HC Karl Dorrell discusses what the team needs to work on in order to avoid games like this evening's showing against TCU.
Transcript
Karl Dorrell spoke with the media following Colorado's 38-13 loss to TCU Friday at Folsom Field in its first game of the 2022 season.
Here's everything the Buffs' coach had to say following the setback.
Opening statement: "Well, I wasn't expecting that type of game. We played decently in the first half. Obviously, it was a 7-6 game. We felt offensively we still had a lot of stuff to continue to move and improve on going into the second half. I think defensively we felt just as good. We felt we needed to shore up a few things, but apparently they made better adjustments than we did in the second half They scored pretty quickly in their first series of the second half. We've had some challenges with the things that they were doing, the quarterback run game and some other things that they were doing. Unfortunately for us, we didn't quite get those executed properly to help us. It put a lot more pressure on us offensively to try to generate some drives. The fourth down I went for the second half, that was kind of short. We didn't come up with it and gave them a short field and they scored quickly. We were trying to do the right things and trying to stay in the game, but unfortunately, we couldn't stop what they were doing. With the rhythm offensively, we seem to not catch rhythm quite as well as we should have. We really hadn't caught rhythm the whole game if you think about it. Even in the first half with the field goals, we did some positive things, but it wasn't like it was a seamless operation. First game, we have a lot of work to fix and improve on. There's a lot of players playing. We understood that. That's not an excuse. We just have to get better. We're gonna have to get better. It's one game down and 11 to go. We know that in that locker room, we can get a lot better. I'm sure that's what their mindset is right now from what we just talked about. There's nowhere to go but up. We're going to continue to work and hopefully get better and get ready to play a really good Air Force team."
On where they go from here with the quarterback situation: “We’ll continue to work through it. We'll continue to work through it. I think we're going to have to get some film evaluation on both and to see what we do from this point forward. I don't have an answer right now, right after the game, but we're gonna definitely have some discussion on that.”
On deciding at halftime which quarterback to start for the second half: “At halftime, that was not a problem at that point in time because it was a 7-6 game. Our plan was to start the second half with B Lew and eventually that J.T. was going to get in there after that, after a couple of series. That was always the plan. We decided to keep J.T. in there the latter part of the half, in the fourth quarter. It seemed like he had a better rhythm going in terms of what he was doing. I still think he was moving out of the pocket prematurely at times. I saw that a lot, but it's his first day back from playing. He got a chance to get the rust off from having not played in a year. I’m sure he's gonna get better.”
On whether he felt like the offense was flowing better with one quarterback versus another: “It's hard to say because B Lew did some things, too, where we were moving the football. We didn't score a touchdown until the very end of the game. That's the part I'm a little more disappointed in, that we didn't have any production or any points in the first half or really the second half. We have some work to continue to work on. We'll figure it out. I have good enough coaches that will figure it out. We'll figure it out.
On early impressions of the offense: “We need to get a lot of our stuff offensively working to be more efficient, whether it's the QB run or the RPO or the normal runs and throwing game. I felt like there was no rhythm. I think we gotta get better with the rhythm. Offensively, the quarterbacks, we’ll continue to work through that, but I felt like the rhythm just wasn't established at all. TCU in the second half, their offense had good rhythm every time they stepped on the field. They were making plays and sustaining drives. We didn't have that kind of consistency. That's an area, to me, that I think is really important for us to address this week. You’ve got to play a team like Air Force that takes a lot of time off the clock. You're going to have to take advantage of your opportunities. We need to be much better next week.;
On opting to punt on the fourth and five late in the third quarter: “We did that the second time because when I did go for it the other time and we didn't get it, they scored quickly. We were down by 25 points in six minutes at that point in time. That’s three touchdowns and a field goal to try to fix in such a short period of time. I didn't want to continue to put that much pressure on our defense. Normally, I would want to do that if we're playing well defensively, but for some reason, we were struggling with what they were doing offensively.”
On concerns about run defense in the second half: “It’s something that we were not doing and something they were doing that we didn't have the right adjustment to. I think that's really the question for that or the answer for that. We didn't have the answers. They had better adjustments in the second half. We felt like we made adjustments, but apparently, they were not as good as they should have been. We're gonna all learn from this first game. We're gonna have to put our guys in a better position. We're going to have to see what we really can do well versus what we shouldn't do anymore. And that's on both sides of the ball. And that's on special teams, too. We knew this returner was a really good returner. We didn't fan out and get great coverage lanes and they got us to the field. There's a lot of work that needs to be done and it starts with me. I'm not pointing the finger at any of our players. Our coaches and me, we’ve got to get this thing done. I'm very confident that this group of coaches will do that.
On when he felt like his team was losing momentum and the mindset going into the fourth quarter: “The mindset going into the last part of the game, the fourth quarter, was to finish the game properly – finish the game playing hard, playing this style of play that we should do, get get better at what we were doing in the process of the game. Offensively, they scored on a drive. We didn't do that in the first half. I think defensively we had trouble stopping them. It’s pretty obvious the issues that we were plagued with today. The challenge is getting those fixed within a week's time to be competitive next week. That’s what we’ve got to do.”
On whether the first half numbers provided any reason for encouragement: “It's hard to find a lot of positives today, but I appreciate what you're saying. The first half, I was disappointed because we weren't getting points in terms of touchdowns. In a game like that, I knew that TCU has enough firepower at some point in time that if you don't score touchdowns, it's going to get ugly quickly. That's really the part that we didn't do well. We didn't score touchdowns until the very end. There's a lot of areas of things that need to be worked on right now. It's not just offense. We know that defense, we’ve got some things to shore up there. We’ve got to shore up our coverages on special teams. There's a lot of things in this first game that we were exposed. We need to get it shored up pretty quickly because teams are gonna keep coming. We’ll get this right. We’ll get it better.”
On whether the conservative passing game was planned or a product of what TCU was giving them: “Probably all of those things. Guys were covered and going through progressions. That defensive structure that I've explained, it's a difficult defense to get over the top of because it's a 3-3-5 system. It's hard. There's not a lot of air in this defense. They've done a nice job of not giving you too many big plays. Now, you saw Daniel caught a few. There were a couple other plays and then a touchdown at the end, but we have to do all of our things better. Much, much better. It starts with both sides of the ball, fixing and shoring up the issues that we had today. I'm confident that we can get it fixed, though, because I know we're a better team than what we played like today. We're better than that, but I’ve got to stop talking about it. We’ve just gotta go prove it. We’ve got to get better.”
On how he addresses criticism of his belief that Lewis is different and better this season: “Well, I think he's different and better. We didn't have an idea of what he would look like today, but everything he has shown in the offseason up to this point, he looked really well. He did really good things. We’ll evaluate the quarterback thing now that we have a healthier room. We'll do what's best moving forward, but I didn't think Brendon played poorly. He made a few plays. He did some things with his legs. He had some throws. He wasn't perfect, though, and neither was J.T. We'll watch the tape. We'll assess. We’ll get a chance to fix and address some things and get ourselves ready to play this week. But I will say for our fans, there's jitters in everybody in that first game coming back. Maybe it was too much pressure on him. Who knows? But I'm confident that he's a better player. I still feel that he's a better player than last year. So I still will tell that to my fans, or lack of fans.”
On whether TCU’s quarterback runs have been a big part of Sonny Dykes’ offenses in the past: “It probably showed up more in this game than I've seen it. He's done it in the past, but it was more prevalent today.”
