Takeaways From Buffs At Oregon
September 24, 2023 | Football, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — Back to work.
With a 42-6 loss to Oregon in the rearview mirror and a matchup with another top-10 team on the immediate horizon, Colorado's Deion "Coach Prime" Sanders didn't give his Buffaloes time to wallow in their misery after Saturday's beatdown.
The message in the locker room was succinct.
"Get your butt up and let's go," Sanders told his players. "We ain't got no time for a pity party. There's nobody walking around the locker room with napkins and tissues. Get your butt up, get on that plane and let's go. We got work to do."
Indeed. Along with knocking the Buffaloes out of the top 25 polls, Saturday's loss in Oregon identified a number of areas that need work — especially with No. 8 Southern California headed to Boulder on Saturday for a 10 a.m. national television matchup (Fox).
Our weekly takeaways:
1. Buffs must reduce the pressure on QB Shedeur Sanders. Colorado's quarterback has been sacked 22 times this year — 5.5 per game. That's an unsustainable number, at least if the Buffs want to keep Sanders healthy for the season.
Not all the blame can be placed on the offensive line. Sanders stepped up and said after the game that he is holding the ball too long on occasion.
But that wasn't the case for all seven sacks recorded by the Ducks. While Sanders refused to place any of the blame on the big fellas in charge of protecting him, there's no doubt CU's offensive line had some issues with Oregon's pass rush.
The Ducks provided a blueprint for how to disrupt CU's offense. It will be up to the Buffs to figure out a way to make sure that blueprint isn't executed on a weekly basis.
2. The run game has to improve. Prior to Saturday, the Buffs' offense had generated enough production in the air to make up for a lack of production on the ground.
But that lack of a running game finally cost Colorado against Oregon. Because the Buffs couldn't move the ball on the ground on first and second down, they found themselves in far too many third-and-long situations.
On 14 third-down plays, Colorado faced an average of third-and-10. Only three of those third down tries were short yardage — less than third and 5 — with six in double digits.
Colorado finished with just 40 yards rushing against Oregon. But even when you take away the sack yardage (73), CU had just 113 yards on the ground — and that number was bolstered by a couple of long Sanders runs late in the game when the outcome was already decided.
The Buffs need to get to a point where they can hammer out some consistent drives with the run game playing a significant role.
Otherwise, the pressure on Sanders is only going to grow.
3. It's no fun being Charles Kelly right now. Colorado's defensive coordinator just finished facing the nation's No. 2 offense. Now, he'll spend the week preparing for the nation's No. 3 offense that boasts the reigning Heisman Trophy winner.
Kelly has done a solid job with the Buffs defense this year. Colorado wasn't the first team to be dominated by the Ducks and won't be the last.
But Kelly now has to try to find a way to at least slow down USC's offense.
One mostly unnoticed item from Saturday's game in Oregon was that Colorado won the turnover battle again. The defense collected an interception of Bo Nix while the offense didn't give it up once.
In a game such as Saturday's, that wasn't enough to make a difference. But Kelly's group is also establishing a reputation for coming up with big plays that give the Colorado offense some extra possessions. That's a trend that will continue to serve CU well in conference play.
4. The Buffs miss Travis Hunter. As Coach Prime pointed out, when you don't have arguably your best player on both sides of the ball, that makes a difference.
Would Hunter have been enough to change Saturday's outcome? Of course not. But he might have stopped one or two of those early Oregon drives, and he might have extended one or two CU drives and at least made the game a little more competitive.
But Hunter won't be available against the Trojans, and the Buffs will have to figure out how to compensate as best they can.
5. New players in the lineup will help. With Hunter out, Alabama transfer Jahquez Robinson stepped into the starting role at cornerback and came up with an interception. It was his first action of the year for Colorado and he finished with the highest PFF grade of any CU defender (77.1).
Another welcome addition was running back Alton McCaskill, who carried five times for 17 yards in his CU debut. McCaskill gives the Buffs another look from the backfield and will likely play a bigger role as the season progresses.
6. Self-inflicted wounds have to be reduced. The Buffs are ninth in the nation in penalty yards per game, averaging 77.0 per contest. Saturday, they committed 12 for 106 — and a number of those either stalled offensive drives that had potential or kept Oregon drives alive.
The Buffs' margin for error is still thin and handing freebies to the opponents is something Colorado can't afford to do.
7. Perspective is necessary. Six months ago, had anyone given Colorado fans the chance at a 3-1 record against this schedule, they would have jumped at the opportunity.
But after a 3-0 start, expectations were ramped up considerably — and probably unrealistically.
Saturday's loss was one game. The Buffs are still a competitive team and have a chance to be a factor in the Pac-12. They are well-positioned to at least earn a bowl bid and, as Coach Prime noted, "You better get us right now, because I like what I see. I love it. I know I have on shades, but I can see the future and it looks really good."
Given the fact that CU finished just 1-11 last season, that's a dose of optimism Colorado fans should keep in mind.
