Colorado is heading into Big 12 play with a short memory and a lot to clean up.
After getting embarrassed by Northwestern on Saturday night in Evanston, the Buffs now have just a few days to reset before opening conference play at Baylor. The next five days, as the source of the problem makes clear, are about more than game planning - they’re about restoring the standard inside a 2-1 Colorado locker room and making sure Saturday’s mistakes don’t follow them into Waco.
Safety Naeten Mitchell, who finished with 11 tackles at Northwestern, said the team is ready to move on and attack the week.
"The sun's going to come up in the morning," said Mitchell, who totaled 11 tackles at Northwestern. "It's another day that we have, another opportunity in the next game.
We're just going to go into the week really hard and focus. After we get on the plane, we're going to watch film, and we're going to learn from this."
Mitchell pointed to Colorado’s offseason work on chemistry as something the team can lean on now, even after a rough night on the road.
"We worked really hard on connecting together as a group, and you could see it on the sideline," Mitchell said. "A lot of people couldn't see it from the cameras and everything like that, but we were connecting during the breaks."
Quarterback Julian Lewis is also trying to put the Northwestern game behind him after a difficult outing in which he threw the first two interceptions of his career and missed on several other throws. He owned the performance afterward and made it clear where the responsibility starts.
"It all starts with me," Lewis said. "I'm the quarterback back there.
It's my job to move the ball and score. I got a lot to build on this week, and I thank God for another week.
We can obviously move the ball. I think we've seen that.
But it's all about finishing. If we can't score points, it doesn't matter."
Colorado’s offense has produced just 21 points in its first two games against Power Four opponents, and the challenge doesn’t get any softer with Baylor on deck. The Bears have allowed an average of 13 points and 287 yards against Auburn, Prairie View A&M and Louisiana Tech.
Lewis said the group still has time to respond the right way.
"It's amazing that we got another week," Lewis said. "God is good and gave us another opportunity to work.
All my brothers helped me. Nobody got hurt for real.
We'll continue to work."
Colorado and Baylor will kick off at 10 a.m. MT on ESPN2 at McLane Stadium in Waco, Texas.
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