Colorado's opening possession to begin the second half Saturday evening at Arizona State resulted in an eight-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that saw the Buffs run the ball with impunity against the Sun Devils.

Tailbacks Jarek Broussard and Alex Fontenot both exploited wide open holes to move the chains, while a reverse to freshman wideout Ty Robinson was the longest play of the drive, gaining 26 yards.

By the time Fontenot lunged into the endzone for six points on 3rd and 1 from the ASU 1-yard line to cap the drive, it marked the first CU touchdown scored since the first quarter on Sept. 11 against Texas A&M.

Over two hours of pure game time (nine quarters of play) dating back to the loss to the Aggies had passed before the Buffs finally scored another touchdown in 2021.

Rest assured, for players and coaches alike, finding moral victories in the aftermath of a 35-13 loss is a far-from-pleasant task.

However, for this Colorado offensive unit, struggling as it has so far, even the tiniest baby step towards some efficiency — case in point, that early third quarter touchdown drive — has to be interpreted as a positive.

"I was really encouraged when we came out of halftime with the ball and we went downfield and scored," Karl Dorrell said after the game. "That was more reminiscent of what we saw a year ago with how we played and the rushing game leading the way."

For a refresher, Dorrell refers to the 1,092 yards that CU rushed for in a five-game regular season in 2020, averaging nearly 220 yards on the ground per contest.

With Broussard, the reigning Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year, flanked by a healthy Fontenot, the Buffs were expected to have a potent one-two punch at tailback that could carry the offense and alleviate some pressure of the new starting quarterback, Brendon Lewis.

The aforementioned drive has been about the only example of that happening so far this season.

But again, given Colorado's ongoing struggles to put points on the board this season, doing so, albeit in a small does, has to be looked at as something foundational.

“I think things just kind of started working," Dorrell said. "We went to the stuff that we think we do well and I think that those guys were motivated to come out in the second half and put some points on the board...That was a glimpse of us talking about it at halftime, (players) orchestrated it and made it happen. So, that was a positive step, a very positive step."

"Those are the things that we have to gather from this game, all the things that we did in a positive way, and try to build on those things as we go into the next week."

In total, the Buffs rushed for 183 yards on 44 carries, good for a healthy, if unspectacular, 4.2 yards per carry.

Conversely, CU's passing game remains borderline nonexistent, as Lewis threw for a total of 67 yards Saturday.

After losing to Arizona State, the Buffaloes, now 1-3 (0-1 Pac-12) on the year, have little to celebrate as they prepare to head back to Boulder.

However, at the very minimum, for the offensive players, they have put one foot ahead of the other in proving to themselves that they are able of manufacturing scoring drives and putting points on the board.

"We have to just work on getting better each week and hopefully that lightbulb starts to glow a bit brighter for us to be much more productive, score more points and actually do as well as we need to do defensively," Dorrell said. "We’ll keep plugging at it.”