While Colorado has allowed at least 30 points in every game played this season, there most definitely are positives to be taken from what the Buffs have been able to do on the defensive side of things.

In other words, letting up 30 points a game should not be the focal point when it comes to judging CU's defense, which has upheld its end of the bargain in terms of doing enough for the Buffaloes' high-powered, or thought to be high-powered offense to win games.

The defense breaks but doesn't bend and the offense overpowers opponents, handing the Buffs shootout-styled victories. For the most part, the D has fulfilled that expectation while the offense has fallen quite short.

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We all know the Buffs are on a five-game losing streak. It's been no doubt frustrating for fans to watch. But at least from a defensive point of view, if there has been one trend during this five-game losing streak, and granted, that trend varies in extremity, it is that every single game, the D has produced moments, in some games more so than others, for the offense to seize some momentum and keep the team in the fight.

Perhaps those moments have been most visible in the back-to-back losses to USC and UCLA.

Giving up 30 points per game is a stat not easy on the eyes, but that ongoing stat has been nowhere as disappointing as the inability to score displayed by the offense.

Mel Tucker and Co. had limited resources to work with at full health, and as has been witnessed in 2019, the defense has been at anything but full health for the majority of the year.

That became painfully obvious when for a few plays vs. UCLA, the two cornerbacks on the field (Tarik Luckett and Dylan Thomas) were freshmen who'd been recruited as WRs and only transitioned to CBs in August.

For Luckett, Thomas and fellow freshman K.J. Trujillo, having been thrown into the fire has earned them the admiration and confidence of Mikial Onu.

"Tarik and D.T., they come ready to work every single day," he said. "They’re still learning and getting better like we all are. One thing about Tarik is that his confidence never wavers. He thinks he’s the best and I think he has an opportunity to be the best. D.T. is another guy like that. He’s always ready to work and is locked in."

"K.J. is the same way — three really mature guys who are ready to come in and play at any point. As they continue to develop, I think they’ll make a really good secondary.”

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“They’re young, but they’re hungry, too," corners coach Travares Tillman added. "They’re going to be really good players when it is all said and done.”

The defense should be solely judged not on giving up 30 points a game, but more so what it has done to present the offense with opportunities of its own to go punch for punch with whatever points have been let up.

Those opportunities are easy to find when scanning back through the last two games.

Starting with the UCLA game — the three Bruins drives leading up to halftime were all punts. At that point, the defense, while yes, allowing 17 early points, had worked to make up for it via consecutive stops.

In three straight stops by the D that the offense was able to manage just a lone TD off of.

Then to start the third quarter, Carson Wells notched his first career INT but the Buffs would go on to stall out at the UCLA 10-yard line and miss a field goal.

"We rely on takeaways," Onu said. "The offense relies on our takeaways — those are 14-point swings. Seven points that we could have given up and seven points that the offense can get...we have to win the takeaway battle.”

Against USC, the offense had done well enough to get out to a 31-21 lead entering the fourth quarter, but again bungled opportunities handed to them by the defense to put the game away.

The D forced a punt of USC on its last drive of the third quarter and another in the fourth, but CU's final five possessions read: punt, punt, punt, punt and turnover on downs.

Now, was the defense perfect in this stretch and for that matter, during any of these games? Obviously not. Most upsetting was the touchdown drive Colorado allowed that gave USC its eventual game-winning score. The Trojans were able to convert a 3rd and 10 through the air as well as a 19-yard gain on a 2nd and 20 that helped extend the drive.

It ended on a 37-yard bomb through the air from Kedon Slovis to Michael Pittman and from there, the Buffs ran five plays and gained 19 yards, turning the ball over on downs at their own 43-yard line.

The point here is that this kind of stuff was expected from the defense, while the (to varying degrees) ineptitude of the offense was not. CU lost to USC by four points and to U of A by five.

The veteran and high-powered Colorado offense was supposed to win those kinds of games, not fail do enough and thus lose them.

In other words, it's a lot more stomachable to take it easy on the defense for being prone to giving up a lot of points per game, and instead of focusing on that, look more towards the development of younger guys getting playing time early while making note of the good things that are being done by the D every game (a knack for producing takeaways and generating enough timely stops) than it is to cut the offense some slack.

“We’re making strides. I’m happy for the guys — they’re coming out and working every day," Tillman said. "Sometimes it doesn’t show up in the score but you can tell, when we turn on the tape, that we’re doing some good things out there.”

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