On Thursday, Colorado 2021 tight end commit Erik Olsen and the Heritage Eagles faced off against Loveland in the first game of the 2020 CHSAA football season.

While the game was close, with Loveland up 21-14 at halftime, the Indians cruised to a 49-23 win over Olsen and the Eagles. Despite the loss, Olsen was impressive and recorded a touchdown.

All photos are courtesy of Nigel Amstock of CUSportsNation.com and the CU Independent. Nigel is a senior at the University of Colorado majoring in political science and geography.

First and foremost, check out this clip — what a grab. Olsen clearly heard some footsteps as he reeled in this 8-yard soon-to-be TD pass, absorbed multiple hits and still managed to hang onto the ball.

This was in the third quarter on an Eagles scoring drive and Olsen had another catch during it that saw him barrel over a few defenders; I'd estimate it was a 15-20-yard gain. Those two plays were all of Olsen offensive action in terms of receptions on the night.

His QB attempted two more passes to him — one was at his ankles and the other was overthrow on what would have surely been a deep TD down the left sideline.

I've watched film on Heritage but seeing the Eagles in person gave me newfound perspective on Olsen.

Firstly, the way they run their offense — Olsen is much more of the hand-in-the-dirt blocking TE on the team as opposed to fellow four-star TE and Oregon commit Terrance Ferguson, who was flexed out as a WR on the vast majority of offensive plays.

Olsen is a heck of a blocker and asset at the line of scrimmage. He moves defenders against their will and rarely blows an assignment. For the vast majority of offensive plays used with his hand in the dirt.

But when he would flex out, many times I could hear Loveland defenders saying "89!" , "89!" (that's his #). Clearly, he had the attention of the defense any time he would line up as a WR and for good reason.

Olsen plays both ways for the Eagles. On defense, he's an end and it is very clear that playing defense has helped refine his blocking skills.

It's kind of like how DBs become better at pass coverage when they also play wideout — you know what to expect to an extent when you play the position on offense that you cover on defense.

The same could be said of Olsen. Now, Loveland High doesn't have any five-star d-ends to give Olsen a real challenge, but nonetheless he was quite sound in the blocking department.

Frame-wise, mechanics-wise, blocking-wise, he is ready to play college football. Taylor Embree can help better him in those departments, but his foundation is good already.

Olsen will admit this, but it is the route running where he needs the most polishing. Here and now, his game is more refined in the aforementioned areas compared to running routes.

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