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The Buffs move to 5-1 and second place in the Big 12
The Colorado Buffaloes braved the blizzard, making the trek down to Lubbock, Texas to squash the Texas Tech Red Raiders in a Big 12 matchup. With their 41-27 victory, CU now moves to 7-2 on the season, 5-1 in conference play, and second place in the Big 12. It was a wild, tortilla-filled ride to the win down in Lubbock, but we’ll break down here it all went down:
1st Quarter:
Early on in the first quarter, this game was all Texas Tech. On the opening kickoff, the Red Raiders were able to bring the ball out to near midfield and made quick use of the short field, mounting a four-play, 54-yard drive that resulted in a touchdown. Texas Tech did what many other teams have had success with against Colorado’s defense, looking to man coverage beating schemes over and over to march down the field.
Colorado would get poor field position after a bad return, and the offense would go three-and-out. The rest of their drives in the first quarter looked about the same, with the Buffaloes only accumulating 26 yards and one first down. This is not the Buffaloes offense we are used to seeing, with the receivers having lots of trouble creating space in the secondary. This all starts with the Buffs’ inability to keep the defense honest by establishing the run game
Texas Tech’s second and third drives utilized the same kind of man-beating routes, but both ended up in field goals. Colorado’s secondary made the neccesary adjustments and swapped to zone on a few occasions, along with figuring out their struggles in man. Texas Tech would lead 13-0 at the end of the first quarter.
2nd Quarter:
All of a sudden, we saw the Buffaloes pass-rush get home seemingly at will. The Texas Tech quarterback Behren Morton took some big hits, and the Texas Tech offense seemed to stall. All-in-all Texas Tech only gained 20 yards on offense in the quarter and would be scoreless in the second after starting out hot.
On Colorado’s first drive of the quarter, they found that they could exploit Texas Tech’s secondary by utilizing screen passes. The TTU secondary was so worried about getting beat over the top that they had no chance at stopping these screen passes or the underneath routes. CU had one more scoring drive in the quarter, which would come from a 24-yard Alex Mata field goal. Headed to halftime, the score favored Texas Tech by a margin of 13-10.
3rd Quarter:
After deferring to start the game, Colorado would start the third quarter with the ball. On their first drive, they picked up where they left off in the second quarter, marching down the field and scoring on their first drive courtesy of a seven-yard Shedeur Sanders keeper. Texas Tech’s defense seemed content to let Shedeur take the quick passes, and Shedeur was able to step up in the pocket to extend plays, which the Buffs exploited.
Texas Tech’s first drive of the second half was a slow, methodical one, as they were able to finally get back on the board after having four straight scoreless drives. This drive was nine plays and utilized the running game and passing attack in tandem to move the ball down the field.
Colorado’s continued their offensive tear by ripped off their fourth straight scoring drive, on a fantastic one-handed red zone catch by Will Sheppard. Sheppard has established himself as our red zone threat, and can’t be stopped on back shoulder throws down the sideline.
CU got the ball back with great field position after a failed fake punt by Texas Tech, and the Buffaloes capitalized on the field position with a screen pass to Travis Hunter. The Colorado offense has had most of their offensive success today on short passes and screens with the Texas Tech secondary remaining ten yards off of the ball even after this continued success.
The third quarter would end with Colorado leading 31-20.
4th Quarter:
The fourth quarter was messy with the Buffaloes forcing three turnovers in plus territory, but the offense had trouble capitalizing on them, only converting those turnovers into points. The nail in the coffin came on a strip sack by Arden Walker that was scooped up and scored by Shilo Sanders. The final score would go on to be 41-27 Colorado.
Key Takeaways
- Teams are SCARED of this wide receiver unit. Despite the Buffs only being able to get the quick passing game going tonight, Texas Tech’s secondary refused to come any closer than seven yards off of the ball to better defend against the deep pass. This passing attack is adaptable and may not just be the best in the Big 12, but also the entire nation.
- This Buffalo defense always finishes strong. This is a testament to Robert Livingston’s ability to be adaptable in play calling and shows this team’s preparation leading up to these big games.
Outlook
With Iowa State losing tonight and the Buffs securing a big win, this team will move into sole possession of second place in the Big 12. Colorado will be heavily favored in each of their last three games, and if they can win them all, they will be playing in Dallas for a chance to win the conference and an automatic bid into the College Football Playoffs. The Buffs will now look forward to their game next weekend at home against Utah, a team that has really struggled in conference play thus far. That game will kick off at Folsom at 10:15 a.m. next Saturday, so be sure to tune in as Colorado looks to move to 8-2.
by Jacob.Thompson
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