There's something missing from Colorado's offense

BOULDER — 4 yards. 4 yards. 2 yards. 5-yard penalty. -8 yards. 8 yards. 17 yards. 2 yards. 0 yards. 7 yards. 2 yards. 42-yard touchdown.

Ring any bells?

That’s the Buffs’ game-opening drive against Air Force.

There were hiccups as Colorado cruised down the field but the Buffs never felt outmatched by their opponents. There were running lanes. There were passing lanes. Quarterback Steven Montez kept the team on track.

15 yards. 7 yards. 11 yards. -5 yards. -1 yard.

Those are the rest of Colorado’s first-half drives.

So what happened?

Montez blames himself.

“A lot of that, just plain and simple, is on me,” Montez said. “I just gotta do a better job.”

In Montez’s defense, his offense did enough in the second half to give his team a chance to win the game. It didn’t all go wrong. But even Montez will tell you that isn’t enough.

“We don’t want just a chance at the end,” Montez said. “We want to be up top at the end.”

Whatever went wrong this week isn’t new.

In Week 1, the Buffs let an inferior Colorado State team hang around into the second half. In Week 2, Colorado overcame a 17-point deficit in the second half to send the game into overtime. The Buffs left a goose egg on the scoreboard until deep into the third quarter.

It’s frustrating.

With a senior quarterback, a top-3 receiver in the country and a promising combination of depth and raw talent at the skill positions, these Buffs should be rolling their opponents all game the way they do when their backs are against the wall.

Outside of Saturday’s overtime, the Buffs’ offense has produced a score every time it’s needed one. Maybe they free up and just play. Maybe the play-calling improves.

There’s a reason why this keeps happening but the scariest part of this whole situation is that nobody knows exactly what it is.

“Our job as coaches is to figure out why we aren’t as consistent as we need to be,” head coach Mel Tucker said after the game. “We will look at the film and be very critical and get ready for the next one.”

What he will see when he goes back through the film is obvious: A jumpy offensive line providing inconsistent protection, a running game that could only muster 22 yards in the first half, and a quarterback who either didn’t notice or didn’t care about open receivers downfield.

That part is easy.

The tough part is putting a finger on why.

The answer won’t be as simple as ankles taped too tight or trouble interpreting words through underperforming headsets. There’s something systemic.

There’s no doubt Mel Tucker, Tyson Summers, Jay Johnson and Chris Kapilovic will be able to identify schematic failures and mental mistakes and then convert their wisdom into changes easily understood by 100 college kids. They’re pros.

There’s no doubt a Mel Tucker football team will use a home loss to a Group of 5 team as motivation. They’ll be back rehabbing and watching film early Sunday morning. They’ll be battling harder in practice early Monday morning. Book it.

The question is how to identify something you can’t see.

How to you put a finger on a lethargy? Even worse, how do you do fix it?

This team doesn’t need a personality change, but it may need just the slightest shift. A sense of confidence that was killed by a seven-game losing streak a week ago. A belief that this team is the better than the one on the other sideline.

If I’m Mel Tucker, there’s no question what my first step toward fixing this offense is.

Right now, I’m in my corner office overlooking Folsom Field leaned up against the floor-to-ceiling window with my arm around Steven Montez.

I’m pointing at one goalline then the other and saying, “If you can throw the ball from there to there, then f-ing do it.”

No more dink and dunk. No more scheming guys open. No more making the absolute safest decision.

Just sling it.

These receivers don’t need as much tactical help as they are getting, so unleash them. Send them downfield. Then, when they’re open, don’t be afraid to make a couple bold decisions. Read the defense from back to front on every play.

Maybe Montez is being told to look downfield but isn’t doing it until the game situation forces him to. Or maybe Jay Johnson wants him to play it safe.

Whatever the case, it’s time to take the training wheels off.

Steven Montez will never be a better-than-average game manager and there’s nothing wrong with that. His strength isn’t progressing through three or four reads and finding where the defense is slacking, play after play after play. He isn’t a high-efficiency guy. He’s a “If this ball gets picked off, at least it’s gonna get picked off way, way, way over there” guy. And those guys are just as valuable as West Coast types. Don’t make him change his stripes.

Interceptions don’t kill you, interceptions that don’t flip the field do.

Montez’s strength is having one of the strongest arms in the Pac-12 and knowing how to use it. So let him.

Make this a big-play offense. Make the 15-yard dig your intermediate route, not your deep route. Make the opponents’ secondary run. The Buffs have the depth to rotate guys in-and-out at receiver. Figure out if the cornerbacks can say the same.

If you want to be explosive, then just be explosive.

It boils down to this: If I get my pick to live or die either by Steven Montez’s arm or Steven Montez’s eyes, I’m taking his arm all day long.

And I’m not even going to sweat the thought of death.