It doesn't take some sort of super genius to deduce that Colorado's four-game losing streak and lackluster offensive output to date this season is the result of multiple issues plaguing the team simultaneously.
Freshman quarterback Brendon Lewis has received his fair share of venom from greater Buff Nation, and he is far from sinless with respect to the Buffaloes' inability to display any sort of efficiency on offense.
Colorado has not eclipsed 300 yards of total offense yet against an FBS opponent this season and following a 30-0 loss at the hands of Minnesota a few weeks back — the first shutout CU has suffered at Folsom Field since 2012 — it has averaged a measly 13.5 points per game.
The Buffs' offensive struggles are at this point undoubtedly becoming a tiresome story line, yet it is exactly that which defines the team's identity as CU heads into week six.
While Lewis hasn't put up eye-popping numbers and Jarek Broussard has far from done anything akin to his dominating, Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year-winning 2020 campaign, Colorado's offensive line has looked shaky at best through five games.
In the last three games alone, it has allowed 12 sacks of Lewis — three vs. Minnesota, four against ASU and on Saturday, a whopping five to the Trojans.
Considering that USC entered Saturday's game in Boulder ranked last in the Pac-12 in sacks makes the Buffs' offensive line's performance all the more alarming.
As Karl Dorrell noted in his postgame press conference, the Buffaloes aren't exactly starting a five-man unit full of greenhorns and freshmen.
Colorado started the same group of five o-linemen against USC that it did last weekend at Arizona State, with (from left to right) Jake Wiley, Kary Kutsch, Colby Pursell, Casey Roddick and Frank Fillip getting the nod.
Wiley, a redshirt freshman, is in his first year as a starter, but the same could not be said for Kutsch (senior), Pursell (junior), Roddick (sophomore) and Fillip (sophomore), all of whom had extensive experience as starters last year.
Granted, Pursell and Kutsch both missed time last year due to injury, but regardless, the o-line as a collective unit is underperforming despite its overall experience.
“It’s a number of things," Dorrell said after CU's 37-14 loss. "There’s really not one thing I can put on it but (they’re) not playing at a level that (they) should, given the experience."
While Lewis showed some more hesitancy to pull the trigger in general and in the pocket, the sacks and pressure he was under seemed to make a bad situation worse for the Buffs' young quarterback.
From Dorrell's vantage point, Southern Cal wasn't doing anything particularly tricky on defense with respect to blitz packages, yet a season-high five sacks were allowed to the Trojans.
“It wasn’t just Brendon," he said. "(USC) hardly pressured us, and yet he was under pressure a lot. They had a normal four-man rush and he was under pressure a lot. There were some issues in protection.”
Having lost four straight games, the Buffs now limp into a bye week ahead of their next game, an Oct. 16 showdown with Arizona at Folsom Field.
Colorado's players and coaches have a lot on their mutual plate to get cracking on and after Saturday's performance against USC's front seven, figuring out how to improve the offensive line's play will be an item high on that checklist.
"We’re having some issues in a lot of areas, but particularly up front," Dorrell said. "This is going to be a week for us to really try to get back to shore up as much as we can before we play Arizona in two weeks. There’s a lot of work for us to do and we’re definitely going to do that.”
........
I do agree with Dorrell that it's not all on Lewis. A good amount of it is, but certainly not all of it. He's also correct in pointing out that it wasn't like USC was blitzing out of control or anything — the Buffs' OLs got out-manned and out-toughed by their defensive line adversaries. No other way to spin it. That unit is struggling quite a bit and remains a considerable part of the overall equation when it comes to dissecting why this team has been so bad so far.
Needless to say this will not be a leisurely bye week for anyone on this team or staff. I'm not the most tenured writer covering CU football and boy, I have seen some losses in my day (dating back to 2015, my first year in the pressbox for the student newspaper) but good lord, I've never seen anything quite like this in terms of just a brutal all-around offense.
Freshman quarterback Brendon Lewis has received his fair share of venom from greater Buff Nation, and he is far from sinless with respect to the Buffaloes' inability to display any sort of efficiency on offense.
Colorado has not eclipsed 300 yards of total offense yet against an FBS opponent this season and following a 30-0 loss at the hands of Minnesota a few weeks back — the first shutout CU has suffered at Folsom Field since 2012 — it has averaged a measly 13.5 points per game.
The Buffs' offensive struggles are at this point undoubtedly becoming a tiresome story line, yet it is exactly that which defines the team's identity as CU heads into week six.
While Lewis hasn't put up eye-popping numbers and Jarek Broussard has far from done anything akin to his dominating, Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year-winning 2020 campaign, Colorado's offensive line has looked shaky at best through five games.
In the last three games alone, it has allowed 12 sacks of Lewis — three vs. Minnesota, four against ASU and on Saturday, a whopping five to the Trojans.
Considering that USC entered Saturday's game in Boulder ranked last in the Pac-12 in sacks makes the Buffs' offensive line's performance all the more alarming.
As Karl Dorrell noted in his postgame press conference, the Buffaloes aren't exactly starting a five-man unit full of greenhorns and freshmen.
Colorado started the same group of five o-linemen against USC that it did last weekend at Arizona State, with (from left to right) Jake Wiley, Kary Kutsch, Colby Pursell, Casey Roddick and Frank Fillip getting the nod.
Wiley, a redshirt freshman, is in his first year as a starter, but the same could not be said for Kutsch (senior), Pursell (junior), Roddick (sophomore) and Fillip (sophomore), all of whom had extensive experience as starters last year.
Granted, Pursell and Kutsch both missed time last year due to injury, but regardless, the o-line as a collective unit is underperforming despite its overall experience.
“It’s a number of things," Dorrell said after CU's 37-14 loss. "There’s really not one thing I can put on it but (they’re) not playing at a level that (they) should, given the experience."
While Lewis showed some more hesitancy to pull the trigger in general and in the pocket, the sacks and pressure he was under seemed to make a bad situation worse for the Buffs' young quarterback.
From Dorrell's vantage point, Southern Cal wasn't doing anything particularly tricky on defense with respect to blitz packages, yet a season-high five sacks were allowed to the Trojans.
“It wasn’t just Brendon," he said. "(USC) hardly pressured us, and yet he was under pressure a lot. They had a normal four-man rush and he was under pressure a lot. There were some issues in protection.”
Having lost four straight games, the Buffs now limp into a bye week ahead of their next game, an Oct. 16 showdown with Arizona at Folsom Field.
Colorado's players and coaches have a lot on their mutual plate to get cracking on and after Saturday's performance against USC's front seven, figuring out how to improve the offensive line's play will be an item high on that checklist.
"We’re having some issues in a lot of areas, but particularly up front," Dorrell said. "This is going to be a week for us to really try to get back to shore up as much as we can before we play Arizona in two weeks. There’s a lot of work for us to do and we’re definitely going to do that.”
........
I do agree with Dorrell that it's not all on Lewis. A good amount of it is, but certainly not all of it. He's also correct in pointing out that it wasn't like USC was blitzing out of control or anything — the Buffs' OLs got out-manned and out-toughed by their defensive line adversaries. No other way to spin it. That unit is struggling quite a bit and remains a considerable part of the overall equation when it comes to dissecting why this team has been so bad so far.
Needless to say this will not be a leisurely bye week for anyone on this team or staff. I'm not the most tenured writer covering CU football and boy, I have seen some losses in my day (dating back to 2015, my first year in the pressbox for the student newspaper) but good lord, I've never seen anything quite like this in terms of just a brutal all-around offense.
