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BOULDER – The No. 15 Colorado Buffaloes found a way to beat the UCLA Bruins at Folsom Field. The game was grotesque, the Buffs played bad ball but in the end, none of it mattered as they topped the visitors 20-10.

All of the sudden the Buffs look like their playing Big Ten football with back to back low scoring games, with a 10-5 win over Stanford followed by Thursday night’s affair. Colorado’s offense has gone quite into the night which has led the defense into a starring role. They’ve been, well, nothing short of stellar.

Coming up with clutch plays for Colorado, the, “fighting Leavitt’s” have not only continued their absurd turnover streak, they’ve bulked up right when the Buffaloes have needed it most. Sacks out of field goal range, third down stops and momentum swinging turnovers has this defense tagged as one of the best in the country.

But even they couldn’t keep Colorado fans from feeling on edge because mistake after mistake-plagued the Buffs as they barley escaped the Bruins.

Play-calling

Walk into any Mike MacIntyre media scrum and he’ll utter two words, “start fast.” The best way for the Buffs to start fast is for them to get behind running back Phil Lindsay.

Following a UCLA miscue on a snap Colorado started their first drive in phenomenal field position. Strangely on the first play of the drive, the team came out with an empty backfield, meaning Lindsay did not start. Colorado tried to pass the ball down the throats of the Burins.

It made no sense.

UCLA came into Thursday with one of the worst run defenses in the Pac-12 highlighted by Utah’s Joe Willams eating on them. Their strongest position may be cornerback and the Buffaloes tried to go after that group. Maybe it was overconfidence or Brian Lindgren wanting to get Sefo Liufau into a rhythm, whatever it was, it was mind-bending what they attempted to do.

They went away from their strength in running and it hurt them. And not only did hurt their fast start but it made the Buffaloes predictable later in the game which wreaked havoc on their offensive line.

Sefo’s Struggles

Liufau had recovered from his Lisfranc injury just fine but he may not have rebounded from his ankle injury which he suffered at Michigan. Since coming back from that minor trauma he has had one good game and two poor ones.

Yes, the play-calling left much to be desired but so did Liufau and he didn’t shy away from his unit’s subpar showing.

“Definitely struggled on offensive and that definitely starts with me,” the senior said. “I will be the first one to say that and the first one to take the blame because the quarterback touches the ball every play and for the majority of plays they are a big deciding factor on how the outcome of each play will be. So, as an offensive we need to be better, look back at the film at and see what we can do as a whole. Overall, I am just happy to get the win. It’s a good testament that good teams really find a way to win even when you are not playing at your best.”

Perhaps proved by the statistic of the Buffs failing to gain 20 or more yards on a single play tonight, the offense was anemic. They failed to move the ball and it was encapsulated by Liufau’s performance which saw him under-throwing many balls. True, he was hit in a higher dosage than what he has come to expect this year and he did leave for a portion of the contest due to a “stinger,” but he did not impress.

He turned over the ball three times after not throwing a single pick to this point. It would’ve cost the Buffs too had it not been from UCLA’s ineptitude in capitalizing, only scoring three points off of four Buffs turnovers.

Still, Sefo was the leader and did not turn over the ball when it came down to crunch time as Colorado outscored UCLA 13-0 in the second half.

Good Teams…

“Good teams find a way to win, even when you’re not playing at your best,” Liufau aptly told postgame.

Colorado is a good football team as proved by what could be their worst possible performance. Four turnovers, 12 penalties and a stagnate offense didn’t stop the Buffs from beating a talent Bruins squad.

“They realize where they’re headed and where we’re going,” MacIntyre spouted. “We had the gold games listed for November. We won one of them and we have three more. We’ve got to go play Arizona who’s beaten us the last three years also. Everybody we’re beating has beaten us three years in a row.”

If Colorado is able to win the next three “Gold Games” not only will they be playing for the Pac-12 Championship, they’ll have a shot at the College Football Playoff.

And in the end despite all their struggles, good teams like the Colorado Buffaloes find ways to make none of their mistakes matter.