Sunday's rambling reaction

The small moral victories are the ones that the Buffs and their fans have to appreciate for now and there were many of them within the 45-23 loss to UCLA.  First and foremost the team won the coin toss for the first time this season (not sure why they elected to take the ball though and give UCLA their preferred choice of taking the ball to close the game at the start of the second half). The team again had a strong start to the game and dominated most of the first quarter and then, although they fell behind, they never let the game get completely out of hand and forced the Bruin starters to basically play the whole game, and…they covered! Even the smallest spreads!  There are a lot of “effort”s, “kept fighting”s and “persevere”s in the post-game interviews and articles. Sefo had another solid, poised game with no turnovers.  Many guys got involved in the offense with DD Goodson, Kyle Slavin and Donta Abron sightings.  Even without Michael Adkins, the Buffs were able to run the ball. They were able to march down the field the first two drives.  They gained almost as many yards as the Bruins and kept their potent offense off the field with 36 minutes of possession. The defense started the game with consecutive three-and-outs. The Buffs took leads of 3-0 and 10-7 and had the Bruin players and fans uneasy and tense.

However, and we all knew there’d be some however, there were just way to many lapses at the perfect(ly bad) moments to give themselves a real chance in this game.  MacIntyre said they had to eliminate some fundamental mistakes, but it goes far deeper than that.  The offense cannot close when they get down close inside the ten, from a combination of predictable play-calling (run up middle, run up middle, 3^rd down desperation pass when defense knows exactly what’s coming), to just plain lack of execution. Wil Oliver had his worst game in a while with two 45-yard misses (they need to finish a lot more drives with TDs anyway to compete in the Pac12). The offensive line had some issues yet again from untimely false starts (Jack Harris) to Gus Handler short-hopping a bunch of snaps.  When they need one yard, they just can’t seem to get it-again combo of play-call and execution.

On defense, while they did a decent job on Hundley at times early, after the first two three-and-outs, he started to make plays.  Jered Bell had had a pleasantly surprising season so far, but reverted to form getting beat and then missing tackle to give up the big play that reassured UCLA that they would indeed beat the Buffs-he has to make the play or take the 15-yard pass interference.  The team had good pressure on Hundley on the play with Chido blitzing and almost getting a hand on the ball, but as he did so often, when he needed to make a play, he did, either tucking the ball and running or hitting the open guy.  This week the Buff defense decided to share the love and give a wide receiver a career day and shot at player-of-the-week, but it wasn’t Bruin number one Shaq Evans, but Devin Fuller who had catches, 1  yards and three TDs.

I have been saying it for weeks, but I just don’t get why coaches believe Ryan Severson is the best option at kick returner, mostly because he is just not that fast -yes, whoopee, he supposedly ran a fast 100 at some point in high school, but it is not showing up on the field now. He does not have the explosive burst nor the quick lateral moves a typical kick returner has. Last night, he showed some very questionable decision-making, bringing the ball out of the endzone, and often hesitating in the process.  Twitter finally blew up with his second fumble of the night.  I realize that Severson has indeed put up decent numbers, boosted by Charleston Southern, but think what they could be doing with Devin Ross in there.  I don’t mind the “safe” choice of Nelson Spruce on punt return as kickoffs do not involve nearly as much difficulty in catching or choices in what to do as the punt return.  I think Severson earned a spot somewhere else on the field.  I think the group has improved dramatically here, if a slow linebacker is near the top of the league, so if they could put a quick speedster back there, they might be able to do something big.

However, to the howevers though, this Buff squad showed definite improvement from past conference road performances and gives even me some hope for the future.  There are four games left-next week’s homecoming trip for Sefo to Washington, followed by two intriguing home games against Cal and USC, and finally the “big” rivalry game in Utah-and all four are conference teams with chinks in their armor that the Buffs just might be able to break through. However, the unfortunate reality is embedded in this post-game quote from MacIntyre: “Our goal was to get to the second half with it being a football game. It was really the first time we’ve done that.”  Until this team can eliminate enough mistakes and learn to close, the small moral victories are we have right now.