The University of Colorado’s loss to the USC Trojans last weekend was disappointing — Colorado lost its national ranking after its lone first week in the AP Top 25 in 11 years — but the manner in which the Buffs lost was the most ominous factor for Colorado’s future.
The Buffs have not yet proven that they’ve shed their thin skin from years past. Many issues that plagued head coach Mike MacIntyre’s teams in the last few years still persist, threatening to sink the Buffaloes in 2016.
That’s not to say that CU doesn’t have strengths: The Buffs boast excellent wide receivers in juniors Shay Fields, Jr., Bryce Bobo and Devin Ross. Fourth-year starter Sefo Liufau is steady and freshman Steven Montez is fiery. The team returned 56 upperclassmen this year — a Pac-12 Conference high — and it’s shown. The Buffs are more polished and mature.
But the problem remains: The 2014 and 2015 Buffs were teams that failed to make bowl games because they failed to win close games.
It’s a continuing issue for the team with one obvious Achilles’ heel: offensive inefficiency.
In November of 2014, CU played Washington at home, losing 38-23 after leading 20-17 at halftime. In the third quarter, the Buffs kicked a field goal, which would be the team’s final points in the contest. After that, Colorado ran 40 plays and gained 131 yards, good for 3.275 yards per play.
If we take away Colorado’s final drive from that equation, an 18-play, 66-yard drive that resulted in a turnover on downs, the team’s performance in most of the third and fourth quarters can be broken down to a 2.95 yards per play average (22 plays, 65 yards gained).
It was largely due to this type of inefficiency that the team lost four games, each by less than a touchdown.
The trend continued throughout 2015, with the Buffs losing four games (each by less than 7 points) yet again. On Oct. 17 of last year, the Buffs hosted the Arizona Wildcats and lost 38-31 in heartbreaking fashion. Colorado took a 24-17 lead in the third quarter and simply could not muster more points. The Buffs did have one final solid possession of that game, a 12-play, 73-yard touchdown drive that brought CU within a touchdown later in the game.
From the time that the team took a 24-17 lead until the clock expired — excluding the Buffs’ final touchdown drive — Colorado’s offense ran 30 plays and gained 61 yards. That was good for just over 2 yards per play.
This year, the Buffaloes’ main issue has been gaining decent yardage on first down.
Last month, in its 45-28 loss at Michigan, Colorado’s offense ran 10 plays for 75 yards in the first quarter. But that’s a misleading summary. Take away a 50-yard touchdown grab by Bobo on a first down, and the Buffs ran nine plays for 25 yards.
In the second quarter, the offense ran seven first-down plays, and had a net gain of 3 yards. During the entire second half, excluding a 70-yard touchdown reception by Fields, Jr., the Buffaloes ran 10 first down plays and gained 16 yards.
The story was the same last week at USC. Excluding a 67-yard trick play, where Bobo lobbed a touchdown pass to junior tailback Phillip Lindsay, the team ran 20 first down plays and gained 41 yards in the first three quarters.
At this point in the year, this team could easily fall short of a bowl game despite the early hype. Without the last-second heroics of senior defensive back Ahkello Witherspoon, whose interception in the end zone sealed Colorado’s 41-38 win over the Oregon Ducks a few weeks ago, the Buffs could be sitting at 3-3 on the year right now, with a lot less confidence and excitement about the rest of the season.
As long as the Buffaloes continue to be ineffective offensively, Colorado’s ever-elusive bowl game berth under MacIntyre could be further away in the future than many would like to admit.
Contact CU Independent Sports Editor Justin Guerriero at justin.guerriero@colorado.
