Seeing double

When Colorado tried to run the ball last Friday, it found some success.

Unfortunately for the Buffaloes, the outcome of the game, a 38-13 loss to TCU, forced them to get away from that aspect of their offense.

In preparing for Saturday’s matchup at Air Force (1:30 p.m., TV: CBS), running back Alex Fontenot believes he and his mates could be vital to the Buffs’ chances for a victory.

“It’s gonna be huge,” the senior said. “We have to establish the run right off the bat. Just establishing the run, that sets up the pass. That’s major for us.

“We know that our position has the potential to relieve stress off of (the quarterbacks). That’s kind of what we’re thinking. Our mindset is always just to put the team on our back going into every game.”

Quarterback Brendon Lewis led the Buffs in rushing (42 yards), but the running backs had a solid night, with 75 yards on 18 carries (4.2 per attempt). The backs were never tackled for a loss against TCU.

Fontenot finished with eight carries for 31 yards, while junior Deion Smith had seven carries for 30 yards.

“I felt like we were doing good things in the run,” Fontenot said. “All of us, as a collective, were all falling forward, getting those tough yards.

“We needed our pass game, too, so the second half, we unfortunately had to just cut out the run game and go to the pass to try and catch up.”

Down 24-6 early in the fourth quarter, CU called just one run on its last 19 offensive snaps.

“We weren’t able to create that balance in the second half, given the nature of the game,” head coach Karl Dorrell said. “I think it would be good to be able to keep both systems in place to be efficient for us. We did a fairly decent job in that first half. We kind of got away from that element in the second.”

In the first half against TCU, CU had a solid 212 yards in total offense, with 108 through the air and 104 on the ground. In the second half, only nine of the Buffs’ 136 yards came from the run game.

As he did last week, Dorrell isn’t revealing who will start at quarterback. But, like last week, Lewis and JT Shrout are both expected to play against Air Force.

“There’s a good possibility of that, yes,” Dorrell said Wednesday.

Lewis has made 13 consecutive starts, but Shrout led the team with 157 passing yards last week against TCU and he led the Buffs to their only touchdowns.