Colorado (3-6, 1-5 Pac-12) was down 17-0 at the end of the first quarter and after another disappointing offensive effort, the Buffs fell to UCLA on the road, 31-14. The Buffaloes have now dropped five games straight.
Below are 10 takeaways from Saturday's loss.
1. At least numerically, penalties were less than in weeks past. However, the frustration stemming from them and the negative consequences they had were not.
***Colorado finished this one with five penalties for 55 yards, a marked improvement from the 13/109 yards vs. USC and 14/114 yards against Oregon, yet at the end of the day, there should be no moral victory whatsoever claimed by the Buffs for a lesser amount of penalties.
The continuous false starts are absolutely and inexplicably inexcusable. And tonight, there was no excuse to be had about UCLA's defensive line wreaking havoc with "stemming" as we've heard used as an excuse in weeks past, which I think is bogus to begin with.
The late hit call on Davion Taylor was soft, the initial kick catching interference penalty was frustrating but by no means calamitous, and ultimately, I really look at the false starts as the real killers.
Late in the second quarter, with a rough first quarter having put CU in a 17-7 hole, the Buffs had a golden opportunity to get some much-needed points before halftime. There's 18 second on the clock, Colorado is at the UCLA 25-yard line on a 3rd and 1, and Will Sherman gets flagged for a false start.
From there, INC pass to K.D. Nixon and James Stefanou misses a 47-yard field goal.If that 3rd and 1 is converted / there's no penalty, I fully believe, despite a disappointing night in general, that at the minimum that Stefanou drills a shorter FG while at the max, who knows, maybe somehow a TD is scored.I won't dive into too deep of a hypotheticals rabbit hole, but once again, penalties killed a promising drive.
2. Here's the deal on Steven Montez: he's still the most likely candidate at QB to lead Colorado to a victory
***I know many of you will be ready to tar and feather me for saying this, but at the end of the day, Montez is the most gifted QB Colorado has right now in terms of skill set. Is he lacking mentally at times, perhaps even more often than not as of late? Yes. Is it fair to say that he effectively has plateaued? Probably.
But I still believe despite all of his mounting errors, when he is on his game he's a force to be reckoned with.I think it's a separate argument entirely in wanting to see Tyler Lytle or Blake Stenstrom start a game to get a gauge on either of them in looking ahead to 2020 and beyond, but strictly talking about which guy is most capable of producing a win in 2019, I'm still going with Montez.
3. Alex Fontenot and K.J. Trujillo's absence turned out to be an essential nonfactor
***UCLA ended up passing the ball more than was reasonably expected given how well the Bruins had run the ball in the last month, but I didn't think Tarik Luckett was picked on or was a weak spot by any means for the Buffs.
If anything, he deserves some credit for being the next man up. Five tackles for him tonight having played a total of 12 snaps previously before this game, that's ok in my book.
As for Mangham, 17 carries for 77 yards doesn't exactly raise the eyebrows but the question to me is whether Alex Fontenot in the backfield would have made all that much of a difference. There were many issues on offense but Fontenot's absence to me is lower on the list of what really made a difference.
