Buffs unready for prime time, mauled by Wildcats

The Buffs had a prime slot in the Fox Sports spotlight and a chance to get halfway to bowl eligibility at the expense of a Northwestern side picked 14th in the Big Ten preseason poll.

They left on the business end of an annihilation.

Northwestern sprinted to a 21-0 lead at the expense of the mistake-prone, hapless Buffs and dealt CU a 41-7 beatdown in Evanston, Ill. on Saturday night.

The defeat dropped the Buffs to 2-1 after season-opening wins over Georgia Tech and Weber State, but also served to blast alarms for a program in need of more credible wins after its 3-9 finish last year.

The game turned sour in the first half when three-consecutive CU drives ended in giveaways — two fumbles and a Julian Lewis interception.

Northwestern turned two of those turnovers into touchdowns, and the Buffs never came closer than two scores again.

CU briefly made it interesting in the third quarter, when Joseph Williams took a Lewis swing pass, navigated around a pair of blocks and sprinted the rest of the way for a 50-yard score that narrowed Northwestern’s lead to 21-7.

Defense to Offense

🖥️: FOX pic.twitter.com/hpxufriMrm

— Colorado Buffaloes Football (@CUBuffsFootball) September 20, 2026

But the Wildcats responded with an eight-play march through the CU defense, capped by Aidan Chiles’ 26-yard touchdown pass to Joseph Himon II.

The Buffs were stuffed on a fourth-down attempt one series later, and Northwestern put the game out of reach with its fifth touchdown of the evening four plays after that.

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