The Colorado Buffaloes beat the No. 24 Arizona State Sun Devils 34-31 at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona Saturday night. It was the first road win over a ranked opponent for Colorado since 2002.
Here’s what we learned about the Buffs:
The offense did what it was supposed to do
When do we get to put a label on Tony Brown?
Heading into the season, I thought I’d found the right box for him: “Solid Third Receiver.”
Even then, I wondered if freshman Dimitri Stanley had stolen the No. 3 job from the senior, but the talk out of Buffs camp was that Brown was playing well, so I let him keep it.
Now, Brown is just unlabelable.
He dropped 71 yards on Colorado State. He scored the overtime-clinching touchdown with a fingertip grab against Nebraska. And Saturday night, with Laviska Shenault sidelined, he became Laviska Shenault.
Nine catches. 150 yards. Three touchdowns.
I guess the new label might just be “Future NFL Guy.”
Colorado is incredibly deep at receiver, even without Shenault. On Saturday, the Buffaloes finally put that depth to use.
Without counting up the plays, it looked like Colorado had more snaps with four or more receivers split wide than snaps with three or less. There were bunch formations and tight formations and spread formations, but almost every formation put the wide receiver depth on display.
And it worked.
There were so many great route-runners running routes on any given play that there were always options for quarterback Steven Montez. Montez looked totally in control. He sat in the pocket, identified the open man, and then hit him square in the chest with the football. He rolled out of the pocket, waited for his receiver to outrun his defender then slung bullets.
The man looked like he was just hanging out, playing a game of darts.
Montez completed 23 of 30 pass attempts for 337 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions.
Don’t forget that the Arizona State defense had given up seven points per game through its first three games of the season, primarily on the strength of its secondary.
This is the Montez the Buffs need more of.
The defense didn’t do what it was supposed to do
While the Colorado offense was bursting through the expectations set for them against the Sun Devils, the defense faltered.
Arizona State’s offense hadn’t found a rhythm so far this season and the Buffs may have helped it find one.
Early on, Sun Devil receivers were running free deep downfield but freshman quarterback Jayden Daniels couldn’t throw his deep balls on-target, so Colorado wasn’t punished for its poor coverage.
As the game progressed, the receivers continued to find gaping holes in the Buffs’ zone defense and Daniels started hitting them. The problem that has plagued Colorado all season was exposed again Saturday night.
Going into Saturday’s game, Daniels averaged 242 passing yards per game. He put up 345 against Colorado.
The problem wasn’t just with the secondary though. Up front, the Buffs couldn’t generate a pass rush, again.
As the game progressed, the Colorado coaches seemed torn between rushing three and accepting there wouldn’t be a pass rush and sending a blitz and hoping the secondary wouldn’t be exposed.
The blitzes seemed to work better.
These issues are nothing new. Colorado has struggled rushing the passer and covering receivers downfield, but it’s gotten by on its ability to force turnovers and get out of sticky situations.
Now, Colorado has two weeks to clean up those issues before Arizona.
It’s a great time for a bye week
I can’t remember if the placement of the Buffs’ first bye week was loved or hated but I’m confident it wasn’t anything in between. That’s the nature of preseason schedule analysis.
But the truth is, you really don’t know how to grade the placement of the bye until you actually get there. So many unpredictable factors play a part.
At this point, it seems like it’s in the perfect spot.
Here’s the easy reason why: Colorado is banged up. Bad.
Laviska Shenault left the Arizona State game in the first quarter and didn’t return. Mustafa Johnson left the game shortly after. He didn’t return either. Those two may be Colorado’s best offensive and defensive players.
A bunch of other Buffaloes missed time with injuries but most returned, including Delrick Abrams, Chris Miller, Mikial Onu, Jaren Mangham and Alex Fontenot. There are plenty of others on the team who are nursing injuries of their own, but didn’t miss time Saturday night.
Even if the injuries turned out to be minor, it’ll be good to get an extra week off to recover before going on a brutal six-week stretch that sees the Buffs play three Top 25-ranked teams. Two of those games will come on the road.
Colorado will need its A-game to pull out more than a couple of wins.
The Buffs don’t just need to recover physically either.
The first four weeks of the season have been incredibly emotional, particularly for head coach Mel Tucker. Let’s recap:
Week 1: A closer-than-it-should-have-been win at Mile High Stadium over the Buffs’ in-state rivals in Tucker’s first game as a collegiate head coach.
Week 2: An emotional overtime win that saw Colorado put up 31 points in the final 17 minutes, just enough to steal a win from its ranked true rival in Tucker’s first game in Boulder.
Week 3: A heart-breaking overtime defeat to a gadget offense and in-state rival in front of the home crowd.
Week 4: A massive win over a ranked, conference opponent in Tucker’s first road trip, in a stadium in which Colorado had never won a football game.
That’s some heavy stuff.
Call that the first chapter in the book and move on.
Time to reset.
The real grind starts in 13 days.
