MacIntyre: "They definitely wore us down"
Instant Analysis: Failure to stop ASU on the ground proves fatal for Buffs
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Saturday night’s defensive breakdowns against Arizona State have become all too familiar for Colorado over the past five weeks.
By surrendering a season-worst 583 total yards in the 41-30 loss at Sun Devil Stadium, 204 in a nightmarish fourth quarter, the Buffaloes defense has now allowed 567 or more yards in three of their last five games.
And with USC coming to Boulder on Saturday, defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot and the Buffs defensive coaching staff have limited time to figure out what has gone wrong since CU yielded just 27 total points in the first three games.
Unlike Mike MacIntyre, junior linebacker Rick Gamboa didn’t blame Saturday night’s disastrous fourth quarter on the Buffs getting worn down. Instead, Gamboa pointed to CU teammates simply not performing their jobs.
“I don’t think we got worn down, I just think guys were doing a little too much,” Gamboa said after Saturday night’s game. “Guys were getting out of their gaps, trying to make a play when all they had to do was do their job. Against a team like (ASU), they’re just going to keep running the ball. As long as you stay in your gaps and do your job, we should be stout up front. When someone gets out of their gaps, that’s when long runs start happening.”
MacIntyre partially blamed Colorado’s fourth quarter defensive woes on poor technique.
“I saw a lot of missed tackles,” MacIntyre said. “I could see that out there. The kids work on tackling low and they didn’t tackle low. They didn’t do like we ask them to do. Some of them are new to those pressure situations and they’ve got to do exactly like we tell them to do or we’ll have this result again. So hopefully they will.”
Many of Arizona State’s fourth quarter runs came on carries up the middle straight through the heart of the Buffs defense.
“Throughout the game there were some missed assignments on defense and that cost us dearly,” senior linebacker Derek McCartney said. “Our defense just made a few more mistakes than their offense did.”
The time for lamenting a missed opportunity on the road to get bowl eligible is over.
When the Buffs return to practice Monday, the time to begin preparations for the surging Trojans must begin in earnest. USC’s offensive numbers are better than Arizona State’s as the Trojans are averaging 35.2 points and 492.4 yards through 10 games.
“We’ve just got to go back to work again,” MacIntyre said. “We’ve got two more gold games left and we need to get them. That’s our main focus. We’ll learn from some corrections. We just need to keep finding ways to make plays.”
USC (8-2 overall, 6-1 in Pac-12) lead the Pac-12 South by 1.5 games over Arizona (4-2) and Arizona State (4-2). Nine days ago, the Trojans went to Sun Devil Stadium and trounced ASU, 48-17. This past weekend, they outscored QB Khali Tate and Arizona, 49-35, at the LA Coliseum.
Trojans sophomore QB Sam Darnold, a red hot commodity in the eyes of NFL scouts, finished 20-of-26 for 311 yards with two touchdown passes in the win over Arizona. It was his fifth 300-yard passing game this season and the ninth of his career. His career record is 17-3.
While Stanford’s Bryce love and Tate have earned the lion’s share of attention, USC running back Ronald Jones is quietly enjoying a solid season. He is fifth in the Pac-12 in rushing with an average of 120.2 yards per game, just 13 yards fewer than CU’s Phillip Lindsay (133.4 ypg).
Saturday night, Jones finished with 194 yards on 27 carries - his 11th career 100-yard rushing game – with three rushing touchdowns.
With the weeks dwindling down, USC would clinch the Pac-12 South with a victory Saturday afternoon at Folsom Field, and keep themselves in contention for a major bowl game. As a result, Colorado QB Steven Montez realizes the Trojans should be a highly motivated team when they arrive in Boulder.
“We’ve just got to get this out of our heads, watch the film, take what we did wrong, fix it and then go back on Monday and start our game plan for USC,” Montez said. “They are going to be coming to Boulder to kick our ass too. We’ve got to be ready for them.”
PAC-12 WEEK 10 RESULTS (Nov. 3-4 )
Utah 48, UCLA 17
Washington State 24, Stanford 21
California 37, Oregon State 23
Arizona State 41, Colorado 30
Washington 38, Oregon 3
USC 49, Arizona 35
PAC-12 SOUTH STANDINGS:
USC 6-1 (8-2)
Arizona 4-2 (6-3)
Arizona State 4-2 (5-4)
UCLA 2-4 (4-5)
Utah 2-4 (5-4)
Colorado 2-5 (5-5)
