Colorado Falls Apart In The Fourth Quarter, Loses To UCLA 42-14

The Colorado Buffaloes have fallen to 1-4 on the 2012 season after getting outclassed at home by the UCLA Bruins, 42-7. It was a game where both teams just seemed to go through the motions, not in a lack of effort sense, but in a "we are who we are and we're going to do what we do" kind of way. Sitting through the fourth quarter, I struggled with an angle to take on the recap for this game and finally decided that there wasn't one. Colorado lost to a better team. A team with more experience, talent and composure. This was a game that unless the Buffs played a near perfect game or UCLA made a lot of mistakes, they weren't going to win. Neither of those things happened today.

At the end of the first half, it was still anyone's game. The Buffaloes were down 21-7 but the defense was playing well even though the offense had done next to nothing. 104 yards through the air and a measly 18 yards on 13 carries for the CU rushing game amounted to a 285 to 122 halftime yardage deficit. A few plays here and there and Colorado could have been within a touchdown or less.

The second half was not so kind. The Buffs held strong for most of the third quarter, but just couldn't get the offense going enough to bring the game any closer. Right when the Buffaloes had crossed midfield with under five minutes to go in the third quarter and it seemed they were going to make this game a turnover swung the momentum. Vincent Hobbs made a fantastic catch over the middle and broke a tackle at the UCLA 40 but had the ball punched away and it was Bruin ball. Three straight touchdowns later it was 42-7 Bruins and Colorado was done. CU would tack on a touchdown late with a 32-yard TD pass from Nick Hirschman to Nick Kasa.

This was a reminder after the WSU win that the Buffaloes still have a very long way to go. The team is still significantly improved from the group that took the field in the first three games, but finding another win this season could be tough. A bye this week, followed by a winnable Thursday night game against Arizona State in Boulder before the USC, Oregon, Stanford run. Hopefully the Buffs can take down the Sun Devils to get their second win. And if the can't... well basketball season is officially kicked off the following night.