With respect to expectations for Colorado heading into the season opener against UCLA, I’m not sure a 35-14 halftime lead and four turnovers secured in the first 20 minutes was something anyone expected. But it happened. The Buffs capitalized on multiple UCLA mishaps and also proved they were capable of scoring without the help of a Bruins turnover.
But wow did the tide turn in the second half. Within less than five minutes, Colorado’s 21-point lead had all but evaporated and the Bruins trailed by a lone touchdown.
Blown coverage, big chunks of yards allowed and penalties galore almost crippled CU’s efforts in the third and fourth quarters, with the offense desperately working to add to its lead and bail out a defense that appeared on the verge of total collapse.
After allowing the Bruins three straight touchdown drives — all of which were Blitzkrieg attacks that consumed less than two minutes a piece. Letting up big plays was an issue for the defense in the second half, but ultimately, back-to-back fourth down stops on consecutive Bruins drives proved to be something of a redeemer for an otherwise ugly performance for Colorado’s defense.
UCLA kept things interesting, scoring a late touchdown with a bit under two minutes to play, but by then, the Bruins were out of timeouts and Sam Noyer simply had to take three knees to run the clock out, ensuring Karl Dorrell’s head coaching debut in Boulder was not spoiled.
Below are some early, quick postgame thoughts.
1. Sam Noyer’s report card for his first career start should have an A
To start the game, Sam Noyer looked a bit jittery and there were a few instances that suggested he and Jarek Broussard were not on the same page in terms of executing fake handoffs or play actions.
But as the game went on, Noyer began to display increased comfortability in throwing short, then intermediate and then alter, in a few instances, long balls.
In short, Noyer was efficient, accurate, ran the offense very well and also made some nice contributions in the run game.
For a senior making his first career start, there’s not much more you could have asked from Noyer. He did his job and frankly, probably exceeded expectations.
He was also highly impressive in how he spread the ball around to multiple receivers. Dimitri Stanley had six catches for 66 yards. Maurice Bell had five for 43, Brady Russell reeled in a team-high 77 yards on five grabs, while Daniel Arias caught Noyer’s longest pass of the day for his only reception at 38 yards.
Noyer looked poised, confident and capable. His stat line (20-of-31, 257 yards, and two total touchdowns) showed it and he deserves a lot of credit in helping to power Colorado to victory in what turned out to be a shootout.
Moving forward, he deserved the vast majority of the snaps.
2. Darrin Chiaverini’s offense was balanced and effective
Short screen passes on consecutive first downs, both for no gain, to start the game I admit was less than ideal. But Chiaverini’s playcalling netted the Buffs 48 points. It’s hard to say that wasn’t a heck of a 2020 debut.
Colorado ran a nice balanced attack on Saturday. A total of 33 pass plays and 59 run plays proved to be an effective combination that lifted this team to victory. No disrespect to the defense, which did manage to snag four turnovers in the game, but at the end of the day, points needed to be put on the board in order for CU to win.
Chiaverini’s offense made sure that happened.
He did a nice job, as Noyer proved he was comfortable, in crafting CU’s attack in a manner that complimented his quarterback and also, when Broussard proved very crystal clearly that he could move the chains, Chiaverini paid appropriate attention to maintaining a good run game.
Nitpick where you like, but 264 yards on the ground, 261 through the air for a total of 525 yards — plus a 39:31 time of possession and a perfect 7-of-7 performance in the red zone. Clean ups and tweaks to the offense will be minor.
3. Coaching gaf of the game: subbing Tyler Lytle in
This without a doubt was the strangest move from the coaches in the game. At that point, Noyer had done absolutely nothing to warrant being replaced. In fact, he’d just tossed his first career touchdown pass to Brady Russell for 12 yards out on a nice play action call.
The Buffs were up 21-7 and riding some serious momentum. Inserting Lytle was just plain bizarre. He entered the game and the Buffs ran three plays, gaining a total of six yards.
At the end of the day, Dorrell has made it clear, as has Chiaverini, that Lytle is going to see time this year. That makes sense. Can’t have your only upperclassman who will be on roster in 2021 rot on the sidelines during this shortened season.
Lytle should play, but it goes without saying that the timing in which he was inserted vs. UCLA was not a good move. Thankfully, it didn’t cost the Buffs anything; the Bruins fumbled for the third time of the game on the next offensive snap they ran, which CU quickly converted into a touchdown and a 28-7 lead.
Ultimately, no harm, no foul on the Lytle insertion, but in the future, the coaches need to do a better job in selecting a more appropriate scenario to put him on the field.
It turned out to be inconsequential in the greater scheme of the game, but that was not a good coaching decision.
4. Jarek Broussard proved to be everything that was advertised during camp
After tonight, it’s no surprise that Jarek Broussard earned the RB No. 1 spot heading into the first game of the season. He was electric — fast, hard to tackle and effective. Broussard on Saturday became the first Buffalo tailback to score three touchdowns in his first start at the position since Bobby Anderson did so vs. Indiana in 1969.
He had 17 carries for 110 yards in the first half alone, which included three touchdowns and a long rush of 37 yards. He completely cemented himself as the main handler of carries moving forward after his performance against the Bruins.
Broussard finished the night with 31 carries for 187 yards, gaining on average six yards.
Boy, is he slippery. If he keeps it up, he might be capable of hitting 1,000 yards in this shortened seven-game season.
5a: Holes in the defense from a coverage perspective
It might be fair to say that UCLA’s ineptitude in the turnover department and more than a handful of off-target throws by Dorian Thompson-Robinson in the first half greatly bailed out the CU defense.
Because as the second half progressed, it became glaringly apparent that this defense — after, granted, just one game — far from picked up where it left off regarding good games last fall against Washington and Stanford.
Needless to say, when Tyson Summers spends tomorrow cutting the tape and watching this game film, he’s going to find something of a laundry list in terms of things that need cleaned up ASAP.
The Buffs couldn’t read or stop a screen to save their lives. UCLA’s big tight end had multiple big catches across the middle and downfield that were woefully undefended.
At one point in the third quarter, UCLA scored touchdowns on three straight drives. All three of those drives saw the Bruins steamroll the Buffs, never taking more than six plays or 86 seconds to march the ball downfield into the endzone.
Penalties ran out of control for Colorado’s defense on the majority of those drives, while poor third down defense was equally as much of a contributing factor in UCLA’s easy trips to the end zone.
5b: Holes in the defense from a QB spy perspective
As the game went on, Dorian Thompson-Robinson became more and more emboldened to ditch the pocket and scramble for big chunks of yardage as he steadily realized that the Buffs were all but incapable of preventing him from doing so.
On one hand, the many times he did scramble does reflect that coverage was tight but Colorado more often than not had no answer nor personnel to stop Thompson-Robinson on the run.
There was a big field of green in no man’s land between the line of scrimmage and UCLA’s wide receivers downfield on the plays Thompson-Robinson scrambled, and he racked up a frightening amount of yardage in taking advantage of that.
The Buffs won’t face a mobile quarterback like him every week, but Colorado knew quite well the challenges Thompson-Robinson would present. In the end, the Buffs defensively failed to execute their gameplan in the most impressive manner.
.....
Much more to get into, but those were my opening postgame thoughts as I now just wrapped up a series of Zoom calls. We'll heard from HCKD, Broussard, Noyer and Derrion Rakestraw here soon.
Injury notes:
James Stefanou was essentially removed from the game after missing a 51-yard field goal and having his second attempt blocked. But Dorrell indicated his removal was not performance-based, rather, it was health-influenced.
All Dorrell said was that Stefanou was a bit 'nicked.' Kudos to Evan Price though — he's made big kicks before and his two tonight (from 45 and 36 yards) proved to be the difference for CU.
K.D. Nixon did not play tonight. Dorrell said he could have played and is right on the border of 100%, but erred on the side of caution in resting him. Frankly, his absence wasn't really noticed.
But wow did the tide turn in the second half. Within less than five minutes, Colorado’s 21-point lead had all but evaporated and the Bruins trailed by a lone touchdown.
Blown coverage, big chunks of yards allowed and penalties galore almost crippled CU’s efforts in the third and fourth quarters, with the offense desperately working to add to its lead and bail out a defense that appeared on the verge of total collapse.
After allowing the Bruins three straight touchdown drives — all of which were Blitzkrieg attacks that consumed less than two minutes a piece. Letting up big plays was an issue for the defense in the second half, but ultimately, back-to-back fourth down stops on consecutive Bruins drives proved to be something of a redeemer for an otherwise ugly performance for Colorado’s defense.
UCLA kept things interesting, scoring a late touchdown with a bit under two minutes to play, but by then, the Bruins were out of timeouts and Sam Noyer simply had to take three knees to run the clock out, ensuring Karl Dorrell’s head coaching debut in Boulder was not spoiled.
Below are some early, quick postgame thoughts.
1. Sam Noyer’s report card for his first career start should have an A
To start the game, Sam Noyer looked a bit jittery and there were a few instances that suggested he and Jarek Broussard were not on the same page in terms of executing fake handoffs or play actions.
But as the game went on, Noyer began to display increased comfortability in throwing short, then intermediate and then alter, in a few instances, long balls.
In short, Noyer was efficient, accurate, ran the offense very well and also made some nice contributions in the run game.
For a senior making his first career start, there’s not much more you could have asked from Noyer. He did his job and frankly, probably exceeded expectations.
He was also highly impressive in how he spread the ball around to multiple receivers. Dimitri Stanley had six catches for 66 yards. Maurice Bell had five for 43, Brady Russell reeled in a team-high 77 yards on five grabs, while Daniel Arias caught Noyer’s longest pass of the day for his only reception at 38 yards.
Noyer looked poised, confident and capable. His stat line (20-of-31, 257 yards, and two total touchdowns) showed it and he deserves a lot of credit in helping to power Colorado to victory in what turned out to be a shootout.
Moving forward, he deserved the vast majority of the snaps.
2. Darrin Chiaverini’s offense was balanced and effective
Short screen passes on consecutive first downs, both for no gain, to start the game I admit was less than ideal. But Chiaverini’s playcalling netted the Buffs 48 points. It’s hard to say that wasn’t a heck of a 2020 debut.
Colorado ran a nice balanced attack on Saturday. A total of 33 pass plays and 59 run plays proved to be an effective combination that lifted this team to victory. No disrespect to the defense, which did manage to snag four turnovers in the game, but at the end of the day, points needed to be put on the board in order for CU to win.
Chiaverini’s offense made sure that happened.
He did a nice job, as Noyer proved he was comfortable, in crafting CU’s attack in a manner that complimented his quarterback and also, when Broussard proved very crystal clearly that he could move the chains, Chiaverini paid appropriate attention to maintaining a good run game.
Nitpick where you like, but 264 yards on the ground, 261 through the air for a total of 525 yards — plus a 39:31 time of possession and a perfect 7-of-7 performance in the red zone. Clean ups and tweaks to the offense will be minor.
3. Coaching gaf of the game: subbing Tyler Lytle in
This without a doubt was the strangest move from the coaches in the game. At that point, Noyer had done absolutely nothing to warrant being replaced. In fact, he’d just tossed his first career touchdown pass to Brady Russell for 12 yards out on a nice play action call.
The Buffs were up 21-7 and riding some serious momentum. Inserting Lytle was just plain bizarre. He entered the game and the Buffs ran three plays, gaining a total of six yards.
At the end of the day, Dorrell has made it clear, as has Chiaverini, that Lytle is going to see time this year. That makes sense. Can’t have your only upperclassman who will be on roster in 2021 rot on the sidelines during this shortened season.
Lytle should play, but it goes without saying that the timing in which he was inserted vs. UCLA was not a good move. Thankfully, it didn’t cost the Buffs anything; the Bruins fumbled for the third time of the game on the next offensive snap they ran, which CU quickly converted into a touchdown and a 28-7 lead.
Ultimately, no harm, no foul on the Lytle insertion, but in the future, the coaches need to do a better job in selecting a more appropriate scenario to put him on the field.
It turned out to be inconsequential in the greater scheme of the game, but that was not a good coaching decision.
4. Jarek Broussard proved to be everything that was advertised during camp
After tonight, it’s no surprise that Jarek Broussard earned the RB No. 1 spot heading into the first game of the season. He was electric — fast, hard to tackle and effective. Broussard on Saturday became the first Buffalo tailback to score three touchdowns in his first start at the position since Bobby Anderson did so vs. Indiana in 1969.
He had 17 carries for 110 yards in the first half alone, which included three touchdowns and a long rush of 37 yards. He completely cemented himself as the main handler of carries moving forward after his performance against the Bruins.
Broussard finished the night with 31 carries for 187 yards, gaining on average six yards.
Boy, is he slippery. If he keeps it up, he might be capable of hitting 1,000 yards in this shortened seven-game season.
5a: Holes in the defense from a coverage perspective
It might be fair to say that UCLA’s ineptitude in the turnover department and more than a handful of off-target throws by Dorian Thompson-Robinson in the first half greatly bailed out the CU defense.
Because as the second half progressed, it became glaringly apparent that this defense — after, granted, just one game — far from picked up where it left off regarding good games last fall against Washington and Stanford.
Needless to say, when Tyson Summers spends tomorrow cutting the tape and watching this game film, he’s going to find something of a laundry list in terms of things that need cleaned up ASAP.
The Buffs couldn’t read or stop a screen to save their lives. UCLA’s big tight end had multiple big catches across the middle and downfield that were woefully undefended.
At one point in the third quarter, UCLA scored touchdowns on three straight drives. All three of those drives saw the Bruins steamroll the Buffs, never taking more than six plays or 86 seconds to march the ball downfield into the endzone.
Penalties ran out of control for Colorado’s defense on the majority of those drives, while poor third down defense was equally as much of a contributing factor in UCLA’s easy trips to the end zone.
5b: Holes in the defense from a QB spy perspective
As the game went on, Dorian Thompson-Robinson became more and more emboldened to ditch the pocket and scramble for big chunks of yardage as he steadily realized that the Buffs were all but incapable of preventing him from doing so.
On one hand, the many times he did scramble does reflect that coverage was tight but Colorado more often than not had no answer nor personnel to stop Thompson-Robinson on the run.
There was a big field of green in no man’s land between the line of scrimmage and UCLA’s wide receivers downfield on the plays Thompson-Robinson scrambled, and he racked up a frightening amount of yardage in taking advantage of that.
The Buffs won’t face a mobile quarterback like him every week, but Colorado knew quite well the challenges Thompson-Robinson would present. In the end, the Buffs defensively failed to execute their gameplan in the most impressive manner.
.....
Much more to get into, but those were my opening postgame thoughts as I now just wrapped up a series of Zoom calls. We'll heard from HCKD, Broussard, Noyer and Derrion Rakestraw here soon.
Injury notes:
James Stefanou was essentially removed from the game after missing a 51-yard field goal and having his second attempt blocked. But Dorrell indicated his removal was not performance-based, rather, it was health-influenced.
All Dorrell said was that Stefanou was a bit 'nicked.' Kudos to Evan Price though — he's made big kicks before and his two tonight (from 45 and 36 yards) proved to be the difference for CU.
K.D. Nixon did not play tonight. Dorrell said he could have played and is right on the border of 100%, but erred on the side of caution in resting him. Frankly, his absence wasn't really noticed.
