BOULDER, Colo. -- Somewhere in between penalties, a football game was played at Folsom Field on Thursday night. At times it didn’t look like it, but they kept score and everything.

When, finally, the game came to a merciful end, No. 15 Colorado accomplished what mattered: It didn’t lose. In fact, its 20-10 win against fading UCLA was the most lopsided victory against the Bruins this season.

Colorado’s four first-half turnovers, its 12 penalties for 128 yards and general sloppy play won’t make for a pleasant film session, but, the thing is, who cares?

Before this season, Colorado had won a total of five Pac-12 games in the five previous seasons combined. Five. Now, at 5-1 in the Pac-12 this season, and 7-2 overall, the Buffaloes have taken control of the Pac-12 South race and clinched their first overall winning record since 2005.

Isaiah Oliver's 68-yard, fourth-quarter punt return for a touchdown salted away Colorado's victory over visiting UCLA on Thursday. AP Photo/David Zalubowski

“It’s a lot better than being on the opposite side, 2-7,” quarterback Sefo Liufao said.

And the senior and his Buffs teammates would know.

So while it’s easy to nitpick at everything that went wrong Thursday night -- personal fouls, poor execution, etc. -- those issues ultimately take a back seat.

Coming into the game, Colorado averaged the fewest penalty yards per game in the Pac-12 (40.75), but eclipsed that by the end of the first quarter.

“The good thing that shows you about our team is we found a way to win,” Buffaloes coach Mike MacIntyre said. “We found a way to win and you’re going to have a game like that every once in a while, but not with the selfish penalties that we had and we’ll fix that.”

It helped, too, that UCLA was equally undisciplined. The Bruins committed 13 penalties for 96 yards, were anemic offensively (210 total yards) and dreadful on special teams. They made just one of four field-goal attempts and allowed a 68-yard punt return for a touchdown from Colorado’s Isaiah Oliver, which put the game out of reach in the fourth quarter.

UCLA coach Jim Mora downplayed the role the penalties played in the game.

“I thought the officials did a good job getting it under control,” he said. “I thought that Mike [MacIntyre] and myself brought our teams together and said, 'Let’s just play football.’

“They’re emotional young men, and this is an emotional game. They’re fighting hard to try to win, and sometimes that happens."

With three games left, Colorado has a one-game lead over both USC and Utah and will head to Arizona on Nov. 12 as a heavy favorite. Coming off a 10-5 victory against Stanford on Oct. 22, Colorado has won a pair of ugly ones, but, again, those count just the same.

For UCLA, which before the game announced that quarterback Josh Rosen will miss the rest of the season, it goes down as another missed opportunity. At 3-6, the Bruins need to win out -- Oregon State, USC, at Cal -- to even qualify for a bowl.