Colorado
North Texas
OFFENSE SHINES AS CU ROUTS NORTH TEXAS
September 18, 2004 | Football
BOULDER - Senior tailback Bobby Purify ran for three touchdowns Saturday to help the Buffaloes defeat North Texas 52-21 on Saturday night at Folsom Field.
Purify's first score, midway through the first quarter, ended Colorado's streak of 114 minutes, 47 seconds _ almost two full games _ without an offensive TD.
"We just went back to the basics," tight end Joe Klopfenstein said. "I think we've been pressing a little bit too hard the last two weeks."
The Buffaloes improved to 3-0 for the first time since 1998 and head into their Big 12 schedule with reason to believe this season could be surprisingly special.
For them to do anything, though, a lot of improvement is needed on a defense that surrendered 507 yards, including 247 to third-string tailback Jamario Thomas of North Texas (0-3).
"We were bad," CU linebacker Akarika Dawn said. "We messed up a lot. As you saw, they broke a couple of long ones on us. It wasn't what they did, it's what we did."
The Mean Green, 65-0 losers to Texas two weeks ago, simply embarrassed the Colorado defense at the beginning, then humbled it the rest of the way.
Thomas broke off touchdown runs of 57 and 25 yards and finished the first quarter with 115 yards. The freshman wound up just two yards short of the North Texas single-game record and 21 off the record the Buffs allowed to David Winbush of Kansas six seasons ago.
"I had big holes to run in the whole night," Thomas said.
With the score tied at 14 early in the second, Scott Hall completed six passes to lead the Mean Green from their own 7 to the Colorado 8. Receiver Kevin Howard lost a fumble on the 15th play of the drive, though, and the Buffs drove 95 yards in seven plays for the go-ahead score.
Thus began the runaway.
"Those drives are big for the confidence of an offense, and for the whole team, really," Colorado quarterback Joel Klatt said.
Klatt completed 13 straight passes in the first half and finished with three touchdowns and 371 yards, 246 more than the entire offense gained last week in the 20-12 win over Washington State. It tied for the 11th most yards in a single game in CU history, and his 26-of-33 accuracy (78.8%) set a school record for completion percentage for 20-, 25- and 30-plus attempts.
Purify averaged 7.5 yards a carry before he left in the third quarter with a bruised shoulder that was not deemed serious. Klopfenstein caught six passes for 67 yards and two scores.
The defense, meanwhile, continued to take "bend but don't break" to a whole new level.
In each of the first two games, CU gave up more than 400 yards, but made late goal-line stands in each to preserve close victories. No big stand was needed this time, although the Buffs will certainly use their upcoming bye week to deal with problems.
"We weren't as sharp as we should have been, or as sharp as we're going to need to be, and that's all I'm going to say about it," Colorado coach Gary Barnett said.
