SALT LAKE CITY — By the time the first quarter had ended at Rice-Eccles Stadium Saturday night, Utah had already manhandled Colorado in every way possible. By halftime, questions turned from, “Can the Buffs come back?” to “How bad will this get?”

The Utes got the longest run in school history by a true freshman starting at quarterback on the second play of the game, a 63-yard touchdown run, and it went downhill from there for the Buffaloes. Colorado trailed 43-0 at intermission on its way to a 53-7 demolition at the hands of the Utes.

“Sometimes you just are dumbfounded,” CU coach Deion Sanders said. “You just look at this thing and like, wow, what happened? There’s no way that should happen.”

Just how bad was it through the first quarter for a team that had a bye week to prepare for the trip to Utah? Colorado had 8 total yards and had surrendered 203, including 25 on a fake punt that Utah felt confident enough to run from its own 29-yard line.

That play alone showed the Utes didn’t fear anything about Colorado’s offense. As it turns out, Utah was spot on in that assessment, suffocating them for minus-18 total yards in the first half and just three first downs.

The 25-yard fake punt gave Utah punter Orion Phillips more passing yards at the half than CU starting quarterback Kaidon Salter, who had just 23.

While CU’s offense was zombie-like, Utah found a spark from true freshman Byrd Ficklin as he stepped in at quarterback for an injured Devon Dampier. There were rumors leading up to the game that Ficklin could step in for the player who was leading the Utes in both passing and rushing, but Sanders said earlier in the week that, “We’ll make adjustments if that happens.”

Ficklin didn’t give the Buffs time to make any adjustments, running 63 yards on the second play of the game to give Utah a quick 7-0 lead. It was the longest rush by a true freshman starting at quarterback in program history as well as the longest by any Utah player this season.

That run set the tone for the rest of the game and showed the Utes were going to be just fine with Dampier serving as an emergency backup. Utah built a 43-0 halftime lead on the back of Ficklin, who guided his team to 398 total yards in the first half while accounting for three touchdowns and setting the Utah freshman record for quarterback rushing yards in a game with 163 — before intermission.

Six days before Halloween, the Buffs lived through a nightmare in the first half, including intentional grounding in the end zone that gave Utah a safety and a pair of botches in the punting game, including a blocked punt that led to a field goal and a 14-yard punt that sailed over the CU bench at their own 21-yard line.

No haunted house in Utah could have put on a horror-filled show that matched what CU endured on both sides of the ball.

“This is bad,” Sanders said. “It’s probably the worst beating I’ve ever had except when my mama whooped me as a kid.”

Now 3-5 overall and 1-4 in Big 12 play, Colorado has four November games left to try to salvage a bowl appearance and something positive from a season that hit rock bottom on Saturday in Salt Lake City.

“We ain’t thinking about no bowl right now. We’re thinking about this moment,” Sanders said. “Let’s figure out why this happened and let’s make sure it don’t happen again.”

***

Utah 53, Colorado 7

What happened: As Deion Sanders said, “All three phases, we got our butts kicked.” After having an extra week to prepare for Utah, Colorado was down 7-0 after just two plays and never seemed to have any kind of answer for Utah’s blitzes or a punishing running game that racked up 422 yards.

What it means: Sanders said the improvement that Colorado must have moving forward includes from the coaching staff as well. While he didn’t have immediate answers late Saturday night, it’s clear the Utah loss was something that will have a lot of conversations happening this week ahead of what becomes a pivotal game against Arizona.

Quotable: “I watched over 10 hours of film, and a lot of the pressures that came up today was nowhere to be found on tape. I feel like today they schemed up this pressure just for us and for this game,” said CU quarterback Kaidon Salter.

What’s next: The Buffaloes return home to face Arizona on Saturday. The Wildcats are coming off a bye and enter Boulder with a 4-3 overall record, but have lost three of their last four games, all in Big 12 play.