Three takeaways from Colorado's 35-32 win over Stanford

The Colorado Buffaloes beat the Stanford Cardinal 35-32 in Palo Alto, Saturday night. The win was Colorado’s second in two tries, leaving them perfect this season and tied for first place in the Pac-12 South with USC.

Here’s what we learned on Saturday:

The Buffs’ defense is fierce

In Week 1, Colorado’s defensive front didn’t spend much time in the backfield.

The group had been hyped up throughout fall camp as one of the best on the team, following new defensive line coach Chris Wilson’s tweaks to its technique. The defensive line was supposed to spend all game in attack mode, getting into the backfield and creating havoc.

It didn’t happen.

This week, we learned from various representatives of the defensive line that the goal in Week 1 was to keep UCLA dual-threat quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson in the pocket because of his ability to run the football. That decision made sense and also explained why Buffs fans hadn’t seen what they’d been told to expect.

But the question remained: was the Colorado front seven as dominant as it had been portrayed to be?

On Saturday we learned that the answer is a resounding yes.

The entire defensive line, as well as a couple of linebackers, spent the duration of Saturday’s game in Stanford’s backfield. Nate Landman, Carson Wells and Terrance Lang each recorded at least one tackle for loss. Wells added a sack. Akil Jones, Isaiah Lewis and Mustafa Johnson all hit the Stanford quarterback.

To simplify, Colorado beat Stanford by going at the Cardinal’s strength and it worked. The Colorado front seven beat Stanford’s offensive line and that set the tone for the entire game.

Colorado has some weapons outside

Senior wideout K.D. Nixon still hasn’t played a snap this season due to a nagging hamstring injury that could disappear any day now.

But even without their most-experienced member, the Colorado receivers have found success.

Sophomore Dimitri Stanley has taken a huge step forward in the slot, flashing his abilities to take advantage of a defense at every level. The bulk of his work is done in the middle of the field but Stanley can also stretch the seam, where his speed is most obvious. He finished Saturday’s game with six catches on six targets for 126 yards and a touchdown.

Outside of Stanley, Maurice Bell may have had the most impressive start to the season. He’s shown his run after catch ability, which meshes well with his speed and route-running.

Freshmen Brenden Rice and La’Vontae Shenault were productive Saturday as well. Rice caught two passes for 38 yards and a touchdown, while Shenault provided 60 yards on three grabs.

Jaylon Jackson and Daniel Arias each added a catch, as well.

Just imagine what this offense will look like with Nixon thrown into the mix.

The coordinators are finding success

Complain about late runs from both UCLA and Stanford if you want, but the play-calling so far in 2020 has been much better than what we saw in 2019.

The day started slowly for the Colorado, when the offense went three-and-out to kick off the game. The Buffs threw three passes, showing an empty backfield set. Running back Jarek Broussard was coming off an overwhelmingly successful debut, prompting some fans to ask whether he should have gotten a carry in the game’s opening minutes.

But if not for a drop from Maurice Bell, Colorado’s opening drive would have looked much different. And almost everything from that point on worked.

Colorado showed a balanced mix of run and pass. Quarterback Sam Noyer threw the ball to every part of the field, keeping the defense on its heels.

The defense, run by defensive coordinator Tyson Summers was hot from the start. Stanford picked up a couple of first downs on its way to a field goal before the Buffs defense forced three consecutive three-and-outs.

Summers gave Stanford a variety of looks and his third-down packages, as usual, caught his opponent off guard. The Buffs moved their blitzers late. They showed empty space in the middle of the field before dropping somebody into coverage. In general, they just just made it hard for Stanford’s quarterback to figure out what was going on.