Obviously a 52-29 loss isn’t desirable, but the Colorado Buffaloes—or at least their offense—didn’t roll over against the No. 7 Oregon Ducks.
For the first time all season, CU’s offense outperformed its defense. Just as Steven Montez did five years ago, Brendon Lewis didn’t appear composed in his first game at Autzen Stadium. Even with La’Vontae Shenault and Dimitri Stanley out, the freshman QB spread the rock well and finished 25-for-33 with 224 passing yards.
With Lewis’ completion to Lemonious-Craig, 10 different receivers have caught a pass— the most all season. #cubuffs
— Jack Carlough (@Jack_Carlough) October 30, 2021
One week after Colorado fired O-line coach Mitch Rodrigue, the big men up front looked significantly better. Lewis was sacked just once and besides a few too many false start penalties, the O-line was formidable.
After falling behind 21-0 early in the second quarter, the Buffaloes’ offense awakened with a pair of touchdowns in the span of seven minutes. Ty Robinson caught his first career touchdown pass and Alex Fontenot later scored to keep Colorado hanging around.
Fontenot scored another touchdown early in the fourth quarter and Brenden Rice, who finished with 119 all-purpose yards, caught a 16-yard touchdown on the Buffs’ next drive. CU converted a two-point conversion and trailed by just two scores, 45-29.
One aspect that was particularly promising was Karl Dorrell’s overall aggressiveness on key decisions. While Dorrell has at least preached that mindset, there have certainly been conservative decisions made on fourth downs this year. That wasn’t true on Saturday as the Buffs went for it on fourth down in the red zone four times. Touchdowns are, after all, worth more points than field goals and those decisions helped the Buffs create some hope late in the game. It’s a little different when trailing by multiple scores, but Dorrell could’ve just as easily opted for field goals.
Defensively, however, the Buffs struggled without Nate Landman and Guy Thomas. Colorado’s thin group of linebackers couldn’t do much to stop Oregon’s running back screens and pure all-around speed. Anthony Brown threw for over 300 yards and Travis Dye found the end zone three times.
The ugliest stat of the afternoon was probably Oregon scoring on its first seven offensive drives. Oregon’s first non-scoring drive didn’t even come until the fourth quarter when Isaiah Lewis picked off backup QB Ty Thompson.
I’m not sure if CU’s defense is now a limiting factor, but it definitely wasn’t their best performance of the season. There was little pressure on Brown and just one TFL, courtesy of Robert Barnes.
If the defense can get Landman and Thomas back, Colorado’s next game against Oregon State should be competitive.