It’s CSU déjà vu, although this will
likely be a stiffer test than the first version. Here are a few mid-week tidbits:
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Review of the tape: I watched the second half, mostly to
watch the younger guys (fast forwarded thru the first, just couldn’t handle
seeing that start again) and the teams actually tied 7-7; however, it only
consisted of six drives, the majority consumed by two ASU drives, the last of
which consumed the final 10 minutes and 57 seconds, and only took 12 minutes of
real time until they knelt down near the goal line to close the game.
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Colorado’s
first drive to start the half was actually very productive, until the end of it
anyway. They marched the ball against
the ASU 2nd team that Graham put his starters back in.
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Unfortunately,
the defense, playing mostly starters (Addison only play a snap or two and Webb
rested) got beat up for a lot of yards against entirely backups.
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Chidera
was quiet this game, as was Chido, who appears to have lost playing time to
John Walker (who beat badly a few times including opening score), while Crawley
(who also extended Sun Devil drive with a terrible late roughing the punter)
somehow holds on to the starting spot.
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The offensive
line worked in at least three backups, with Marc Mustoe relieving Jack Harris
(after his weak ass late roughing call for shoving a guy in the back of his
head after the play), as well as Alex Kelley and Brad Cotner coming in at the
guard spots. Nembot stayed at right tackle because he needs the reps and Gus
Handler stayed in at center for his leadership and presumably so he and Sefo
can get comfortable together.
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Both
Powell and Adkins ran well, at times both on the field together-I like this
combo a lot.
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Sefo
has a very nice short-medium touch and a great connection with Nelson Spruce. His deep ball is not nearly as good as Wood’s,
but even the two to P-Rich late in the drive were catchable, if P-Rich fights a
little for his position and the ball, but teams are finding out that his
weakness is physical play. I hope part of the lack of effort was the state of
the game, but we have seen some of this from him before.
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Which
brings to me next possibly controversial point: Although he can make one-handed
and acrobatic catches and get up to fight for a ball in the air, he does not
fight for position the ground, taking himself out of the play at times-the
first one he got pushed out of bounds legally (MacIntyre was fuming at refs but
they were actually correct) then wasn’t in position to even make the play on
the interception.
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Graham
and his second string offense showed some mercy and patience by literally
running out the last 11 minutes of the game and kneeling down at the goal line
to end the game.
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Some
stats of note:
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Team notes: As expected, Sefo Liufau will be the
starting QB going forward, as long as he plays well enough. Both Wood and Sefo
knew this was a possibility going into the game, and that Webb would have only
gone in for minor injury or lost helmet.
Supposedly, Wood is “taking it well”. P-Rich said the kid is ready. MacIntyre talked about how calm Liufau is and
he never really looked like a brand new freshman out there, even when he made
mistakes; he was also comfortable in the interview setting. I believe he commands his huddle as well.
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The
line has been set by at least one site at 31.5 points with CU as the favorite
over the undefeated and #24 ranked (FCS) CSU Buccanneers.
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Injuries: There were a couple of injuries to come
out of the last week: Kick returner Ryan Severson is still day-to-day with a
lingering hamstring that kept him out against ASU; FB/TE Alex Wood has a concussion; most importantly, Nelson
Spruce, who was Sefo’s go to option, is questionable with a knee sprain-this is
one to keep an eye on as game time approaches.
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Honors, mentions and recognitions: The Buffs remain 11th ahead
of Cal in the ESPN Pac12 blog power rankings.
Here is their “midseason report” on CUL http://espn.go.com/blog/pac12/post/_/id/63595/midseason-review-colorado-2?ex_cid=espnapi_public
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Athlon
Sports said this in their Pac12 midseason report: “Gillam drew rave
reviews throughout the preseason, and the true freshman has backed up that play
through the first half of 2013. He leads the Pac-12 in tackles per game (10.6),
is fifth in tackles for a loss per game (1.3) and is tied for 14th in sacks
(2). Gillam, who did not start playing football until his junior year in high
school, was only offered one FBS scholarship — by then-San Jose State and
now-Colorado coach Mike MacIntyre — and he is well on pace to set the school
record for tackles by a freshman (85). “
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A couple of Bucs earned some honors with
their win over VMI as Charleston
Southern quarterback Danny Croghan III was named the Crons Brand Big South
Freshman of the Week and CSU freshman punter Truett Burns was named the Big
South Special Teams Player of the Week.
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2014 Recruiting: The Camera is running an online feature
in its Monday “afternoon Drive” piece that recaps the Buffs’ verbal commitments
and their results for that week’s games: http://www.buffzone.com/cu-news/ci_24308757/afternoon-drive-cu-commit-rb-jomon-dotson-has
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Other Buffs Notes: Stuart from CUattheGame had this take on
the state of the team: “For now, the Buff Nation must believe Mike MacIntyre,
and believe that the Buffs are making progress…Just like we believed in Dan
Hawkins…Just like we believed in Jon Embree…The wait continues …”
Yo there David,
ReplyDeleteIt seems like there is quite a lot of negativity about the Buffs these days when reading DC comments, the Dickwad Post, here and Stuart's site.
Does no one remember how bad it was the last two years?
A couple of months ago, everyone would have been thrilled at the idea of the Buffs being 3-3 halfway through the season. Then, after two opening wins, everybody's expectations went through the roof.
The Rams and Central Arkansas are not Pac-12 level opponents and the Buffs SHOULD have won, which they did. Unlike last year, when they lost to those levels of foes.
Unfortunately for Colorado, their first three conference games this year were to the BEST offensive teams in the conference. Oregon is hell bent on being in the National Championship game at the end of the season and is taking no prisoners. Oregon State was upset by Eastern Washington and has been trying to take it out on everyone since. And ASU was pissed coming off a loss in Dallas to the Domers.
Of course we gave up a lot of points to those teams. A lot of the blame for that goes to our offense. When the D sees that the offense is absolutely NO THREAT to do anything, it takes the wind out of their sails so to speak. And when you are facing opposing offenses where your best hope is that you have to be on your best game to break even, just a couple of lost steps is all it takes for the other guys to take it to the house. And take it to the house they did.
By the time Sefo go in to the game at ASU, the loss was a foregone conclusion. But if he can continue to complete nearly 70% of his passes, cut out the turnovers, and convert 50% of his 3rd downs, the second half of the season will be a whole lot better as far as Pac-12 games are concerned. If the defense sees that the offense is doing THEIR part to win, the level of D will rise also. We have a lot of young guys back there who will get burned sometimes until they get the game reps they need. Take the first ASU touchdown pass to Jaelon Strong: John Walker was in coverage and he bit on a fake. One step in the wrong direction for Walker and Strong was off to the races (and the end zone).
I am sure that practice this week will include lots of work getting Sefo used to Richardson's game day speed. That will be good for the long ball, and his short to medium game is light years better than Connor's (as are his legs).
I will be happy with 3-3 with six more chances to win three and make a bowl. That is best case scenario, of course. What I want more for the future of the program is for the Buffs to be competitive and cut down drastically on the silly mistakes that our Pac-12 rivals will make us pay for.
We don't match most of our rivals in team speed, skill, or size, so to win on consistent basis we MUST:
-- Convert our 3rd downs at a high level.
-- Win the turnover battle.
-- Cut out the mental mistakes that lead to dumb penalties.
-- Play solid special teams.
-- Limit the home runs on defense. Pac-12 teams score a lot of points, but the idea is to make them work for those touchdowns. It takes time off the clock and helps keep you in the game longer.
Boulderdevil
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