Woelk: Takeaways From Buffs Win Over Arizona

BOULDER — Now we know.

Heading into Saturday night's game at Arizona, the Colorado Buffaloes had yet to answer a rather important question about their mental makeup.

Through no fault of their own, the Buffs had not been forced to come back from any serious deficit while winning their first three games. In fact, they had trailed in those games for a grand total of three minutes and change — and then, only by three points after Stanford scored first in their mid-November matchup.

But while it's definitely not the way CU head coach Karl Dorrell envisioned the game unfolding, Saturday's contest gave us a very good idea of how the Buffs will react in the face of adversity.

Answer: With flying colors.

Down 13-0 early in the second quarter to the Wildcats, the Buffs assessed the situation, engaged in some "problem solving" on the sidelines and then proceeded to fairly dominate the Wildcats the rest of the evening en route to a 24-13 victory.

Now, the 21st-ranked Buffs (4-0 overall, 3-0 Pac-12) will spend a short week preparing for Friday night's home encounter with Utah (7:30 p.m., FS1).

What did we learn from Saturday's win?

1. Panic isn't part of the plan. Give Dorrell full credit for this. His calm, measured and laser-focused demeanor has no doubt permeated throughout the team. Even after the Buffs struggled early on both sides of the ball, Dorrell said he never saw that "look" in his players' eyes that would suggest panic or loss of confidence.

"I didn't sense that at all," Dorrell said. "It was more problem solving, trying to find answers and solutions as we're on the sideline, making adjustments."

That is exactly what the Buffs did, figuring out what they needed to do to move the ball on offense, as well as making some minor changes to reduce explosive plays against the defense.

The result was the type of confidence-building effort that will pay dividends not only this year, but in years to come. Every player in a Buffs uniform now knows it's possible to take a big punch early and then come back — and they will be able to draw upon that experience in the future.

2. The Buffs can run the rock. Nobody — beginning with Dorrell — expected the Buffs to gash Arizona for 407 yards on the ground, led by a 301-yard effort from sophomore running back Jarek Broussard.

It's also not likely something Dorrell is planning on — or hoping to — repeat. He's a firm believer in offensive balance, and 92 yards passing doesn't quite fit the bill in that regard.

Still, Colorado's dominant run game was a sight to behold, especially with Broussard ripping off runs of 75, 59 and 72 yards, and quarterback Sam Noyer getting into the act with a 54-yard jaunt.

Certainly Broussard deserves every bit of the accolades he's receiving. He's rewriting the CU record book on a weekly basis.

But also deserving some major kudos? Try …

3. Colorado's offensive line continues to become a force. When the season began, the general consensus was that O-line coach Mitch Rodrigue's group would be an improved bunch. With three veteran starters returning and some youngsters with experience as well, it figured to be a solid group.

But Rodrigue's big fellas have exceeded expectations — and done so despite being plagued by injuries and absences.

First, starting center Colby Pursell went down, forcing guard Kary Kutsch to move to center and thrusting untested junior Chance Lytle into the lineup in Week 2.

The Buffs didn't skip a beat with that combination.

Then, Kutsch couldn't make the trip to Arizona, moving sophomore Josh Jynes into a starter's role. Before the night was over, the Buffs also lost Lytle to injury, bringing sophomore Kanan Ray into the mix.

But true to form, the Buffs stayed true to their "next man up" mentality. Jynes played well all night and Ray stepped in with a solid effort down the stretch.

Losing players to injury certainly isn't the way Dorrell and Rodrigue planned on building depth. But the end result is a steady and deep bunch up front — a credit to the coaching staff's approach and detailed preparation.

4. Kudos to the coordinators. We'll start here with O-coordinator Darrin Chiaverini, who came to Colorado with an Air Raid background and an itch to spread the field, play up-tempo and throw the ball.

What we saw Saturday night was the maturation of Chev's approach. The numbers are borderline astounding:

Colorado put together four scoring drives against Arizona (three touchdowns and a field goal), covering 347 yards. The Buffs threw the ball exactly twice on all four drives combined, completing one of those for 12 yards.

The other 335 yards came on the ground. That's a coordinator who recognizes what's working and how important it is to run the clock when necessary. He leaned on the offensive line to win the battle up front, fed the ball to his hot hand (Broussard) and controlled the tempo. He is quite clearly taking the next step in terms of managing not just a game plan, but a game — a distinction that often goes unnoticed.

Meanwhile, we're watching Buffs D-coordinator Tyson Summers once again take a young and relatively inexperienced group and make them better on a weekly basis (the same path we saw the Buffs follow a year ago).

When Arizona opened the game with three scoring drives on its first four possessions, there was no doubt some angst rattling through Buff Nation.

But Summers and his crew didn't flinch. They shored up some of the issues up front to prevent the big gashes that hurt them early, then dialed up some vicious blitzes that had UA quarterback Will Plummer's head on a swivel. The Buffs finished the night with five sacks — four on third down — to limit the Wildcats to a 3-for-14 night on third down conversion tries.

Equally importantly, the defense proved to be steady with its back to the wall. An interception in the end zone and a four-down stop inside the CU 5-yard line were huge down the stretch.

Summers' philosophy of putting the best players in position to make plays and finding ways to increase those chances — along with a willingness to gamble once in a while to accomplish that goal — gives CU's defense an identity it hasn't had in a long time.

It's an identity that will hopefully take root and blossom for years to come.

5. QB Sam Noyer is still on a learning curve. After two outstanding games to open the year, many of us may have forgotten that in terms of experience, CU's quarterback is still relatively wet behind the ears.

We've seen a little of that inexperience over the last couple of weeks, when he has taken some chances he probably should have avoided.

But Noyer's abilities, acumen and competitive fire haven't changed. He's simply hitting a steep part of the learning curve, one that was sure to come his way. He will continue to learn from his mistakes, hone his decision making and improve.

Meanwhile, it's also worth remembering that Noyer's legs still give CU a weapon that's tough for opposing defenses to account for. When your quarterback is a true threat to run, it makes the game a true 11-on-11 affair. That's an equalizer that can't be underestimated.

6. The Buffs play complementary football with the best. We've actually seen this throughout the first four games. When the defense has needed a lift, the offense has delivered a scoring drive. When the offense has stalled, the defense has delivered big stops.

Saturday night simply provided the perfect example. After CU's defense yielded 13 points early, the offense answered with two big scoring drives to take the lead. When the offense gave up the ball on a turnover early in the third quarter, the defense forced a three-and-out.

Then, both sides came up with critical series down the stretch.

That is what good teams do. They don't lean on just one side of the ball. They pick each other up, maintain confidence in their teammates to deliver when necessary — and win games.

7. Nobody in the Buffs locker room is getting ahead of themselves — and history is a great teacher. While the Colorado fan base is downright giddy over the 4-0 start and national rankings (No. 21 AP, 22 in the coaches poll), the mood in the CU locker room isn't changing.

Take care of business, one play, one practice, one game at a time.

It took a CU veteran to remind us of that after Saturday's game. Asked about the Buffs' 4-0 start, junior linebacker Carson Wells noted that he was on the last CU team to start 4-0. That bunch actually pushed its hot start to 5-0 in 2018 — then lost its last seven.

"We just need to keep playing," Wells said. "We just need to come out and do the work every day during the week and come out and show the work on Saturdays."

Indeed. The Buffs know what's ahead. They know what possibilities await.

But thanks to Dorrell's steady hand, they also know that next Friday's game against Utah is the only thing that matters this week.

That's a dose of realistic optimism all CU fans should appreciate.

Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu