Colorado's young offensive line figured to struggle at times this season with two freshmen feeling their way at the college level and sophomore tackle Nate Solder adjusting to his new position.

The Buffs struggled badly Saturday against an experienced Eastern Washington defensive front and allowed their quarterback to take a beating while the running game accounted for only 2.7 yards a carry and 90 total yards.

True freshman Max Tuioti-Mariner made the first start of his career at right guard and redshirt freshman Blake Behrens made his second start, in place of suspended junior Devin Head.

"We were miscommunicating and mental mistakes and just not playing up to our potential," senior center Daniel Sanders said.

Eastern Washington recorded 11 tackles for loss, two sacks and four quarterback hurries. Sanders said it's no longer acceptable to attribute the struggles to youth and inexperience two games into the season.

"You can't really put it on that anymore," he said. "They played last week. They've been playing all through camp. It's just another game you've got to treat it as. So everybody, including myself, has to come back in (today) and look at the film and take what we can from it."

Offensive line coach Jeff Grimes prefers to watch film before assessing a performance but he was willing to say Saturday that his unit didn't have a very good day. Grimes said credit should be given to Eastern Washington, but he was also left scratching his head by his players' struggles.

"I think a player can learn from any game if they're the right kind of kid, and I do think we have the right kind of kids," he said.

Right tackle Ryan Miller, who became a starter in the middle of last season, said the speed of the EWU defensive line gave the CU line trouble.

"It was definitely their speed," he said.

Mohler injured

Shaun Mohler was playing well Saturday all the way up to the point when he suffered a shoulder injury that required a hospital visit.

Mohler underwent a magnetic resonance imaging test Saturday night and what was originally believed to be a broken collarbone was diagnosed as a shoulder bruise.

Mohler tied cornerback Jalil Brown for the team lead in tackles with nine and also broke up two passes and forced another bad throw with a quarterback hurry.

He is listed as day-to-day.

Penalty parade

The Buffs are likely to be ranked among the most penalized teams in the nation this week after committing 10 infractions Saturday on top of the eight times they were flagged against CSU.

Making a mark

True freshman tight end Ryan Deehan saw plenty of action in crunch time and contributed to the victory with his first career touchdown grab in the third quarter, a 1-yard pass from Cody Hawkins. Deehan became the first true freshman tight end to catch a touchdown pass since Jon Embree in 1983 against Missouri.

"We lined up and they changed the play," he said. "I noticed no one was over me and I was like, 'Wow, I might be wide open on this.'"

A top-10 guy already

Cody Hawkins moved into ninth place on the school's career passing list with 261 yards in his 20th game, bringing his career total to 3,168 yards. Hawkins' three touchdown passes all came in the red zone. He has thrown 19 touchdown passes with just one interception in the red zone in his first 15 games as the starter.

Hawkins also threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown in the second quarter.

"I thought he made some good throws and some classic throws at times," Dan Hawkins said. "But when you throw a pick for a touchdown, the best thing you can do is shake it off and come back, and he did."

Hi V

Colorado's live Buffalo mascot Ralphie V made her regular-season debut leading the Buffs on the field before both halves.

Ralphie V ran at the spring game earlier this year and got away from all of her handlers but one. She was tough to keep up with Saturday but not nearly as wild.

Notable

After starting the season with five sacks against Colorado State, the Buffs managed only one against EWU, from senior Brad Jones. ... Rodney Stewart started at tailback, becoming the fourth true freshman to do so at CU in the past decade. ... Redshirt freshman offensive lineman Matt Bahr saw the first action of his career on special teams. Cornerback Jonathan Hawkins and linebacker Bryan Stengel also played for the first time as Buffs.