Colorado Buffaloes Football Predictions (Games 7-12)

Why Buff fans should look forward to this game with optimism:

1) It’s about freakin’ time! For the first time since week two against Eastern Washington, Buff fans will be looking at the team on the upcoming schedule and saying, "Okay, there’s a win".

The Cyclones may, by the end of September, have already matched their win total for all of 2007, but that doesn’t mean that ISU is all that much better. Colorado will be the sixth Big 12 game for Iowa State, and reality will have set in for the Cyclones long before they travel to Boulder.

2) 21-0. Yes, Iowa State beat Colorado last season, but that game was an aberration, as the Buffs inexplicably turned a 21-0 lead into a 31-28 defeat.

If the Buffs are up by three scores early in the third quarter against the Cyclones this fall in Boulder, and face a fourth down on the Buffs’ side of the field, there will be a loud cry throughout Folsom Field: "Punt!".

3) 47-14-1. The loss last season notwithstanding, Colorado just does not lose to Iowa State. The win in 2007 gave the Cyclones their third win over the Buffs in 23 years. That’s 3-20 against CU since 1983, 1-11 in Boulder.

The Buffs have more talent, the Buffs are playing at home, and the Buffs will not, after the debacle in Ames in ‘07, look past Iowa State.

Why there is reason for Buff fans to lose sleep the night before the game:

1) No lead is safe. The Buffs were on cruise control in the 2007 game. A 21-0 halftime lead against a 2-8 team. Yes, Iowa State had upset Kansas State the weekend before, but the 5-5 Buffs needed the win in order to ensure a bowl bid, and had dominated the first half. Go for it on fourth-and-one at your own 42-yard line? Why not?

ISU had 100 yards of total offense in the first half, and was averaging only 18 points per game during the season. Oops. Demetrius Sumler was stuffed on the fourth down run, and before the Buffs could say "losing season," CU was down 31-21 on its way to a 31-28 loss.

Even if the Buffs get up big against the Cyclones on Nov. 8, there has to be an underlying sense on both sidelines that Iowa State is still in the game.

2) Grading on improvement. With Kent State, Toledo, Northern Iowa and Iowa on the non-conference schedule, and with Oklahoma, Texas, and Texas Tech (all three of which will be ranked in 2008) traded out for Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, and Baylor (none of which will be ranked in 2008, at least not at the outset), there is reason for optimism in Ames.

The Cyclones may be sniffing a bowl bid come November, and looking at the Buffs as a possible victim.

3) Anything left in the tank? For Colorado, the Iowa State game will either represent a chance to show that the Colorado can dominate lesser competition, or a game between teams desperate to move into bowl contention.

If the Buffs have struggled through a tough schedule, and get to this game 3-6 or 4-5, it’s anybody’s game.

Iowa State game to keep an eye on before the CU/Iowa State game:

Iowa State at UNLV on Sept. 20. You will have to look long and hard to find coverage of this game. ISU was 3-9 in 2007; UNLV 2-10 - not exactly a marquee matchup.

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