EVANSTON, Ill. — The run game once again kept things moving forward for Colorado. And the worst of the expected inclement weather didn’t start pouring down on Martin Stadium until the waning moments of the fourth quarter.
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There was an opportunity there for the Buffaloes to make another major statement on the road. Yet by the time the late deluge struck, the Buffs had spent the bulk of the night piling one critical mistake upon another.
The end result was even uglier than the weather.
Thwarted by their own miscues throughout the night, the CU football team made it easy for Northwestern in the Wildcats’ final game at their temporary home, handing the Buffs a 41-7 defeat on a rainy Saturday night along Lake Michigan.
“A flat-out butt-kicking,” CU head coach Deion Sanders said. “They played a heck of a game. Forced us to turn the ball over. Forced us into bad decisions. Forced us into doing things that is not truly who we are.
“I really felt like we’re better than that. I don’t feel like we played indicative of what we’re capable of doing.”
The Buffs committed three first-half turnovers on consecutive possessions, including the first career interception for Julian Lewis, and suffered a number of untimely penalties that wiped out positive plays.
A Micah Welch fumble on CU’s second possession led to Northwestern’s first score, a one-yard run by quarterback Aidan Chiles.
The Buffs’ next possession ended in a fumble by Damian Henderson II with CU driving inside the Northwestern 20-yard line. CU made it three turnovers in a row when Lewis was picked off by Braden Turner, whose return set up the Wildcats at the Buffs’ 18-yard line. Two plays later, an 18-yard pass from Chiles to Joseph Himon II gave Northwestern a 14-0 lead.
Northwestern’s final drive of the first half was aided by an unsportsmanlike penalty on CU’s Boo Carter with the Wildcats facing third-and-long. Chiles scored his second touchdown on a three-yard run with 59 seconds remaining, giving the Wildcats a 21-0 lead at the break.
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“Overall, just a disappointing performance by us,” Lewis said. “We have a lot to work on, a lot to grow on. Our goal is to win every game we play. What we need to do to get back to where we were that first game, the second game The competition was different this game but at the end of the day, we’re competitors and this not OK to lose.”
The Buffs gave themselves a chance at mounting a comeback early in the third quarter, as Joseph Williams turned a short catch into a 50-yard touchdown that cut Northwestern’s lead to 21-7.
However, the Wildcats reached the end zone on their next two possessions, regaining the three-touchdown lead on a 25-yard pass from Chiles to Himon. After stuffing the Buffs on fourth-and-one, Himon collected his third touchdown on a three-yard reception, extending Northwestern’s lead to 35-7.
CU (2-1) finished with 180 rushing yards, hitting that mark for the third time in as many games. But four turnovers — Lewis threw his second interception in the fourth quarter — and 80 penalty yards negated what little traction the Buffs were able to muster.
Lewis finished 19-for-29 but those completions went for only 168 yards. Take Williams’ 50-yard catch-and-run out of the equation, and Lewis’ other 18 completions averaged just 6.6 yards. Chiles, meanwhile, was nearly flawless, going 17-for-22 for 241 yards and three touchdowns.
The meltdown in all facets left Sanders bewildered with the Big 12 Conference opener looming next week at Baylor.
“Hopefully you’re not on this side of a beating like this, but we were, unfortunately,” Sanders said. “You could’ve never told me that this was going to be what it was during the week the way we prepared, the way we were ready. We were ready for this one. But the turnovers and penalties, there’s no way you can win that game.”
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