PALO ALTO, Calif. — When Mike MacIntyre started planting the idea before fall camp that his team had what it took to become Pac-12 champions, the declaration was met with skepticism by some of Colorado’s players.
“Nobody in the world believed me, except for my wife,” MacIntyre said. “I don’t think all the players in the room believed me when I said it, but now they do.”
There are no doubters in the Buffs’ locker room now. CU has four games left — three of them at home — and will likely be favored in each one. The path to a Pac-12 championship no longer requires a stretch of the imagination.
It’s why the Buffs were happy to achieve bowl eligibility Saturday for the first time since 2007, but the expression of that joy was quickly met with the requisite caveat from players after their hard-fought 10-5 victory.
“We’ve worked so hard for this opportunity to be in the position we’re in right now,” CU running back Phillip Lindsay said. “We’ve got one goal in mind, and that’s to be Pac-12 champs. We’ve got to keep rolling. We’re not there yet.”
Offense struggles to finish. Red-zone success has been a staple of CU’s rise this season. But Saturday was a different story.
Yes, the Buffs missed three field goals, but they also struggled to find success inside the 10-yard line, where a key third-quarter sack and a penalty that had a touchdown called back in the fourth quarter were among the maladies.
“We’ve got to go back and look at the film,” said CU quarterback Sefo Liufau, who was uncharacteristically off- target, particularly early in the game. “I know I wasn’t at my best today, but that’s why you have teammates to pick you up. We’ll have to go back to the tape to see why we didn’t push it in.”
Kinney’s boot a boon. It was a disastrous day kicking field goals for the Buffs. CU missed three field goals, two from inside 32 yards. One of those misses came from the punter, Alex Kinney, who was called into duty after junior Chris Graham had already missed two kicks.
Kinney was also off-target on his field-goal attempt, but he made up for it in the fourth quarter. With 10:34 left and CU punting from its own 36-yard line, Kinney slammed a 59-yard punt that CU downed at the Stanford 5-yard line.
Advantageous field position was all CU’s playmaking defense needed. After picking up one first down, Stanford quarterback Ryan Burns was intercepted by Tedric Thompson and the Buffs were in position to finally make the field goal — a 23-yarder by Graham — that provided the cushion they needed.
