Colorado football served heaping helping of 'humble pie' in blowout loss at Northwestern
· Yahoo Sports
EVANSTON, IL — Deion Sanders wanted to give his Colorado football team some humble pie, despite a 2-0 start to the season.
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Northwestern did him one better, handing the Buffaloes an entire humble cake with a 41-7 beatdown on Saturday, Sept. 19, at Martin Stadium.
Colorado (2-1) opened the season with wins over Georgia Tech and Weber State. But Sanders reminded his team leading up to the game that it had not beaten anyone yet. The Wildcats (2-0) forced Colorado into four turnovers and scored 17 points off them. The Buffaloes also turned the ball over three times on downs, proving Sanders' point.
"Early in the week, I showed them the record of the two teams we had beaten and I told them we hadn't beaten anybody," Sanders said postgame. "Nothing against them, but you got to serve them humble pie when they're coming off a tremendous win."
That does not mean the Buffaloes came out flat or could not figure things out early. Colorado actually outgained Northwestern 199-188 in the first half, but three costly turnovers and two turnovers on downs led to it trailing 21-0 at halftime.
Penalties also undid the Buffaloes throughout the game. They had five called for 46 yards in the first half and then four more for 34 yards in the second half.
"We got to do better," Sanders said of the penalties. "Fifteen yards is 15 gasses. So they are going to be in shape and they are going to stop. Because it doesn't make sense, especially the self-inflicted (ones) that no one had nothing to do with you. Jumping offsides, like come on man, the play hasn't even started and that doesn't make sense. We'll get it right. I promise you, we'll get it right."
Even when the Buffaloes found an answer on JuJu Lewis' 50-yard touchdown pass to Joseph Williams early in the third quarter to cut the lead to 14 points, Northwestern had an answer, scoring the final 20 points of the game.
Northwestern finished with 423 yards of total offense, with 241 coming through the air and 182 rushing.
"Great game by Northwestern," Sanders said. "... (Chip Kelly) called a hell of a game. Flat-out butt kicking."
Northwestern QB Aidan Chiles — a Michigan State transfer — finished 17-of-22 passing for 241 yards and three touchdowns, while also adding two rushing scores.
"I'll tell you what, that kid played his butt off today," Sanders said of Chiles. "That's the best football game I've ever seen him play. That's not an insult, a shot at him, but he was effective. ... I'm happy for him and proud of him."
Lewis, Colorado's starter, finished the game 19-of-29 passing for 168 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. Those were the first two interceptions of the 18-year-old's college career.
"It all starts with me. I am the quarterback," Lewis said. "It's my job to move the ball and score. ... We can obviously move the ball. I think we've seen that, but it's all about finishing. We can't score points, it doesn't matter. So just a lot to work on."
Deion Sanders frustrated with players on sideline
With his team being blown out of the stadium on Saturday, Sanders said postgame that he lit into some of his players on the sideline as the game started getting out of hand.
"I saw some guys fight, playing through it offensively and defensively," Sanders said. "Now you did see a couple of guys I got on because I don't understand how you can have joy in a loss. Especially when I'm upset. I'm walking right behind you. I don't understand. I can't ever understand that because I want to win every darn thing.
"I can't understand how in the world you can find joy or can find a laughing matter when I'm right behind you. I'm going to put my foot in it."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Colorado football served heaping helping of 'humble pie' in blowout loss at Northwestern