Climbing off the ledge

[Gary Indiana]

My thoughts on the game and season have changed since last night. I am not jumping off the ledge this morning and will put my CU hoodie on when I walk out the door. Don't get me wrong, we were taken to the woodshed last night by a team we should beat. But it was a rivalry game at a neutral site in the first game of the season. We still have a ton of holes but I am not going to abandon the season due to one game. I have posted some of my takeaways from the game below.

The good
Sefo- 300 yards of offense (250 in the air and 50 on the ground) 2TDs and no turnovers completing over 60% of his passes in the face of stiff pressure.

Adkins- IMO they did not go to him enough last night. The guy averaged over 4 YPC and they only ran him 16 times. I would like to see him with over 20 carries and featured more prominently in the screen game.

Spruce and Fields- We have two legit Pac-12 receivers. We had to replace one of the most dynamic WRs in CU history this year and I feel a bit better after what I saw from them last night.

Gillam- Last season was not a fluke. The kid is all over the field and a special player.

McCartney- Looks like he could develop into a pretty darn good DE.

The Bad

Obviously the front 7 (minus AG and DM) were absolutely terrible. Teams are going to run it right at us all year and the coaches better gameplan better.

Henderson- In the second half he did not live up to his shut down corner role. A couple of big 3rd down conversions and a TD went at him.

The o-line was terrible. Sefo was planted hard after nearly every throw. We could barely even slow them down. We may need to move some pieces around here and find a better combo (if it exists). I hope Gehrke is ready because there were a couple hits last night I was amazed Liufau got up from. Tough kid.

I was excited about the play calling in the first half. Quick and efficient while marching down the field. Taking shots down field to keep them honest (TD to Spruce). But then CSU made adjustments to take the short looks and zone read away and our staff did not adjust.

I still hold hope for this team going forward. Is anyone else with me?

 

[goalline]

Adkins got an ankle injury. Probably, that affected the number of carries.

I agree with the rest of your post, but I will be less engaged in the remaining games this season.

For personal reasons, it was a big effort to attend last night and I mostly just feel seriously let down right now.

 

[Dark Bohner]

I had allowed myself to have something going into this season that I had not felt in years. Hope.

Not blind hope, I was still expecting a losing season, but hope that progress was finally being made. Last nights loss hurt. A lot. It was the same ****, different year. So glad that I was waiting till after the CSU game to buy season tickets as a protest of the game in Denver. Now I'm not buying them at all for the first time in memory. I've supported this program financially long enough with absolutely no ROI. I wear my love of the Buffs on my sleeve and always support them, but they are going to have to get it turned around before I provide more financial support.

 

[Buffnik]

CU did look faster and more athletic to me last night.

But they didn't do anything with it. I just don't know.

I'm a bit shellshocked right now about how bad the front 7 of the defense performed and how little the OL could get going in the CU run game.

 

[Eggon]

CU did look faster and more athletic to me last night.

But they didn't do anything with it. I just don't know.

I'm a bit shellshocked right now about how bad the front 7 of the defense performed and how little the OL could get going in the CU run game.

I need to watch the TV version when I muster the courage, but seemed like we could throw the ball comfortably to various targets, yet insisted on proving we could run it when our line was struggling. CSU thought they had to throw the ball initially, then discovered they could run it with ease. We refused to emphasize our success in the air. CSU was happy to focus on success and played to their strength once they discovered they could run at will. Game set CSU.

Still baffled by what we witnessed last night. The comments and concerns in many posts about our youth are valid, but the coaching seemed determined to be contra whatever was working for CU. OC had a firm but unsuccessful mindset to be unpredictable.

 

[14er]

Oline sucked.
Dline sucked.
LB's sucked.
RB's sucked.
Passing game sucked.
Coaching sucked.

Sefo got crushed almost every time he dropped back and he will not last the season if csu can put pressure on like that.

This team took a huge step backwards last night and it looks like it is going to be ANOTHER loooong season.

I have nothing left and will not waste my time watching this team anymore. Enough is enough. I can't take the heartbreak.

 

[JJBuff]

Not a lot to add but in the 1st half we looked poised to dominate. Then momentum turned and we never came out of the locker room for the 2nd half. Very disappointing.

 

[CVilleBuff]

We're not winning a conference game with that DLine outside of a Wazzu '12 type fluke. Not only are we bad, but we're soft and we make ourselves even worse with Special Teams that would make Kent Riddle blush. Is there hope for 2 wins, maybe miraculously 3? Absolutely. Is there hope for a bowl anytime soon? No, absolutely not. 2016 at an absolute minimum.

 

[MtnBuff]

My thoughts on the game and season have changed since last night. I am not jumping off the ledge this morning and will put my CU hoodie on when I walk out the door. Don't get me wrong, we were taken to the woodshed last night by a team we should beat. But it was a rivalry game at a neutral site in the first game of the season. We still have a ton of holes but I am not going to abandon the season due to one game. I have posted some of my takeaways from the game below.

The good
Sefo- 300 yards of offense (250 in the air and 50 on the ground) 2TDs and no turnovers completing over 60% of his passes in the face of stiff pressure.

Adkins- IMO they did not go to him enough last night. The guy averaged over 4 YPC and they only ran him 16 times. I would like to see him with over 20 carries and featured more prominently in the screen game.

Spruce and Fields- We have two legit Pac-12 receivers. We had to replace one of the most dynamic WRs in CU history this year and I feel a bit better after what I saw from them last night.

Gillam- Last season was not a fluke. The kid is all over the field and a special player.

McCartney- Looks like he could develop into a pretty darn good DE.

The Bad

Obviously the front 7 (minus AG and DM) were absolutely terrible. Teams are going to run it right at us all year and the coaches better gameplan better.

Henderson- In the second half he did not live up to his shut down corner role. A couple of big 3rd down conversions and a TD went at him.

The o-line was terrible. Sefo was planted hard after nearly every throw. We could barely even slow them down. We may need to move some pieces around here and find a better combo (if it exists). I hope Gehrke is ready because there were a couple hits last night I was amazed Liufau got up from. Tough kid.

I was excited about the play calling in the first half. Quick and efficient while marching down the field. Taking shots down field to keep them honest (TD to Spruce). But then CSU made adjustments to take the short looks and zone read away and our staff did not adjust.

I still hold hope for this team going forward. Is anyone else with me?

Mostly agree with your assessments with a couple of clarifications.

Hendo isn't and will never be a shut down corner. He is a very good zone cover guy but not a guy who is going to take quality receivers man for man all over the field. Even last year when they wanted to man up a guy they used Crowley.

That said it's hard to fault the DBs last night. When they were constantly looking at RBs hitting their level without being touched that puts a lot of pressure on them. When we were generating next to no pressure on the passer even with blitzes it's hard to cover even below average receivers that long.

Spruce and Fields (somehow there is a pun waiting there but don't feel up to it) were very effective in the first half but Fields disappeared in the second half. They had him set up perfectly to fake the screen then send him past the DBs deep and never used it.

Part of the second half play calling was related to CSU figuring out that Nembot couldn't block and abusing him on the pass rush putting Sefo under serious pressure.

 

[1989Buff]

Part of the second half play calling was related to CSU figuring out that Nembot couldn't block and abusing him on the pass rush putting Sefo under serious pressure.

I am going to plead ignorance here a bit...just thinking out loud if you will...but wasn't Nembot a D-lineman before need had us convert him to the O-Line as an experiment? I'd say that experiment hasn't paid off and I think the D-line could use his size more. I would take a smaller guy who handled the position with better understanding and footwork and move Stephane into a DT slot and at least have him suck up some attention inside (even if he never fully developed at the position).

Does anyone know how our new 300 pound transfer O-lineman from Auburn is doing? Did he play at all last night? Looked like he could have helped a little to offset the damage being done to us by CSU's SEC transfer RB...

 

[DBT]

One thing for sure. Our "vaunted" S&C program does not appear to be any kind of game changer. S&C is way overrated in the sense that all programs are at the same level anymore.

 

[Eggon]

One thing for sure. Our "vaunted" S&C program does not appear to be any kind of game changer. S&C is way overrated in the sense that all programs are at the same level anymore.

As weak as our D line appeared in the second half, it would appear they drew too much blood checking their VOX levels during the week..... :wow:

 

[Duff Man]

Nelson Spruce is good.

 

[Buffnik]

One thing for sure. Our "vaunted" S&C program does not appear to be any kind of game changer. S&C is way overrated in the sense that all programs are at the same level anymore.

That's not true.

There is a huge difference, though, when you're playing teenagers against guys in their 20s. When you're not signing USC level players, most of them aren't going to compete well as freshmen and sophomores.

I know we want it both ways. But if we acknowledge that we've been signing under-developed guys who need to be developed into good college football players, we also have to acknowledge that those guys aren't going to arrive in their 2nd year in the program.

 

[Tractor]

This may sound like I'm fanning the flames here, but I don't think Gillam or DM had particularly good games either. Part of that is, when your defense gives up over 250 yards rushing, you're not gonna get much credit from me.

• Other than the strip sack, I didn't even know DM was out there. And even on that play, the QB had lots of time initially, then scrambled if I remember right.
• I thought Gillam actually was late getting to lots of places. I think he was hurt, ankle and like shoulder/arm or something? But I remember he had RB responsbility on a key 3rd down in the 3rd quarter or so...and he was nowhere to be found. That guy was soooooo wide open. He may have had a lot of tackles, but he had a lot of missed tackles too. His "Sack" was the QB getting around him but then just falling down. Should have nailed him.

I liked the idea to run 3 straight times in the 2nd, but that sequence reminded me of how much I dislike our version of the zone read, or maybe it's our "inside hand off". The zone read is supposed to make people hesitant on which way they should run, slowing them down, and giving you an advantage. Handing the ball off to a RB who's got a head of steam going up the middle is supposed to be a power play to assert dominance, giving you an advantage. What we do is that shotgun, slow handoff to a guy that's not running. It's a slow developing run up the middle with a RB that has no momentum built up. It's the worst of both types of runs. I feel like our team takes on that finess type identity, and since the offense does it to the defense in practice all the time, both sides are affected. We got into an I formation on that 3rd and short going into the quarter and it worked. We then tried to do that goofy semi-zone read, semi power run up the middle 3 times and they didn't work. I just don't see that as a short yardage formation. It works great as a surprise play since that's out of our formation, but come on. Get strong on the goal line. If you want to impose your will, get in the I and impose your will. If you want to play finess football, stay in your base set and throw timing routes to Spruce in the corner of the endzone. /rant.

I thought the OL didn't get much push either, but in the beginning of the game at least, they provided a GREAT pocket for Sefo. He had oodles of time. Maybe they didn't blow people off the LOS, but they were doing fine. It was only after maybe 24-17 where I thought they were getting beat. They were doing fine IMO even after Sefo had that rollout play where he got popped.

I agree that fields and Spruce looked pretty good. I also was waiting for the Fields deep play, I thought they were setting that up too. Never saw it.

I thought the DBs did ok. They had pretty good coverage on a couple of big throws, but a great throw or great catch got them their yardage. Did Crawley get his hand on that deep ball, or was that just a drop?

The blueprint on beating CU's defense is officially out there.

 

[CVilleBuff]

Gillam had 1 arm. Maybe zero towards the end

 

[Duff Man]

Tractor, I think you are a little harsh on Gillam. He has to cover for a lot of deficiencies on the edges. Our DEs crashed the inside constantly, the backside cut was there all night. I think McCartney has potential, but he is not starting at any other Pac-12 program as RS freshman. At least he did make a big play.

 

[BuffLuke80]

Gillam is a baller, I don't know what game you watched. He needs to get bigger but the instincts are there.

 

[Buffnik]

Tractor, I think you are a little harsh on Gillam. He has to cover for a lot of deficiencies on the edges. Our DEs crashed the inside constantly, the backside cut was there all night. I think McCartney has potential, but he is not starting at any other Pac-12 program as RS freshman. At least he did make a big play.

I was surprised at how poorly our CBs did at getting off blocks. They're way too experienced to struggle like they did last night.

 

[tante]

I was surprised at how poorly our CBs did at getting off blocks. They're way too experienced to struggle like they did last night.

In their defense they probably had no practice. Watching our WRs miss block after block in the screen game is proof of that.

 

[Buffnik]

In their defense they probably had no practice. Watching our WRs miss block after block in the screen game is proof of that.

Truth.

Did you notice that one of the adjustments made that led to one of our only modestly effective WR screens was splitting Irwin out to the slot so he could block someone?

I swear, I think a big thing that retards the improvements our players make in practice is who they are practicing against. It's slowly getting better, but when your 2nd team is made up of true freshmen, walk-ons and lesser talent upperclassmen, there's just not enough competition to push guys.

I do think that's getting better, though. I also think that now that a lot of our players broke their cherry and have a taste of D1 football that we'll be seeing quite a bit of in-season improvement from a lot of our guys.

 

[Duff Man]

In their defense they probably had no practice. Watching our WRs miss block after block in the screen game is proof of that.

DD was out wide a couple times and had a tough time blocking air. Which begs the question why DD is being used as a lead blocker.

 

[leftybuff]

I think they ran screens so much because Sefo would get killed on anything other than a three step drop with the Ole OL.

 

[14er]

I think they ran screens so much because Sefo would get killed on anything other than a three step drop with the Ole OL.

That's what I saw, anytime he looked downfield he was getting crushed. If he didn't hit his plant foot and throw it was not a good result. Poor guy.

 

[tante]

DD was out wide a couple times and had a tough time blocking air. Which begs the question why DD is being used as a lead blocker.

Some really poor play design. Tiny DD as the lead blocker when they had safety help over the top. They tried to get Nembot out as the extra blocker but he never made it in time. With DDs misses , it was 3 defenders against the receiver.

We really could have used a TE to hit the seam in those situations.

 

[Quattro]

Think Gillam ended up hurting both his shoulders. On that 3rd down you're talking about I thought he slipped when the RB made his second cut. I thought Gillam played decent, I was really disappointed in Olugbode


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[Quattro]

I think they ran screens so much because Sefo would get killed on anything other than a three step drop with the Ole OL.

At least in the 1st half (haven't watched the 2nd) the OL was fine for the most part in pass blocking, Lindgren just didn't want to get away from the screen game. Some quick slants to Bobo and some post/fly routes to Fields and Goodson would have been nice because CSU was daring us to throw on them and their LBs were playing the run way more often than not. My big question is was Sefo reading the defense wrong and kept audibling into the wrong play or if Lindgren isn't letting him do that much yet.


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[White_Rabbit]

I saw Bobo on the tv screen once. Early candidate for most disappointing player?

Gillam played fine imo. Olugbode and Greer were invisible and only noticable when screwing something up.

Jimmie Gilbert wasn't mentioned a single time? McCartney had the sack/FF, which was nice, not much other than that, though.

DTs were garbage. Why Parker, a 270 LB DE was in there when it was apparent they wanted to just run was beyond me. Good stuff Jeffcoat.

Henderson got beat a few times, Crawley looked good, but had the dumb penalty + non-PI call.

The entire OL was pedestrian at best. Irwin wasn't great (false start + got beat bad) Nembot sucked, Munyer blew it a few times, Kelley was whatever, Crabb was meh. Get Callahan in there somewhere.

TEs blow. Sure wish Keeney wasn't injured. We need a threat there to take some pressure off of Fields and Spruce.

Adkins is our only worthwhile RB.

Sefo did alright, tough game for him considering the OL and ****ty playcalling.

 

[MtnBuff]

Tractor, I think you are a little harsh on Gillam. He has to cover for a lot of deficiencies on the edges. Our DEs crashed the inside constantly, the backside cut was there all night. I think McCartney has potential, but he is not starting at any other Pac-12 program as RS freshman. At least he did make a big play.

This team has some good players and Gillam is one of them.

Problem is that we have few enough of them that opponents know that if they neutralize or even control those players we don't have enough else to beat them.

In terms of players who would start or at least be significant contributors at most PAC 12 schools I would say the short list includes Gillam, Spruce, O'Neil (yes our punter,) Tupou, and not many others.

Add to that a few guys who other teams would want to have but wouldn't be playing much yet and it is easy to see how far we are from being competitive.

It may be Kool-aid but I think we are a markedly better team that we were two years ago. Trouble is that even with the improvement we are still nowhere close to good enough to compete.

Worst thing is that our weakest areas are in places that you can't hide and I don't see a lot of hope right now in those spots. You mentioned McCartney and rightly stated that virtually anyplace else he's on the scout team defense waiting his turn to move up. What else has Jeffcoat, the supposive DL genius recruited/developed to make anyone think the DE won't be just as big a problem next year. Even if Kofavalu (sp.) was eligible DE would have been a major weakness.

Remember that even though they were pumped up like for no other game the team we played last night was a mid-level MWC team, not Stanford, Oregon, USC, UCLA, etc. We got exposed by athletes who mostly would be walk-ons at the schools we play later in the year.