Could Karl Dorrell turn to true-freshman QB Owen McCown?

Be careful what you wish for.

After a season opener in which Brendon Lewis played most of the game, Colorado fans and cognoscenti were wondering why J.T. Shrout did not play more.

Shrout started and played every offensive snap in Saturday’s game against Air Force, a game that became a comedy of errors.

The weather may have played a factor in Shrout’s play but either way, it was not good enough.

Shrout’s final stat line of 5/21, 51 yards and one interception was not much different than what we are used to seeing from Brendon Lewis.

It was Shrout’s first-ever collegiate start but it’s fair to say that everyone is disappointed in how the former Volunteer played.

Colorado head coach Karl Dorrell explained why he opted to keep Shrout in the entire game and why he was not planning to play Lewis.

“My gut told me to keep him in there,” Dorrell said. “Obviously, he didn’t play as well as he expected himself to play and he needs a lot of work. I think that was the right thing to do to keep playing him, just so we can get a good evaluation about what we think he is.”

Interestingly enough, Dorrell opened the door for freshman Owen McCown to see some live game action this season.

“Maybe we need to look at some of these younger guys too,” Dorrell said. “We have a third in Owen McCown and Drew Carter. We’re going to have to continue to find someone that can give us a spark.”

It’s been like the movie “Groundhog Day” for Karl Dorrell as he talked about how his offense is seemingly stuck in reverse.

“It’s the same story I keep talking about right now,” Dorrell said. “I’m tired of talking about it. We need to put it out front and play. We need to coach better, we need to play better.”

One of the turning points in Saturday’s game happened when the Buffs recovered an Air Force fumble deep inside Air Force territory. A defensive pass interference penalty on Brady Russell in the end zone moved the football to the two-yard line. Two plays later, Alex Fontenot would fumble as he was crossing the goal line. Air Force recovered and the Buffs lost all momentum from that point on.

“After they make that call you have to just roll with the punches and keep going but that was an unfortunate opportunity,” Dorrell said.

Air Force tried their best to keep Colorado in the football game with numerous mistakes of their own. Regardless, the triple option proved to be too much to handle for the Buffs.

“They got us on the perimeter quite a bit, then they started hitting us inside to keep us off balance,” Dorrell said. “We didn’t tackle well enough from a complete game standpoint.”

One of the lone bright spots for Colorado on Saturday was Quinn Perry. Perry played a phenomenal game and was the standout defender for the Buffs. The fourth-year Buff chalked up 17 total tackles and a fumble recovery.

However, Karl Dorrell sent in another team captain for post-game media availability. Casey Roddick spoke in a fiery and passionate manner shortly after speaking with his team in the locker room.

Roddick was disappointed and upset but he made sure to shout out how the defense played as a whole with their turnovers being the reason why Colorado was in the game into the third quarter. The junior guard has been through a lot on and off the field and wants his team to use this adversity as an opportunity to power through and make sure this doesn’t happen to Colorado again.

“We’ve dealt with so much adversity greater than football where if something happens on the field, you’ve already been through it so might as well keep going,” Roddick said. “Yeah, it’s deflating but so what? Now what?”

To hear Roddick speak in full after the loss, check out the post-game podcast on the DNVR Buffs Podcast feed.

It’s not going to get easier anytime soon for the Buffs. Colorado is making the trip up to Minnesota next weekend to play a Gophers team that has outscored their opponents 100-10 in their first two contests. Minnesota beat Colorado 30-0 last season. After that, it’s head first into Pac-12 Conference play.

The Buffs have a lot of work to do, with the quarterback position and offense being the point of emphasis again heading into next Saturday’s game.