RECAP: Everything goes wrong for Colorado in blowout loss to WSU Cougars

For those of you who opted for sleep after the first quarter, things didn’t get much better for Colorado on Friday night.

The Buffaloes’ final Pac-12 trip to Pullman featured a countless number of costly mistakes and eight total Washington State touchdowns in a 56-14 loss to the Cougars. Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders also left early with an undisclosed injury, putting his status for next week’s season finale against Utah up in the air.

With the loss, Colorado (4-7, 1-7 Pac-12) can no longer become bowl-eligible in head coach Deion Sanders’ first season.

Here’s what you should know about the Buffaloes’ seventh loss of the year:

The good: Not much

I always start positive, but there simply weren’t many positives that came from Colorado’s final Pac-12 trip to Pullman. Mark Vassett deserves some credit, though. The Australian punter was solid once again with two boots over 50 yards and three that landed inside WSU’s 20.

The bad: Huge first quarter mistakes

Colorado played its sloppiest quarter of the season in that first 15 minutes. The Buffs’ defense let up an easy opening drive touchdown, Washington State recovered a Shedeur Sanders fumble for a 40-yard TD and Colorado’s special teams allowed Leyton Smithson to score on a 98-yard kickoff return.

After that, Washington State simply played better than Colorado and once Shedeur was officially done, there wasn’t much hope left for the Buffs.

Standout player: Travis Hunter

Travis Hunter didn’t care what the scoreboard read. The athletic anomaly finished with one touchdown, one tackle and a pass breakup. Twenty-seven of his 82 receiving yards came on the ridiculous catch shown above.

Vassett, Sy’veon Wilkerson (49 rushing yards and a touchdown) and Lavonta Bentley (10 total tackles, 1.5 TFLs and one sack) also deserve some love.

Standout stat: Non-offensive touchdowns allowed

This find by Brian Howell sums up the kind of night Colorado had:

What's next?

Now that the Buffs won’t become bowl-eligible, their regular season finale next Saturday (Nov. 25) at Utah will close the books on Deion Sanders’ first season at Colorado. Kickoff time and television information are TBD.

The 7-3 Utes are at Arizona in Week 12.

Further reading

READ: Takeaways from The Washington Post’s story on Colorado becoming a ‘social media powerhouse’

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Story originally appeared on Buffaloes Wire