Three takeaways from Colorado's 31-14 loss to UCLA

The Colorado Buffaloes lost 31-14 to the UCLA Bruins Saturday night at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.

It was the fifth consecutive loss for the Buffs and the third consecutive win for UCLA.

Here’s what you need to know:

This was a “Bad Buffs” night

There are two distinct 2019 Colorado Buffaloes football teams.

One has the best offense in the Pac-12 and a playmaking defense that can keep the team in any conference contest.

The other doesn’t belong in the FBS.

On Saturday, we saw the latter.

Within five minutes of kickoff, it was obvious the Buffs weren’t going to win. They were outmatched at every level. From the playcalling and the penalties to the head-to-head, one-on-one matchups on the field, Colorado just wasn’t nearly as good at football as UCLA.

And that’s strange since one week earlier, Colorado went toe-to-toe with a USC team that is head and shoulders better than the Bruins.

The story of the 2019 Colorado football season has been a unique brand of inconsistency. No team shows up and plays perfect football game after game, but the Buffs have been inconsistent in their own way. There isn’t a spectrum of possibilities ranging from bad to good, Colorado is either on or off and there’s no in-between. It’s black and white.

The Buffs were off at the Rose Bowl.

Laviska Shenault was almost invisible

Saturday was a weird night for star Colorado receiver Laviska Shenault.

He wasn’t bad as much as he just wasn’t there. (Although his one drop was an egregious one.) Shenault was off the field much more than he was on it. He took entire series off at various points in the game.

Shenault has been in and out for Colorado all season with various injuries. His usage is down significantly from his junior season and it’s tough to tell when he’s going to be on the field and when he won’t be. He’s missed games and he’s played on an apparent snap count, but he got back on track against USC a week ago.

Shenault didn’t necessarily seem happy on the sidelines, but there wasn’t a moment when he limped off the field and it never appeared he was under trainers’ supervision. There wasn’t an obvious injury, but the snap counted seemed to be there.

Even late in the game, when the result was already decided, Shenault would rotate in once every three or five or 10 snaps. If he was injured, why put him in harm’s way for no reason?

The whole thing was just strange.

Jaren Mangham stepped up

There were few bright sides in Colorado’s loss, but one massive silver lining was the play of true freshman running back Jaren Mangham.

Starting running back Alex Fontenot missed the game due to injury and Mangham was forced to fill his role. It was the freshman’s first career collegiate start and he took advantage of the opportunity.

Mangham’s 4.5 yards per carry average doesn’t jump off the page but the 19-year-old passed the eye test. He took every yard that was given to him and made a few defenders miss as well.

Mangham picked up 77 yards on 17 carries and the most impressive ones came at important moments; he carried the ball three times on third down and all three resulted in first downs.

Like Fontenot, starting cornerback K.J. Trujillo was a late scratch from Saturday night’s contest. Freshman Tarik Luckett took his place and freshman Dylan Thomas rotated in. Both were wide receivers until fall camp.

Junior linebacker Nate Landman also stepped up on Saturday, posting his first two sacks of the season. Those were the only sacks by a Buff.