MacIntyre: "They definitely wore us down"

The Buffaloes were able to reclaim the lead with a 28 yard James Stefanou field goal that was set up by a 60 yard catch and run by Phillip Lindsay, but ASU quickly marched down the field to score another touchdown giving them a 34-30 lead.

After CU wasn't able to muster up anything offensively, Colorado punted away to ASU in hopes that their defense could get a stop and give the ball back to Steven Montez and Co.

That plan failed. Arizona State went on to score another touchdown to put Colorado away, 41-30.

"Arizona State played really well," Colorado head coach Mike MacIntyre said. "Especially about the last ten minutes of the game. They played better than we did and made more plays than we did. Hats off to Todd Graham and those guys. They did a heck of job. Those powerful running backs did some damage to use in the last part there. We didn’t do a good enough job of stopping them. They got more points than us at the end."

Coming into the fourth quarter, the Colorado defense held Arizona State to 17 points, and the Buffaloes were playing their best defense since the CSU game to open the season. But the fourth quarter was an epic collapse as the Sun Devils outscored CU 24-3.

"They definitely wore us down," explained MacIntyre. "There’s no doubt about it. We didn’t go down and keep the ball moving. We should have got first downs there and that hurt us. It let them come back out there. It’s tough. We should have had a little bit better lead. Might have been a different story. They wouldn’t have been able to run it. We got worn down. There’s no doubt."

Not all of the blame should be aimed towards the CU defense though. The offense wasn't able to let the defense rest on the sidelines whatsoever, as MacIntyre pointed out.

"We dropped balls that our senior receivers should have caught and they will catch next week," said MacIntyre. "We just got to go back to work. We make those plays and it’s a different game but we didn’t. It gave them a ton of momentum to have a fight.

"It’s always hard to win on the road in the Pac-12. You’ve got to make plays when you have the opportunities to make them. Especially touchdown plays in the Pac-12 if you’re going to win and we didn’t make enough of them. We were concerned it might get us in the end and it did so we have got to make a better job than that."

Next up for the Buffaloes are the USC Trojans, who are coming off a 49-35 win over Arizona.

"We’ll go back to work on Monday and prepare for USC because they are going to be coming to Boulder to kick our ass too," quarterback Steven Montez said candidly. "We’ve got to be ready for them.”