Defensively speaking, the shorthanded Buffaloes (playing without senior inside linebacker and team leader Nate Landman as well as junior outside backer Guy Thomas) got steamrolled by No. 7 Oregon.
Anyone wishing to dispute that will have to argue against the Ducks’ 568 yards of total offense or the fact that Oregon didn’t punt once on the day, with CU’s defense failing to stop a Ducks drive from scoring points until early in the fourth quarter.
By that time, Oregon had scored on seven straight drives until junior safety Isaiah Lewis picked off Anthony Brown.
Even after that turnover, the Ducks managed one final touchdown drive for good measure, winning in Eugene, 52-29.
For head coach Karl Dorrell, the vast majority of his postgame press conferences have featured him (to varying degrees) praising his defense and special teams while lamenting the performance of his offense.
Thus, Saturday’s loss at Oregon represented a rare flip of the script.
“(Oregon) had opportunities to make plays in the passing game and the run game, so that was uncharacteristic for us as a defense,” he said. “...I’ve got a very disappointed defense in (the locker room) that feels like they didn’t play as well as we should have.”
“Offensively, I felt we made some progress. I think they kept fighting throughout the game...I felt that this team played hard overall.”
For whatever reason(s), Colorado managed to turn in its most competent offensive performance of the entire season against the No. 7-ranked team in the nation, on the road.
While, yes, the Buffs beat up on the hapless Arizona Wildcats a few weekends ago and blew out the FCS-level UNC Bears in week one, the statistics back up that assertion.
Colorado scored four offensive touchdowns Saturday, marking a first for CU this season against an FBS opponent.
Freshman quarterback Brendon Lewis threw a career-high three touchdowns and completed passes to 11 different eligible wide receivers, also a career and season-high.
He finished the day having gone 25-of-33 for 224 yards, not a bad day at the office whatsoever.
Looking at the Buffaloes’ offensive body of work, it’s impossible not to cite, for starters, the improved play by the offensive line.
Last weekend, the lowly Cal Bears managed to sack Lewis six times, a result contributing directly to the dismissal of now-former o-line coach Mitch Rodrigue, news of which was announced by CU Monday.
Taking over for Rodrigue was William Vlachos, who’d been serving in a quality control capacity for the Buffs before Dorrell tapped him with overseeing the offensive line for the remainder of the 2021 season.
It’s hard to directly deduce Vlachos’ impact, but looking at the cold, hard numbers, his unit held an Oregon defensive front, coming off a four-sack, 11-TFL performance against UCLA last weekend, to a single sack and six tackles for loss.
“I felt that they made a lot of progress in the short week of having a new coach at the o-line position,” Dorrell said. “For us to make the kind of adjustments we made, I was very encouraged with the step of progress there.”
Making plays in the clutch is also something the Buffaloes did pretty well against the Ducks.
Coming into the game, they had a lackluster 31% conversion rate on third down and an even worse 13% (1-for-8) conversion rate on fourth down.
Colorado went 7-of-13 on third down Saturday and converted 4-of-4 fourth down attempts, one of which came on 4th and Goal from the Ducks’ 2-yard line, which the Buffs turned into a short touchdown on a Lewis pass to Alex Fontenot.
Later in the third quarter, Lewis found Brady Russell for a modest gain on 4th and 4 that moved the chains, leading to another 4th and short near the goal line for CU; once again, it was Fontenot that punched it in, scoring on 4th and 1 from the Ducks’ 1-yard line.
In the fourth quarter, Deion Smith kept a CU drive alive with a short fourth down conversion which later led to a 16-yard touchdown reception by Brenden Rice.
“I felt offensively, they made some tough plays in some critical moments,” Dorrell said. “We had some fourth downs we had to go for (to) extend some plays and we made those plays. Receivers, tight ends, backs all, I thought, played hard and ran hard. I thought the offensive line had some good protection.”
Another important aspect of Colorado’s offensive performance vs. the Ducks was an ability to get the ball to the Buffs’ proven playmakers.
Rice is the case in point example. Against California, it could be argued that the lousy play of CU’s offensive line didn’t really allow Lewis much of an opportunity to find Rice.
That said, over a three-game span against Minnesota, Arizona State and Southern Cal, when Rice caught a total of six passes for 51 yards, the lack of action Rice was receiving, as one of the offense's most gifted players, was alarming.
By game's end Saturday, he had been targeted five times, making four catches for 102 yards and a touchdown.
Russell made three catches on three targets for 42 yards
"I think we're really trying to do a good job of utilizing what we think we can do well and get(ting) the ball out to our skill (players)," Dorrell said. "I think Brendon Lewis helps that, because he's playing better. That whole process, offensively, it seems like it starting to grow."
