance to the Cal pass rush. Both, eventually, were removed from the game.

The interior didn’t cause as many problems in the passing game, but it failed to get push in the run game, which stopped Jarek Broussard and the rest of the Buffs’ backs from getting anything going… including on the fourth-down inside run that felt like a must-convert situation for CU in the first quarter.

Something needs to change on the offensive line.