BOULDER, Colo. - Colorado's first foray into the Pac-12 could be a scoreboard scorcher as both the Buffaloes and Washington State Cougars boast an efficient senior quarterback and sensational sophomore wide receiver who can speed past D-backs.

Senior Marshall Lobbestael started the season as a backup quarterback but with Jeff Tuel fracturing his left clavicle in the opener, Lobbestael has thrown for 959 yards and 10 touchdowns for the Cougars (2-1).

His top target is Marquess Wilson, who caught a half-dozen passes for a career-best 236 yards and two TDs in a loss at San Diego State last week.

Those are similar numbers to what Colorado's Paul Richardson put up against Cal three weeks ago, when he caught 11 of Tyler Hansen's passes for a school-record 284 yards and two TDs.

Richardson has been slowed down since then, catching just four passes in each of his last two games, against Colorado State and Ohio State, for a total of 65 yards with no touchdowns.

Hansen, who has thrown 120 straight passes without an interception, 19 shy of Joel Klatt's school record set six years ago, would love to get Richardson going again Saturday.

A return to form by his star receiver would help the Buffaloes (1-3) keep pace with the Cougars, who are averaging 49 points a game.

"Their stats are PlayStation kind of numbers," Buffs coach Jon Embree said. "When you watch them, they are explosive. You watch them against San Diego State, first play of the game, they go 80. Their receiver, No. 86 (Wilson) is a real good player. He reminds me of our guy, No. 6 (Richardson)."

Each team has several other talented targets at wide receiver, notably Jared Karstetter for the Cougars and Toney Clemons for Colorado.

Wilson leads Washington State with 15 receptions for 429 yards and four touchdowns and his 143.6-yard average is tops in the nation among BCS schools.

Richardson's 10 touchdowns in 15 career games have covered an average of 36.2 yards.

The Cougars are the first of three consecutive opponents who will be facing Colorado coming off a bye. The Buffaloes are playing 13 straight weekends without a break.

The Buffs could use some down time, too.

They're hurting at cornerback, where they lost Jered Bell to an ACL injury in fall camp, Travis Sandersfeld is out with a broken leg, Arthur Jaffee (knee) is questionable for Saturday and Parker Orms (leg) is day-to-day.

"We're plugging along. It is part of the game," Embree said. "Right now we are thin at corner so we'll see if Parker Orms can make it back, somehow miraculously, we'll see on that. ... There are a few guys that we won't have but you have to keep going, keep grinding. We'll see who we put back there. We'll evaluate some guys this week."

Freshman fill-in cornerback Greg Henderson will face his biggest challenge in the Cougars.

"I tell him every week, 'If you are a freshman, every week you go out with a target on you.' They got him last week. Obviously there are going to be times where they make plays on you, but he has been very good," Embree said. "With their attack being a four-wide attack, everybody back there is a target. I don't know, when you watch them, they don't seem like a team that tries to create a matchup" with Wilson.

"They seem to attack more your coverage when it is zone and when it is man, they have their man beaters already built in. I don't know if (Cougars coach) Paul (Wulff) will come in and say, 'Ok, we are going to go at this guy.' Just looking at their scheme over the last three games, they are more of do what they do and let coverage dictate quarterback reads."

In addition to better health, the Buffs also need more balance as they start conference play.

They ran just 15 times at Ohio State, their lowest number since 1982, and gained just 76 yards on the ground.

Embree's been harping on running since he was hired last winter, but when asked why his ground game isn't working, he demurred.

"I would rather not say because I don't want to talk about players and I don't want to say anything that makes it sound like excuses," Embree said. "We are just not running it well; I'll just leave it at that."