Report Card: Grading the CU Buffs’ worst loss of the season at Minnesota
This year marks the first time the Colorado Buffaloes have gone winless through three games since the disastrous 2012 season. As we pointed out in our takeaways, Colorado has also lost its first three games by over 25 points, marking a first in the program’s 132-year history.
Colorado coaches and players were outmatched by Minnesota in all phases of the game. The Golden Gophers were able to run early and often and stifled the Buffs’ offense in a 49-7 route. Needless to say, if our grades were bad for the first two games, the Buffs didn’t do much to help their cause in Week 3.
Coaching: F
Colorado coaches have some disappointing history to their names, as I mentioned up above. On Saturday, Minnesota was able to do whatever it wanted and its coaches had an answer for everything Colorado tried to do.
ESPN commentators were confused by the lack of downfield passing attempts from the Buffs’ offense, and CU coaches also weren’t able to adjust to Minnesota’s offensive strategy.
Offense: F
Colorado was only able to muster 90 yards of total offense through its first nine drives of the game. Averaging 10 yards per drive is not going to get it done at any level, and the trend of underwhelming offense lives on for another week.
Speaking of trends, Colorado started its first offensive drive of the game with a lost fumble for the second week in a row. Romi Bean of CBS Sports summed up the Buffaloes’ offense this season in one tweet:
A rare sight: Colorado scores a touchdown!
Just how rare, you ask?
Well, it's their 4th offensive touchdown in the last 22 quarters of football pic.twitter.com/DbBdSyhQUr
— Romi Bean (@Romi_Bean) September 17, 2022
Defense: F
There was no excuse for the Buffaloes’ defensive performance. After two games of largely playing competitive defense until late in the game, Minnesota’s offense had its way with Colorado from the jump. Running back Mohamed Ibrahim led an offensive charge that had Colorado guessing all day.
Special Teams: D
Coverage was good, the punt team allowed only 4.7 yards per return and Cole Becker still hasn’t allowed a kickoff return. Becker also stayed perfect with his extra-point make.
Ashton Logan has had a rough start to his Buffaloes career and has averaged less than 40 yards per punt through three games, including a pretty ugly attempt against Minnesota that was saved by a fortunate bounce. Logan will need to work on getting more hang time and yardage on his punts to avoid giving more short fields to opponents.
Overall: F
That was rough to watch, both as a writer covering the team and as a lifelong Buffaloes fan. I was certain that the Buffaloes had made the necessary changes to improve on last year’s disappointing season. Instead, it has snowballed into a tough start to the season. I will always try to stay optimistic about the Buffs’ chances but at this point, it’s hard to see many wins on CU’s schedule.
