2020 Review: Buffs hold on to knock off Stanford 35-32

BOULDER — Colorado surprised everybody with a Week 1 win over UCLA, but beating Stanford was supposed to be a tougher task.

By the end of the season, the consensus was that UCLA had the stronger team, but that wasn’t the popular belief in Week 2. A win over David Shaw’s Stanford would go a long way in proving that Karl Dorrell, Sam Noyer and Jarek Broussard belonged in the Pac-12.

Vegas called the Cardinal 9.5-point favorites at home.

Here’s what went down.

Colorado’s offense starts slowly

Unlike it’s Week 1 matchup with UCLA, Colorado couldn’t get anything going offensively, early in the game.

First, Colorado went three-and-out, picking up four yards on three pass attempts. Jarek Broussard didn’t touch the ball.

On the second drive, Broussard carried the ball twice in the first three plays, picking up 13 yards and drawing a 15-yard penalty. On the fourth play, Sam Noyer threw a deep ball two rushers in his face and the pass was picked off.

On the third drive, Jaren Mangham got the first carry, then Ashaad Clayton tried his hand. On 3rd & 4, Noyer missed Maurice Bell, forcing a punt.

In total, Broussard touched the ball twice in the team’s first 10 plays and the Buffs didn’t put a point on the board.

Luckily, the defense forced three three-and-outs (totaling nine yards) and gave up a long field goal attempt in its four series.

Dimitri Stanley and Jarek Broussard fuel the offense

Facing a 3-0 deficit late in the first quarter, the Buffs’ offense scored five touchdowns in seven possessions. One of the non-scoring drives was a 41-yard drive that was halted by the end of the half.

The initial spark came from Dimitri Stanley who caught a medium crossing route and carried it into the end zone for a 55-yard touchdown to go up 7-3.

Then, Stanley kicked off the next drive with a 16-yard grab, before the ground game carried CU into the end zone. CU went up 14-6.

After halftime, CU ran the ball on seven of nine plays on a 75-yard touchdown drive.

On the next series, the Cardinal blew a coverage and Brenden Rice was wide open for a 34-yard catch-and-run touchdown.

To cap off the five touchdowns in seven possessions, Colorado bullied its way down the field on a 10-play, 80-yard drive. It was the only series in this stretch without a 16+-yard gain from Stanley.

Stanley finishes the game with 126 yards on six catches, with a touchdown.

Broussard finishes the game with 121 yards on 27 carries.

The Buffs win in the trenches

In Week 1, CU pushed around the UCLA Bruins. It was an impressive performance but the UCLA linemen aren’t seen as anything special.

Pushing around Stanford is different. The Cardinal is a pro-style program that builds from the trenches out. It sends linemen to the NFL every season, and oftentimes in the first round.

Colorado won the battles up front on both sides of the ball, sending a statement to the rest of the conference.

On the defensive side of the ball, Terrance Lang and Carson Wells do a lot of the heavy lifting.

Lang finds his way into the backfield at will, notching two tackles for loss in one of the most impressive performances of his career.

Wells picks up a sack and a pair of tackles for loss, building on an impressive Week 1 performance. He also knocks down a pair of passes.

The defense can’t get off the field late

Colorado’s defense was dominant early in the game, giving up nine points in the first 40 minutes but allowing 23 points in the game’s final 20 minutes.

But even late in the game, there was a lot to like about the defensive effort.

Stanford put together three touchdown drives in the second half. The first of the three almost came to an early end.

CU had Stanford backed up to their own 14-yard line and facing a 3rd & 14. Michael Wilson, who will be one of the top returning receivers in the conference in 2021, runs a comeback route against Mekhi Blackmon and picks up the first down. Blackmon played a great game outside of this third down, making plays on the ball early in the game to set the tone and late to save it for his team.

Christian Gonzalez was called for an unnecessary pass interference on the ensuing 1st & 15, pushing Stanford up to midfield instead of forcing a 2nd & 15.

Stanford converted a 3rd & 5 in the red zone, when Akil Jones was lined up too far from the line of scrimmage from Wilson. CU could have gotten off the field on the previous play, too, when a screen pass hit Carson Wells in both hands and he dropped it.

On the second of the three touchdown drives, Stanford picked up a 4th & 7 at midfield and Derrion Rakestraw was called for pass interference in the red zone on a 2nd & 10, setting Stanford up with a first down at the two-yard line.

There were opportunities to stop the Cardinal that CU didn’t take advantage of, but the Buffs also forced the Cardinal to grind their way down the field and chew up some clock. Could CU have played more aggressively, like it did in the first half when Stanford couldn’t put up points? Probably. But they’d also concede some big play potential.

On all three of CU’s final offensive possessions, the Buffs were content to run the ball and chew more clock. They picked up one first down and none of the drives ate up three minutes of clock. They did eat all of Stanford’s timeouts though.

Should the offense have been more aggressive and tried to add insurance points? Maybe. But a turnover would have drastically shifted control of the game.

And more importantly: the formula worked.

Colorado played a conservative defense that forced Stanford to use an average of 11 plays on its three touchdown drives. And it still worked in a turnover on downs in this stretch.

Meanwhile, the offense could only pick up one first down on its three “run-out-the-clock” possessions.

Getting this level of production from the team, which was pretty close to the minimum possible (excluding offensive turnovers) was enough to essentially keep Stanford out of the game. The Cardinal had the ball down three points at their own 10-yard line with 10 seconds on the clock and no timeouts. That’s about as close to a guaranteed win as Colorado could have gotten, and it was about the best situation Stanford could have played themselves into in the games final quarter, when Colorado shifted to a pure “run-the-clock” offense and a “no-big-plays” defense.

Essentially, the formula worked out.

Whether this was great clock strategy by Karl Dorrell or a little luck is up for debate.

The good news is that only the final result matters, and Colorado did enough to bring home a 35-32 win.