Buffs Review: Colorado knocks off Northern Colorado in the season-opener

This is the first part in a new series looking back on the 2021 season. Every couple of days we’ll review another game and work our way through the season.

The Colorado Buffaloes opened the season with a game against the FCS Northern Colorado Bears. The game figured to be an easy win for CU, but a scoreless first quarter opened the door for a nightmare. The Buffs figured things out, though, and wound up winning 35-7.

Turning Point: Mekhi Blackmon’s interception

The Buffs broke through with a pair of second quarter touchdowns and took a 14-0 lead into the half… thanks to Mekhi Blackmon.

Northern Colorado marched 60 yards downfield in the closing minutes of the half. But on the 12th play of the drive, Dylan McCaffrey tossed a ball into the end zone from 15 yards out. His receiver slowed down a little, and the ball was probably overthrown anyway, allowing Mekhi Blackmon to catch the ball uncontested.

It’s tough to point to one moment in which a 35-7 game was decided, but it’s easy to see how this game could have played out differently if Colorado only had a seven-point lead at the half. A couple of mistakes and Northern Colorado may have had a path to an upset.

3 Stars

Jarek Broussard – The reigning Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year carried the offense in Week 1.

Broussard was stuffed near the line of scrimmage every time he touched the ball in the first couple of series. There wasn’t much room to work with. But he ripped off a 12-yard run on the Buffs’ third possession and then pounded the rock into the end zone. His 30-yard run from midfield a few minutes later set up a touchdown pass to Montana Lemonious-Craig.

Broussard finished the game with 15 carries for 94 yards and a touchdown, and his fingerprints were all over the early touchdown drives.

Jamar Montgomery – You may not notice Montgomery in the box score—he didn’t even record a tackle—but his impact on the game was important.

The Buffs rotated Montgomery in as a rotational pass rusher. He played 17 snaps and 12 of those were rushing the quarterback from the edge. Out of those 12 pass-rush attempts, Montgomery recorded three hurries and a hit, good for four total pressures. That tied Na’im Rodman (who could have easily made this list) for the most on the team, with Carson Wells being the only other player with multiple pressures.

Chris Miller – When you think back on the Buffs’ 2021 defense, Chris Miller’s name doesn’t come to mind quickly. He played against UNC, then took a handful of snaps against Minnesota, and that was it for his year.

But in Week 1, he was really, really good.

Miller primarily played out of the slot. He was targeted five times during the game and allowed four catches. That’s not a great rate, but the longest of the catches was good for three yards and he gave up eight yards all day. He locked receivers up downfield and only gave up quick stuff underneath.

Miller also made five tackles, although he did get pushed around a little on a couple of them.

CU Spotlight: The freshman DBs make plays

The best part of buy games? Seeing the 18-year-olds get their first snaps at the end.

Colorado gave plenty of work to a handful of true freshman defensive backs after their secondary caught the injury bug in the middle of the season. With that context in mind, it was fun to see them get into a game for the first time.

And they played surprisingly well.

Nikko Reed was the star of the group. He broke up a pair of passes in the end zone in one-on-one coverage. He also shed a block from a wide receiver on a third down and brought down the running back by himself at the line of scrimmage on a stretch run. He looked surprisingly strong for a 165-pounder.

Trevor Woods broke up a pass in the end zone as well. He didn’t make much noise on the stat sheet but Pro Football Focus said he was the second-best defender for CU in the game, on a per-play basis.

The Buffs’ young secondary showed early signs that they were ready to contribute in Year 1.

Opponent Spotlight: UNC goes spread

Preparing for the UNC offense was a tough task.

The Bears had a new coaching staff and it was tough to say what they would run. Almost the entire staff was brought over from Valor Christian High School with head coach Ed McCaffrey. It was unlikely that they’d try to run a high school system. New offensive coordinator Max McCaffrey had never run an offense. He’d only spent one year as a coach, working with UNC’s wide receivers in the previous season.

Typically, the small schools in buy games will try to run the rock and control the pace of play.

Not the Bears.

Northern Colorado lined up in empty for its first offensive and ran a spread offense. The Buffs had to learn on the fly and tweak their gameplan.

Colorado worked in a healthy amount of zone defense—one-on-one opportunities would allow UNC a chance at big plays that could help set up an upset—but we also saw the framework of the Cover 1 scheme that would define their defense.

There was one key difference: Nate Landman played more man coverage instead of playing a short, middle of the field zone. That’s because Robert Barnes was unavailable so Landman often slid into the Barnes role, while Quinn Perry played Landman’s role. That left Landman in man coverage with running backs on several occasions and the results were… not great. Of UNC’s 24 completions, 18 came in between the numbers and less than 10 yards downfield.

The flip side is that the defensive backs locked down the UNC wide receivers. They didn’t give up a catch 20 yards downfield all day; and remember, the Bears have a spread offense.

Christian Gonzalez and Mekhi Blackmon played as well as you’d expect but Nigel Bethel Jr. caught my eye. He played on the boundary, typically lining up against bigger receivers, but was strong at the top of the route and didn’t allow much separation.

Keep an eye on: Ashaad Clayton

The Buffs’ threw talented second-year running back Ashaad Clayton into the mix in the first game of the season, and he did good work. Clayton finished the day with eight carries for 51 yards and a touchdown. He did his best work in short-yardage situations but he also ripped off a 35-yarder, using his strength to bully defensive backs downfield.

In hindsight, we know that Clayton didn’t factor into the Buffs’ plans all that much the rest of the way. That’s surprising given his Week 1 performance. We’ll keep and on Clayton in the next couple of games to see if we can find a reason for this.