That breakthrough win two Saturdays ago at Folsom Field raised some optimistic questions about this Colorado football team.
Could J.T. Shrout emerge as the guy at quarterback after all? Is Gerald Chatman’s new defense legit? Are the Buffs back in some way (relatively speaking)?
I definitely wore my rose-colored glasses heading into Saturday as Colorado traveled to Oregon State, believing that the defense could hold its own and that Shrout could get his job done.
Alas, the ensuring few hours delivered the real and all-too-familiar Buffs experience -- a revealing 42-9 loss full of missed opportunities on offense and too few answers on defense.
“I thought we had a good plan going in and they had good counter punches for it, to be quite honest," interim head coach Mike Sanford said. “Getting off the field was a challenge. It wasn't the multiple 40-yard runs or a few of them mixed in there. It was the 3, 5, 7, 12, just methodically driving the football down the field. They're gonna win a lot of football games this year. They're a tough team to play because they're a well-rounded football team in all three phases.”
Resembling other losses this season, the Buffs gave up 270 rushing yards (472 total yards) to an Oregon State team that was clearly going to rely on the run while playing with its backup quarterback. The Colorado offense, meanwhile, turned the ball over four times. Jaydon Grant and Alex Austin both intercepted Shrout with Austin taking his for a 42-yard pick-6, a crushing and pivotal play early in the third quarter.
Throughout the game, the Beavers commanded control on their home field and easily clinched bowl eligibility with their sixth win. First half drops from Anthony Hankerson, Jordyn Tyson, Daniel Arias and Brady Russell set the tone for the Buffs and opened the door of doubt again.
“That drop hurt me. I felt like I let the team down,” Tyson said. “Fourth-and-[10], I’ve got to make that catch, even though I slipped on my break. That’s on me and the team’s gonna fix [those issues].”
Shrout completed 13 of 29 passes for 206 yards, but with no touchdowns and 2 interceptions. Sprinkled in those completions were four 20-plus yard throws and a 58-yard catch to Tyson. However, Shrout’s overall performance also showed semblances of his previous starts, playing with limited rhythm and making some miscalculated throws. This was Shrout’s second opportunity to lay claim to the starting job, but freshman Owen McCown will likely reclaim the job moving forward – if he’s healthy.
“We’ll kind of evaluate that as we go with Owen,” Sanford said. “With regards to JT, I think we’ve got to continue to help around him. I thought he did some good things. I thought he responded well to adversity and made some explosive plays down the field.
“He was good at that. I think with JT, just continuing to get him in a rhythm because you can see the wild throws. They’re there. You can see the pocket presence, the demeanor. He’s a guy that I think will continue to get better as the year goes on as he gets into a groove and a rhythm. We’ll see what happens with Owen.”
One element that carried over from the win against Cal was the Buffs' energy entering the game. The few positive moments from the Beavers game provided some sporadic confidence boosts.
“We tried to create as much energy as possible,” linebacker Josh Chandler-Semedo said. “Really just stay in tune cause coach Sanford and coach Chatman have been emphasizing that a lot. It’s been a complete resurgence of energy over the last couple and I feel like that was fed into us. …You guys could tell by the way we played on the field, by the way we responded to certain things now. We got a little bit more energy to us, but it’s got to be more consistent.”
Fixing this offense with the inconsistencies at quarterback and group of starting freshman, "hasn't been easy, but it's been fun," Sanford said.
Playing Arizona State at home this week offers another opportunity to channel that energy into a potentially winnable game, but after the 33-point loss to the Beavers, it’s hard to get hopes up again.
