Sunday streamofconsciousness postgame response

Well, the Buffs are 3-3 halfway through their season, and back in August, any of us would have taken that record no questions asked, but this does feel a little dirty.  The scoreboard and stat sheet say they dominated, covering any spreads that were put out there, and they won big, as should be expected 43-10.  The offense of the future was on display as true freshman QB Sefo Liufau directed his first starting drive down the field for a TD and 8-0 lead, and then to his first win, with his best play being a handoff to fellow newbie RB Michael Adkins who had a career day for the Buffs (not to mention my fantasy team as a replacement for De’Anthony Thomas and Jordon James) with 13 carries for 137 yards (more than 10 yards per) and a CU frosh record FOUR touchdowns.  Christian Powell’s bruising style complemented Adkins speed and vision and they were often out there together, including starting the game.  Paul Richardson (on pace to beat all of the CU’s single season receiving records) had another stellar day, including taking a nice leading pass from Sefo and then using his blocks well to maneuver 61 yards (actually a lot more as the crow runs) for a TD.  The defense held the Buccaneers to 10 points with Addison Gillam and Greg Henderson leading the way again. Chidera had another forced fumble and Jered Bell got his second pick. Chido Awuzie earned his nickel spot back over John Walker and played very well, including a crushing blindside sack to put an exclamation mark on the win.  Woodson Greer had a big game, staying on field in the nickel package instead of senior captain Derrick Webb.  DE De’Jon Wilson had his most extensive playing time and made the most of it. Special teams didn’t do anything horrendous and Darragh scored a 2-point conversion, running it straight ahead (good choice Lindgren!).

However-and yes, there are a whole lot of howevers-against a smaller, slower, lower division team the Buffs struggled at times, especially early on defense.  The Buccaneers, with their 3^rd string QB were able to engineer two NINE minute drives by running the option (thankfully we don’t play a real option team like Georgia Tech or one of the academies) and picking up third down numerous times with an easy QB draw, therefore keeping themselves in the game.  There were a lot of missed tackles in those two drives (including from Greer and Orms). The defensive line struggled more often than not, enough that Coach MacIntyre screamed to Chad Brown on the radio before going in the locker room, “The defensive line sucks!” They improved greatly in the second half, as the Buc offensive lineman started to wear down.  While the offensive line had some good moments and was able to open some holes for the RBs, they were not very good in pass protection against blitzes and they had the only two penalties. LT Stephane Nembot was especially awful (is he regressing?).  Unfortunately, they have very little behind him and Jack Harris as backup to both Marc Mustoe came in as part of a “jumbo” short yardage package, promptly broke his fibula and is done for the year (hopefully Jeromy Irwin is healthy soon, although they wanted to redshirt him).  The offense still did not get other receivers involved much, although this is partially due to the fact that they did use a pretty vanilla game plan, hopefully holding quite a bit back for the rest of conference play.  Sefo had trouble reading the blitz and the hot receiver so he could unload the ball and this is only going to get harder to read in the Pac12.

Yes the Buffs took care of business.  The team hit all five of BoulderDevil’s keys-50% 3^rd down conversion, 2-0 turnovers, only 2 penalties, and they never gave up a huge play on defense or special teams.  Remember that FCS CSU was playing without its best defensive player and a starting safety on defense, plus their backup QB’s backup (that would be resorting to one of the Jordans for us).  They hardly filled their sidelines with their limited roster depth and their entire defense was sucking wind on the last TD drive.  The Buffs did what they were supposed to do here, and no more, and that leaves me a little concerned.

The keys to the game will be just about the same for next week, against a much better team in Arizona.  The Buffs went 3-3 in the first half of the season, and now we’ll see if they have the moxi to go 3-3 in the second half against all Pac12 opponents.  I would expect to see the offense open up a bit next week with Sefo airing it out a little more, as well as running some zone-option read.  Kent Baer and the defense are going to have to draw up some blitzes to help out that defensive line.