A Stanford loss could actually be a bowl gain for Colorado

It’s now been ten days since Colorado’s monumental collapse against Stanford. It was a gut punch for far more than just the players and coaches, its impact was felt by millions worldwide.

Yes, conventional thinking would indicate that 5-2 is a whole lot better than 4-3. This is especially true when the “goal” is 6-6 or better. We all understand the players and coaches are not thinking about six wins, and only focused on the next opponent. However, this column is about bowl eligibility and .500 is good enough.

Colorado’s next five games are all very difficult matchups. From a gambling perspective, they’ll likely be underdogs in all of them.

So, how was losing to Stanford a good thing?

Well, it most certainly was not an ideal outcome, But, something needed to disrupt the mindset on this team.

We celebrated a 4th quarter escape in Fort Worth because it was believed, at the time, that TCU was the better team. The other three wins were decided by either a quarterback completely melting down against Nebraska, or two 4th quarter and overtime struggles where the more talented team barely survived.

This is what makes the Stanford loss potentially more meaningful. The better team didn’t win. Many observers thought Colorado were going to win that game by 50 points and the players probably felt that way heading to halftime. College football can be a humbling experience. It definitely was that night in Boulder.

Coach Prime has referred to several previous victories as “hot garbage.” While he didn’t say it explicitly, losing to Stanford was nothing short of volcanic refuse. And just like a volcano, this type of meltdown had been building up for weeks.

But here we are, on the other side of it all.

It’s time to look for positives. Maybe this was the wake-up call they desperately needed.

Perhaps, if they had squeaked out the Stanford game in overtime, that same level of complacency might have stayed with them throughout the bye week.

There’s no more excuses and the margins are very slim from here on out. I’m sure most “experts” do not believe they can win two of these games. They need to find a way.

This season has been a storybook, but there’s a few more chapters that still need to be written. It starts with UCLA on Saturday.

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