Colorado's offensive line had arguably its best overall performance of the season last Saturday vs. Arizona State. Pass protection looked good, as Steven Montez was sacked zero times, had a consistently sound pocket to throw the ball out of and overall was pressured far less than was the case vs. Air Force and Nebraska.
On the ground, the Buffs were able to use the run game to set up the pass more effectively than was the case in weeks past.
For position coach Chris Kapilovic, the o-line took steps in the right direction but more work remains to be done.
More on Colorado's big road win vs. No. 24 ASU last Saturday:
10 takeaways from CU's 34-31 win over the Sun Devils
Kapilovic said about a month ago, before the Buffs began the 2019 season vs. CSU that the o-line wasn't exactly where he wanted it to be. Now a month into the season, and noting that CU has started the same five guys on the o-line every game (Colby Pursell, Tim Lynott, Arlington Hambright, Kary Kutsch and Will Sherman) Kapilovic has a decent sample size of work to critique.
It might be fair to say he likes, but not loves, the progression he's seen.
I would say we’re still a work in progress," he said. "I know I’m a broken record but I’ve been saying ‘striving for consistency’ since day one. That’s what you’ve really got to get. I thought that the first game we were fairly consistent and then the next couple games definitely inconsistent. I thought the kids came out with a real purpose and played consistently (vs. ASU)."
After back-to-back shaky performances vs. Nebraska and Air Force, one could have suspected that the unique 3-3-5 defense of ASU would be bound to cause some problems for Colorado's o-line.
But that was far from what actually happened, as against a defense that leading up to the game had surrendered just 21 points through its first three games in total, the Buffs managed to score 34, a testament to the support provided up front by the o-line.
Their attitude, effort and communication was very good and they handled a very chaotic defense in a positive way," Kapilovic said. "The (players) understood first of all that we didn’t do what we were capable of (vs. Air Force) so there was a sense of urgency. They also understood that if we weren’t on top of everything, we were going to look silly and have a bad result against the (Sun Devils) defense."
