The Eastern Washington Eagles wish they could have the second half back from Saturday's game with Colorado.

After leading 21-7 at halftime, the Eagles looked like they might be the second FCS (formerly Div. I-AA) team ever to beat the Buffs. But Colorado made a turnaround in the second half, winning 31-24, and the Eagles were left guessing as to what they could have done differently.

"They're hurting right now," EWU coach Beau Baldwin said. "That's understandable. They believed they could win. We obviously proved that we could have won that game. They're hurting right now because we feel like one slipped away."

Eastern Washington was held to only a field goal in the second half after scoring three touchdowns in the first. Baldwin also said that in the third quarter the Buffs' defensive backs started to press against the Eagles' receivers better, which stalled the offense.

EWU junior quarterback Matt Nichols, who was 17-for-24 in the first half with 179 yards and a touchdown, threw two interceptions in the second half. The most costly came with 1:44 left to play in the game when Cha'pelle Brown returned the pick for a touchdown that sealed CU's win.

Baldwin said that if a play or two would have gone the Eagles' way on offense in the second half, things would have been different.

"It just came down to a few things," Baldwin said. "They did a few things pretty well in the second half -- made some adjustments against us. We're just a play or two away from where we needed to be."

Nichols, who finished with 303 yards passing, said he felt a little more pressure from CU's defense in the second half.

"They started blitzing a little bit more, which we knew they were going to do," Nichols said. "Their guys really stepped it up in the second half once they were down 14."

Nichols also said that about a week ago, when Eastern Washington was preparing and watching film for its game with the Buffs, the team started to think it could walk away from Folsom Field with a win.

While Eastern Washington's season will depend on how well they do in the Big Sky Conference, Nichols said the loss to Colorado is tough.

"It's definitely going to hurt at least for the next week or so," Nichols said. "Being a competitive team, a competitive guy, I hate to lose in anything."

Defensive back Ryan Kelley, who led the Eagles on defense with 11 tackles, said Eastern Washington started fast but couldn't finish strong. On the defensive side of the ball for Eastern Washington, it came down to bad tackling in the second half.

"I wish that we'd have tackled better," Kelley said. "Their running backs are pretty good. They came through the hole powerful. They just had a few big plays. There was just too many."

As far as starting out 0-2 with losses to Texas Tech and Colorado, two Big 12 teams, Kelley said that the Eagles still took something away from those games.

"I can't say that we didn't start off the way we wanted to because two games, back-to-back Big 12 games, that's big for us," Kelley said. "That's big for the program. We played our hearts out. We played good last weekend. We played good this weekend. We didn't finish."