Instant analysis: Buffs’ porous defense does little to stop Arizona, Jayden de Laura
I had to look twice when I checked the box score late in Saturday’s Colorado-Arizona game: Jayden de Laura was well over 400 passing yards and the Wildcats had just hit 600 total yards.
Some had expected Arizona’s offense to put up 43 points, but the run game was supposed to hurt the Buffs more than de Laura’s arm. The Wildcats’ new quarterback completed 72% of his passes and threw for six touchdowns in a 43-20 win. Although Arizona’s wide receivers may be among the Pac-12’s best, the Buffs’ secondary — without Isaiah Lewis — did little to stop them. The tackling was poor and far too many Arizona catches went uncontested.
On the positive side, I actually had some confidence when Owen McCown’s offense had the ball. He excelled once again in the screen game and was good friends with Daniel Arias all night. Deion Smith’s 41-yard reception was great and Anthony Hankerson might be the Buffs’ lead running back soon.
Colorado’s offensive line, with Gerad Christian-Lichtenhan and Van Wells in the starting lineup, didn’t do much to protect McCown, however, as the young QB was consistently hurried. Especially with McCown’s size, the Buffs have to do a better job in pass protection, in my opinion.
Coaching-wise, CU’s staff had a signature mishap when back-to-back timeouts had to be called on defense in the second quarter.
The Buffs are now 0-5 with a bye week up next.
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