Day after thoughts: Buffaloes drop fifth straight game

Not even the return of Laviska Shenault Jr. could help the Buffaloes Saturday as they dropped their fifth straight game, 31-7 to Washington State. Despite holding Mike Leach’s air-raid attack to just 17 points through three quarters, the Buffaloes offense couldn’t get it going against one of the conference’s top defenses. With the loss, the Buffaloes are now 5-5 overall, 2-5 in Pac-12 play and need one more victory if they hope to be playing into December.

Here are my three biggest takeaways from Colorado’s loss to Washington State:

1. The defense played their asses off

A week after surrendering 566 total yards in a 42-34 loss to Khalil Tate and Arizona, D.J. Eliot’s unit was tasked with…