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How good is CU's defense?

Will ASU put up 500 on the Buffs' D this Saturday

  • Yes

    Votes: 9 17.3%

  • No

    Votes: 43 82.7%
  • Total voters
    52

Justin M Guerriero

Club Member
Club Member
Colorado's defense is experienced and more mature than in years past. The team returned the most upperclassmen of any Pac-12 team this season with 56.

Respond with your thoughts.

Colorado has now given up 500+ yards to Oregon and USC. With ASU's high-powered offense coming to town this weekend, are you worried at all? In all honesty, CU's defense has been pushed around at times...allowing far too much in the run game and giving up sizeable chunks of yards. Against USC, it was no surprise looking at the post game box score and seeing that the Trojans averaged 6.7 yards per play.

How are you gauging Colorado's defense so far? Guys like Chidobe Awuzie and Tedric Thompson have been praised as leaders of this defense but, with all the hype surrounding the team's recent ranking and string of wins, is it time to come back to earth and start criticizing this team and its weaknesses?

In other words, the defense I think gets cut some slack because it is on the field so damn much. But giving up 500 yards of offense multiple times frightens me. What legitimate criticisms do you have, specifically regarding the defense and its players?
 
Big difference in the home/road equation. ASU's offense at UTSA and USC was weak. CU's defense in all games played in Colorado has been lights out.
 
They gave up a ton of yards vs usc but they got turnovers and kept them at 21. Rush defense and QB pressure needs to improve.

My question is, what's up with awuzie? Seems like he hasnt had the impact so far as he did last season.
 
CU's defense is the most solid(maybe the only solid) part of the team. By itself, yards given means absolutely ****ing nothing when assessing the D. If the offense gets three and outs most drives, and can't put any points on the board, and I mean any, D is going to look bad.

The problem Saturday was the offense...it needs to score. If the O is completely shut down, the D is at a disadvantage.
 
It's a solid, good defense, not sure how else to say it.

It's a good enough defense that the more I think about this game, the more I don't think it's necessarily going to result in ASU lighting up the scoreboard. ASU caught eyes with that absurd 68-55 game against Texas Tech and the 51-41 game against Cal. Two teams in which an outstanding performance on D is holding an opponent under 40. It's been a different story against everyone else. We'll bend at times, but I don't think we break overall
 
We slipped a little to #23 in total defense in the nation. Of the 25 teams ranked for total defense 16 have only played 5 games while CU and 8 others have played 6.

Of Those 9 teams that have played 6 games Colorado has played 414 plays. #9 Clemson, 427. #17 Washington 431. #18 Temple 405. #25 UCLA 438 defensive plays. All giving up less yards per game despite playing more and still staying near the top of the country. All the other teams listed that have games are under 400 plays. Maybe the Pac has more prolific offenses?

Of the rest of the PAC 12 their lower ranked less effective defenses are mostly on D about 300 plays but they are giving up more yards in the process. Until you get to the three worse teams on the list, Oregon, Arizona, and ASU (all in the 100s near the bottom) which are back into 400 plays level and giving up a lot of yards in the process.
 
Last edited:
Sykobuff said:
They gave up a ton of yards vs usc but they got turnovers and kept them at 21. Rush defense and QB pressure needs to improve.

My question is, what's up with awuzie? Seems like he hasnt had the impact so far as he did last season.
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Agreed on Chido... Definitely hasn't been the ball hawk and tackling machine, the last few weeks that he usually is.
 
I don't think asu will put up 5oo+ because of their QB situation. Our defense style seems to be more of a bend dont break and tighten up as the other team approaches the red zone. Lots of those yards on our D are also big time acrobatic / amazing throws / catches..both oregon and usc did this to us.
We must improve on pass rush when we send a safety, corner or LB blitz they need to get there.
 
I hope the ASU QB is healthy. This game has been circled by me for a year and I want to beat them straight up, with their best. They suck.
 
Our defense is solid. I think we are starting to fall into the trap of believing we should be an elite team. We are not an elite team. We are a good team that should win more than it loses. There's a lot of recruiting that has to take place before we are an elite team again. This years class looks to be a great start to that effort. Put four or five classes like this one together and we will be able to play with anybody.
 
Many of us were concerned about USC lines pushing us Around. We need time for our plays to develop downfield and by the same token, when we can't pressure their qb and can't stop their run game, we can't expect to play lights out downfield. Our D is very good, not elite. We depend on the interior of our D line to clog the middle but we don't have great depth there.

McCartney was a bigger loss than we have admitted in my estimation.
 
CU's D is good, but ASU's offense is very good. I would guess ASU ends up with around 375-400 total yards from scrimmage. I also suspect they turn the ball over even more than USC did. CU's offense had best come ready to play as they will be needed this game.
 
The weakness of our D is speed and size at LB. The LBs we have are well coached and disciplined, but they need that stuff you can't coach. That is the reason we could not sack the fast and mobile QB. Gilbert was our fastest guy off the edge and Darnold just evaded him with quickness.

...but Darnold, dancing around back there, is starting to be dangerous for ANY D. Almost all of his daggers were on broken/extended plays. Even Alabama would have had troubles with him had he been the starter playing like he is now.

This coming class is full of gifted LB types...so problem solved in three years. In the mean-time I am anxious to see Gillam get back to form and how Falo/Lewis develop.
 
I haven't looked closely at why he has gotten fewer tackles/sacks the last couple games, but he has been lock down as a corner. Love that guy.

All the big plays have gone against Ankello or our safeties. Ankello has won most of his battles too.
 
Good but not great. We need d-line pressure and LBs taking out the trash. No DBs can cover forever.
 
MiamiBuffs said:
We slipped a little to #23 in total defense in the nation. Of the 25 teams ranked for total defense 16 have only played 5 games while CU and 8 others have played 6.

Of Those 9 teams that have played 6 games Colorado has played 414 plays. #9 Clemson, 427. #17 Washington 431. #18 Temple 405. #25 UCLA 438 defensive plays. All giving up less yards per game despite playing more and still staying near the top of the country. All the other teams listed that have games are under 400 plays. Maybe the Pac has more prolific offenses?

Of the rest of the PAC 12 their lower ranked less effective defenses are mostly on D about 300 plays but they are giving up more yards in the process. Until you get to the three worse teams on the list, Oregon, Arizona, and ASU (all in the 100s near the bottom) which are back into 400 plays level and giving up a lot of yards in the process.
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UCLA was a negative 1 in running the ball against ASU and threw all night and Rosen got sacked numerous times. Colorado is not a very good running team either but has better WR's, so we shall see? ASU has played Mahomes, Weber, and Rosen that are three QB's that will play on Sunday. The defense is getting better in the secondary, so we shall see on Saturday. It is dead last in D1 defending the pass but look at the aerial assault it has endured and won against. Colorado's defense would look pretty bad after playing Cal and Texas Tech. If ASU can't run the ball it will be killed considering the issuse with QB injuries, but Ballage and Richards are a handful for a weak run defense. UCLA was the best defense that ASU will face but not thinking Colorado is?
 
PAC12Guy said:
UCLA was a negative 1 in running the ball against ASU and threw all night and Rosen got sacked numerous times. Colorado is not a very good running team either but has better WR's, so we shall see? ASU has played Mahomes, Weber, and Rosen that are three QB's that will play on Sunday. The defense is getting better in the secondary, so we shall see on Saturday. It is dead last in D1 defending the pass but look at the aerial assault it has endured and won against. Colorado's defense would look pretty bad after playing Cal and Texas Tech. If ASU can't run the ball it will be killed considering the issuse with QB injuries, but Ballage and Richards are a handful for a weak run defense. UCLA was the best defense that ASU will face but not thinking Colorado is?
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Any word on Orr? Heard he was hurt. Our run defense isn't weak - it's just not perfect.
If you look at advanced stats( http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ncaadef), we are roughly 40th against the run. UCLA is 8th. so they good. But our yards per attempt allowed in the passing game is 5.5, which is #7, right behind UCLA.

So, no, we don't suck. And we are going to **** you up. Only team to take it too us with any consistency on offense was USC, and even they paid for it with 4 turnovers. They were also VERY lucky not to have a few more. Our name is Colorado, and prepare your 4th string QB to die.
 
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