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The Colorado Buffaloes’ offense finally woke up from a slumber that spanned more than a fortnight as they beat the Arizona Wildcats 49-24. Big plays, a solid but not stellar defensive effort, and competent special teams gave the Buffs an expected blowout win in Tucson.

Showtime Shay

Over the course of the Buffaloes’ past two games, at Stanford and against UCLA, Colorado’s receivers failed to win one on one matchups. It was the only time this season the explosive group dubbed the “Black Out Boyz” struggled to break free. That rough stretch was stopped pretty early in CU’s contest with U of A.

A 16-yard pass from Sefo Liufau to Devin Ross got the offense flowing on the first drive which eventually resulted in a touchdown, but it wasn’t until the second scoring drive when Liufau found Fields for 47-yards that the offense was clicking.

That connection ended a streak that went back to the third quarter of the Arizona State game, a stretch of 10 quarters where the Buffs hadn’t completed a pass of 20 or more yards.

“Timing is something we always practice and they were playing the right coverage for the deep ball tonight,” Fields told KOA after the game.

Fields was far from done as he shined bright under the gleaming desert moon.

On the next Colorado possession, Sefo found Shay on a 15-yard fade which resulted in six.

The Buffs would go ahead but 18 but it wasn’t until they were ahead 35-10 that things felt out of reach. And the arm of Liufau combined with the hands’ of Fields put it out of reach with two catches for a combined 33 yards and a touchdown on that Colorado scoring drive.

Fields ended up with six catches for 108 yards and two touchdowns. His second best performance to the Oregon State game and in total this season he has amassed 710 yards on 41 catches, tacking on eight touchdowns.

The Next Two Gold Games

For a few weeks now Boulder has known that the last two Buffaloes home games were gonna decide the season. Each game is lining up to be “must win,” at least in terms of Pac-12 Title. A Top-25 matchup with the Washington State Cougars is essential for the Buffs as USC (one game back of the Buffs) holds the tiebreak and does not look like they will lose again. Meanwhile, the game against the Utes, if both Colorado and Utah take care of business this Saturday, will decide the Pac-12 South in a Top-10 matchup.

“What’s exciting about it, is that is exciting for both teams,” Mike MacIntyre said to KOA. “It is exciting for Washington State and Mike Leech, it is exciting for the University of Colorado and our staff. I am so excited for our fans. This is a special time in Colorado football. Our young men have taken us from good to really good and hopefully next week they can take us to great.”

It has ended up to be by far the toughest stretch of the Buffs’ season but if they’re able to perform at home like they have all year, they’ll be visiting Santa Clara.

“We’re nowhere near where we want to be,” Phil Lindsay described to KOA. “We got two big games coming up…. It’s gonna be a tough stretch but we get to be in Colorado at home. It will be electrifying.”

Context

I’ll let BSN Buffs’ Ted Chalfen take it from here:

The Buffs are 3-1 on the road in conference play this season.
During the 2008-15 bowl drought they went 3-32 on the road in conference.

— Ted (@TheGhostofMarv) November 13, 2016

This Saturday will be the first time since 2009 that a CU home game has been televised by one of the four major networks.

— Ted (@TheGhostofMarv) November 14, 2016

How many times can you say it? The Buffs are doing things this year that not even the most optimistic person could have predicted.