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Hallelujah praise jesus!

Excuse me while I celebrate the Buffs stacking small wins together.

The outcome of the game as a whole didn’t result in a W in the win column, but I can say they made tremendous strides.

After getting outplayed and out-coached last week by the Ducks, they responded.

Did they win?

No.

Did they play well?

Yes.

Well, depending on what half you watched.

Early signs of a good team isn’t just how they respond to wins, but also loses.

For the third straight game, Colorado started the game slow as if they needed jumper cables to get going.

The Trojans showed up ready. The game kicked off at 10am mst, which should’ve favored the Buffaloes. Between the early kickoff and thin air, I would’ve said that benefited CU.

The Buffaloes: What I Liked

Running the Rock

“How much you pay that 300 pound lineman to block? Let em’ block.”

Julian Washington, Any Given Sunday

The Buffs started slow but one thing they did very well in the 1st half… they were able to find ways to run the football.

Last week, I discussed how the offensive line needed to step up and I believe they did. Shout out to them for answering the bell and showing up.

Were they perfect?

By no means.

Were they efficient?

Yes sir.

The Buffs ran for 137 yards in the first half and 193 yards on 45 attempts for the game.

That’s productive.

It’s like they learned some things on the offensive side from playing Oregon last week and incorporated it.

Oregon ran a plethora of RPO’s last week, making the offense extremely hard to stop. This adds value because the defense has to account for the quarterback.

They did what I was begging them to do, they found ways to put the ball in Shadeur’s hands with the read option to keep the defense honest and on their toes. This opens up running lanes with defensive lineman and linebackers on the mesh handoff between the RB & QB.

So far this season, there’s been no threat of the quarterback in the run game. The defense was given the easy route in knowing that handoffs were handoffs, without the possibility of the QB pulling it.

Defensive ends and outside linebackers that have run responsibility for those outside gaps, didn’t have to think twice about crashing down in the run game.

Penalties

Colorado took a big step in the right direction by being assessed few penalties. They had 7 for 60 yards which is a WHOLE lot better than in previous games. Though this can me misleading, it’s something I wanted to point out.

When player compete with better technique, it allows them to be successful in their match ups. With fewer penalties, coaches can coach players on the minutia and now you are really getting into the intricacies of your opponent.

Then you can focus on knowledge of the situation and refrain from committing penalties in critical situations. Having less penalties mean nothing if you commit penalties that extend drives for the opposing team on defense or get behind the sticks on offense.

Freshman playing like grown men

“He’s a PTP’er baby!!!!”

Dick Vital, American Basketball Broadcaster

#1 Cormani McClain (CB) & #14 Omarion Miller (WR), showed up big Saturday.

With a depleted secondary and struggling offensive unit, these dudes stepped in and answered the call to show up by making plays.

Last week, Coach Prime had to answer questions on why his five star player, Cromani, has yet to see the field.

Coach Prime wasn’t candid in stating that he needed to study prepare, show up to meetings, be on time to meetings, watch the film, and study the film. He stated he hasn’t seen what he needs to see from him in order to trust him on game day.

Plain and simple.

What we saw is a young dude who has talent. He broke up passes and ran step for step with some of the best competition in the country.

Don’t forget that we as spectators, only see this on Saturday while the coaches evaluate this up close every day of the week. You can’t feel comfortable as a coach putting a player out there you know is at a disadvantage.

Not physically, but mentally and in his preparation.

That’s like you having a coworker who you SEE doesn’t do any of the responsibilities on the job, yet they get up in front of the company and crush the presentation or pitch.

It’s great that they were able to show up when the lights were on, but as a coworker/teammate, you need to see they are doing the work leading up to this moment as well.

I like to call these players “gamers.”

Something just happens to them when it’s time to compete with everything on the line and it’s absolutely insane to see.

While this may work in the short term, it doesn’t benefit the player in the long run.

In order to be successful, whether in life or sports, your preparation has to be able to get you there.

It’s about building and sustaining good habits. And that starts way before a player steps onto the field.

Omarion Miller

Miller stepped up in his first significant action in his college career.

Going for 196 yards on 7 receptions and one touchdown.

Not bad for your 1st college game.

AS A FRESHMAN.

He was able to get this opportunity from the player in front of him not producing.

With a couple miscommunications/drops on some routes, the coaches put Miller in.

Right away he came up with a big play and continued this throughout the game.

Coach Prime also said he hadn’t seen what he needed to from Miller in practice as well.

This is good.

The coach is communicating what he sees on a daily basis from the young man.

Miller can hear his coach and begin to form those habits that coaches need to see in practice so he can see playing time. It’s evident that the talent is there. Now he has to slowly put everything together for coaches to have the confidence to put him out there.

If he does this, this will be another weapon for Shedeur Sanders to have at his disposal.

The Buffaloes: What I didn’t like

Clock Management

“Tick Tick Tick Tick Tick Tick.”

Chris Berman, American Sportscaster

Even with the mistakes and getting outplayed in the first half by a more superior team, they still had a chance in the end. As a player and a coach, that’s what you want.

But they squandered away this chance with their time and clock management on their last drive.

I want to be clear here.

Down two touchdowns, you most definitely need to go down and score 7 points. There’s no arguing about that.

Even more important is the preservation of time while doing this… Especially when you have 0 timeouts.

Though they did a good job driving the ball down the field, they took up entirely too much time.

They ran the ball a hand full of times when you can’t in this situation.

Your team needs to get on the ball and call everything at the line.

No huddling or waiting for a play call.

Maybe run it on a 3rd and short to get a 1st down, but you’re not running the ball just to do it. There has to be a clear cut reason for it because it eats up valuable time.

At this crucial point in the game, it needs to be passes going towards the end zone unless you are throwing to the sideline to get out of bounds and stop the clock.

The clock not stopping on 1st downs is a new rule in college football this year.

The game clock will only stop on 1st downs inside of two minutes both in the 2nd and 4th quarter. If you want the clock to stop outside of these times, you must go out of bounds going forward. This helps to speed up college games, which usually take upwards of four hours to complete.

During the game, you could hear the crowd moaning and groaning as the lackluster clock management became visible. The offense is taking up entirely too much time deciding and sending in a play call.

You can also hear the sense of urgency after the conclusion of a run play because the offense appears to be taking its sweet ass time. The offense can only go as fast as the coach sending in the play.

So this hang up is definitely on the coaches to know the situation and get a play sent in to execute.

Like I formerly said. Maybe the coaches wanted to make sure they put themselves in the best position to score and get 7 points but even after this, you still need to kick an onside kick, recover it (low probability of recovering it), and then go about 50/60 yards and score again.

Jimmy Horn caught a 16 yard touchdown with 1:43 left in the game. This is more than enough time to go score another touchdown, but this is drastically different than scoring with 3:00 left on the clock.

The Trojans would be forced to run plays instead of taking a knee in order to gain a first down. In this process, Colorado still has a fighting chance for a fumble or something miraculous to happen.

There were 4 run plays on that final 10 play, 78 yard drive from the Buffs that came on 1st or 2nd down.

If these plays were better used in order to throw downfield or to the sideline, CU might’ve found the end zone faster. Giving them an opportunity to get the ball back with a chance to tie or win the game (going for a two point conversion).

Inside two minutes the message/thought from CU coaches and players should be

• 1st down
• Out of bounds

3 and outs

The achilles heel of any offense is going three and out.

It makes things miserable for your defense and can put you behind early. Like it’s done for CU so far.

To open the game, they didn’t attempt a run until their 3rd series.

Not a successful run. Just a run in general.

With three straight pass plays and not gaining 10 yards, that will get you off the field quicker than a hiccup.

To start the game, Shaduer was 8 for 8 but with only 20 yards to show. That’s 2.5 yards per pass completion.

Not very good.

This shows the ball isn’t being thrown down the field but instead more lateral/short pass concepts.

If you’re not gaining yardage moving forward, it will be a short series with a long walk back to the sideline with an unhappy defense & fans.

Putting together long, meaningful drives will create a rhythm and pace for the offense to get into a groove.

QB 1

This might’ve been Shadeur’s worst game to his college resume thus far (at CU).

I say that lightly because I’m not talking about the numbers.

This young man went 30 for 45 with 371 yards 4 touchdowns and 1 interception.

I’m referring to the smaller things that NFL scouts and people with higher football IQ take into consideration.

You’ll hear me talk about IQ in athletes a lot because it separate the good from the great.

At the top of this list would knowing the situation.

When your options aren’t open, you take off and run or you get rid of the ball.

This can be throwing it out of bounds in the vicinity of a receiver or throwing it at their feet (so you don’t get an intentional grounding penalty).

This is huge because Shadeur is one of the most sacked quarterbacks in the country through five games.

While some of this is on the offensive line, he has to take accountability for some of these sacks as well.

Taking a sack on 1st and 2nd down makes converting on 3rd down less likely due to calling plays with a lower probability of success. Coaches don’t have many plays that they feel will be successful over 15 yards.

Specifically, there was a 4th and short where CU elected to go for it in the 4th quarter and threw the ball.

It was a shotgun sprint out to the right.

This ball is meant to be thrown quickly because the defense is in pursuit and routes are heading toward the sideline.

With this play call, you are pretty much cutting the field in half (if not more) for a viable throw.

Sanders took a sack. He held on to the ball too long.

Granted, none of his receivers were open, but it’s 4th down.

You have to give you receivers a chance to make a play or for the official to throw a flag.

Either way, you have to give yourself a chance.

Maybe he didn’t want to throw an interception. But if you take a sack, you are turning the ball over anyway. So why not throw it and have something happen by chance?

Scouts will look at this play and ask “why doesn’t he just throw the ball?”

So his judgement or his situational awareness will come into question.

These are the next level things he has to be aware of to further his progression as a quarterback.

Special Teams Miscues

The Buffs are playing cleaner games but still lackluster in the special teams department.

Coach Prime said it best in the postgame interview

“Our special teams wern’t special”

Coach Prime, Post Game Interview vs. USC

They had a missed field goal early in the 1st quarter that took points off the board.

In the 2nd quarter, the rugby punt was partially blocked as they were backed up in their own territory. The punter held onto the ball a too long leading to the defender coming closer than he should have.

Both of these miscues ended in scores for the Trojans and you can’t have that when you are trying to win games of this magnitude. You are facing a talented team, making it easy for them are positions they will take advantage of.

Mr. Momentum

One thing I’ve always liked about sports is momentum. It’s always present and plays for both teams.

Sometimes where it starts, it doesn’t finish.

Sports are all about ebbs and flows.

Being able to withstand a surge by the opposing team and also give a surge when things are in or against your favor.

I like watching the young Buffs because they have a lotta fight in them. They aren’t the most talented. They aren’t the biggest. This is their 1st year under coach Prime’s leadership and coaching staff.

One thing I haven’t seen them do is give up.

Of course you can point to the Oregon game and say they were totally dominated.

And I agree.

They didn’t stand a chance and many people saw this. But go and look at every game this season and they’ve answered the bell to all these challenges through five games.

They matched score for score with TCU & CSU when it came time. This was no different in their response this past week against USC, the number 8 ranked team in the country.

They were down 34-14 at halftime and end up losing 48-41.

You mean to tell me a team with a 1st year head coach loses a game by 7 points to the number 8 team in the country and they don’t belong?

And did I mention that the number 8 team in the country is one of the best teams in the Pac 12 AND has the reigning Heisman trophy winner, Caleb Williams, from the last season who is potentially the number 1 pick in the 2024 NFL draft AND he is currently doing BETTER statistically than he was LAST YEAR?

The previous paragraph didn’t have any punctuation on purpose. That’s a tall task.

Cummon man.

If you don’t see what’s about to happen in the next couple years, you are out of your rabid ass mind.

Aight then, Let me head on out

USC is one of the best teams in the Pac 12. Although the season is far from over, the Buffaloes should be beaming with hope during this first season. They will win some more games and compete against strong competition.

I see them winning at least 6 games and becoming bowl eligible for post season play.

All this will help with recruiting the players they will need to get the job done and compete (especially up front on both sides of the ball) in the Big 12.

I look forward to following this journey for the remainder of the season and for years to come.

Thanks for reading

Best,

Double Dee