Initial Post Game Reaction: Colorado Buffaloes lose 3rd Quarter to Texas A&M, Lose Game
by Bob_Bell on Nov 1, 2008 3:40 PM MDT
in Buffaloes Football Game Threads
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PrintYes, the Buffs came out of halftime and laid an egg. Up 10 - 3 at half and seemingly stopping the Texas A&M offense, holding them to 14 yards rushing and 62 yards passing, had a 219 to 76 yard advantage. But yes, the score was 10 - 3. Missed opportunities and turnovers were the main theme today. But tell me, how does a team come out flat at halftime? A&M scores 21 points in the 3rd quarter. 21 points that can only be explained by coming out flat in the second half. You win 3 out of 4 quarters and lose the quarter where you have time to make halftime adjustments? Have the Buffs made halftime adjustments this whole year? CU also made bad turnovers in crucial spots. Cody can't throw an interception when the Buffs are at the 5 yard line and Hansen cannot throw an interception with 3 minutes left in the game when CU was going in for the score. The defense can't give up 50 yard plays in the third quarter. The Buffs get a big play from Darrell Scott inside the 7 yard line and the Buffs turn it over. This game is as simple as making plays and Texas A&M made more big plays when it was all said and done. The Buffs statistically outplayed A&M, 392 yards to 308, 9 more minutes of time of possession and almost 200 yards rushing on 43 carries. But Colorado still loses 24 - 17. It is really shocking how they lost when you look at the stats. Here are the positives and negatives to today's game:
Positives:
- The Buffs got 219 yards of total offense in the first half. 392 for the game which was a pretty big improvement in terms of total yards.
- CU's defense held the Buffs to 3 points in three quarters of the game.
- Darrell Scott had a big run for 42 yards that most of the world won't see because of no TV. Rodney Stewart got hurt in the second half but the Buffs still only gave him 10 carries in part to a 21 point third quarter.
- The Buffs D was good against the rush except for a 54 yard run. Without that run, A&M had 40 yards on 32 carries
- George Hypolite dominated most of the second game. 7 tackles and 3 tackles for a loss.
Negatives:
- Zero halftime adjustments and a 21 point third quarter doomed the Buffs.
- 3 turnovers, especially the Cody Hawkins interception in the endzone and Hansen's late in the game where horrible turnovers. The Buffs only got one turnover which they capitalized for seven points.
- The Buffs should have been up 20 - 3 at halftime but with Cody's interception and another Aric Goodman missed field goal made it only a 10 point game. Throw in a dropped touchdown by Josh Smith and that is a Buffs team who doesn't make plays.
- On defense, the Buffs let up big play after big play in the third quarter.
- I don't know who to blame for the third quarter but a big portion falls on the Coach Hawkins. Sherman outcoached him in the third quarter and it led to 21 unanswered and a loss.
- The Buffs were 0 - 6 on third down in the second half. Again, the Buffs aren't making plays.
- Josh Smith. I love him most of the time but today he was not good. A big fumble that lost the Buffs 14 yards and a dropped touchdown is a bad day of work. He made a couple of nice returns but still had his trouble back there.
- Special team continues to be a problem with short punts and missed field goals.
I think own of our loyal readers, nebraskasux, expressed the frustration of this team well:
I hate this team so much, I think I can officially say that this is the most frustrating buffs team and coaching staff in my lifetime of being a fan
More to come on this loss that may have cost the Buffs its chance at a bowl game. It is a sad day.
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I am so bumbed right now
I had to write AD Mike Bohn to express my displeasure and I an encourage you all to do the same:
10 carries for Scott? That is it? I know we were down most of the second half but the guy is a stud – run him! Our offense just doesn’t make any sense.
You guys hear that Rodney Stewart broke his leg?
He’s done, maybe back in time for the bowl game (haha, funny). Scott better get 20+ carries the next 3 games and Hansen should play exclusively, at least that way we can get those two better for next year. I don’t see what it gains us bringing in Cody anymore, he doesn’t bring anything to the table.
i definitely just typed in firehawk.com
I am not quite there yet. I wanna see next year with a healthy Oline and new offensive coordinator. Lynn Katoa and Jon Major at LB…wynn and evans at quarterback I still have one more year faithful year left in me
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i am surprised
at wanting to fire hawk right now. He has been here almost 3 years and had to fix the mess from Barnett. Plus he puts in a new offense and doesnt have the players to run it. I have been a fan for a looooooong time. I remember going 1-10 with Fairbanks. The Coah mac came in and went 2-8-1 followed up by 1-10. This isnt that dire, not too mention all the injuries. I cant stand all the knee jerk overreactions. Sure mistakes were made, but I am looking at the bigger picture. I would rather miss going to a bowl game with the chance that this program is going forward to compete for a titles. But if you fire Hawkins that is going to set this program back some more.
somethings wrong, Trying to conquer these fears i thought were gone. And it's been so long, I'm dying to live in a world i don't belong
by broncfanstuckinsd on Nov 1, 2008 4:14 PM MDT reply actions
What could you possibly have taken away from this season to suggest that the program is on the right track? Did you catch any of the Baylor vs Mizzou game today???? That is the team we lost 58-0 to last week……
Baylor makes me feel even worse right now. They could have beaten Mizzou today
Briles has had one year and he already has them better than CU. Quarterback does a lot for you
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I remember CU
losing to Drake in back to back seasons. THAT is worse than being smoked by a far superior team.
All of this overreaction is pointless. If you truly want CU to get better firing a coach every 3 years isnt the way for it to happen. Ya, but I guess thats ok for you as long as they fire someone
somethings wrong, Trying to conquer these fears i thought were gone. And it's been so long, I'm dying to live in a world i don't belong
by broncfanstuckinsd on Nov 1, 2008 4:29 PM MDT up reply actions
I agree with you about giving hawk some more time
but I think Helfrich has to go now. I also agree with NYC in that I have seen NOTHING this year to indicate the program is moving forward.
when Hawkins
took over for Barnet there was no talent on this team. Its a slow process. I am not happy they are losing, but since coach Mac left the product has been left ot decay. The start of the problem was letting slick rick become headcoach. Look how long it has taken programs like Mizzou to get back to some sort of relevance. CU will get there, but firing the HC after 3 seasons isnt the answer it never is. The best way to get a program up and running and to maintain that is consistency. Starting for scratch every 3-4 years isnt the answer. Never is.
somethings wrong, Trying to conquer these fears i thought were gone. And it's been so long, I'm dying to live in a world i don't belong
by broncfanstuckinsd on Nov 1, 2008 4:33 PM MDT up reply actions
I'll be honest, Fairbanks and Mac's early years were before my time
but Neuheisel (who I’m kind of neutral with) and Barnett (who I always hated) won here. Everyone always says Barnett left no talent and I’ll admit there wasn’t much, but they won the north 4 of the 5 years before he was fired. It wasn’t like Hawkins was taking over at Duke or something. The beginning of the Neuheisel era was when I reached the age where I started really caring about the Buffs and started watching every game, and I have NEVER seen such poor offense and bad coaching as I have seen this year. Have you?
I would love to see...
A statistical comparison of hawk’s first year and this year. I mean we are now playing with his guys right?
just bustin out the calculator
we averaged 16 points in ‘06 and we’re averaging 18 this year (highly skewed by the first two games). But the thing is, we had a huge jump in our offensive production last year, but now it worse then ever, what happened?
Yes, I have
Chuck Fairbanks was the worst for CU. Eddie Crowder got rid of Bill Mallory for that clown and it got worse. In 1977 Cu was co-Big 8 champs then had a 5-6 season in 1978, I remember that season CU lost to an average LSU team 44-0 in Boulder then followed that bu losing to Drake in Boulder 13-9. Drake who was a season from ending football for a while. It was putrid. CU was consistently outcoached.
I do agree the offense is abysmal this year, but I also can say that is due to injuries (its an excuse but it is also a fact) and that they installed an offense that doesnt fit the starting QB. I dont mind the spread if the correct QB is to run it. Right now on offense you a square peg (Cody) trying to fit into a round hole (spread offense) Now if they would have employed this offense 2 seasons ago then there would be no learning curve. I think unless CU beats ISU and NU, there isnt a chance to go bowling. So bench Cody and play Hansen for the rest of the season. See if Hansen is gonna be a good QB for this team. I have a bit more patience cuz I dont want a good season, I want titles and I believe Hawkins can do it. Unfortunately in todays era of sports the instant gratification rules.
somethings wrong, Trying to conquer these fears i thought were gone. And it's been so long, I'm dying to live in a world i don't belong
by broncfanstuckinsd on Nov 1, 2008 5:01 PM MDT up reply actions
I definitely agree with that
It needs to be the Hansen and Scott show from now on. If they can get us two more wins, great, if not we’ll at least know a lot more about the future those two have here.
On a side note.....
Don’t ever let your entire team run out into the endzone and dance like a bunch of clowns
did Florida just do that
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no just the retribution for the game last year
Florida up 42-3
Florida is damn good, this doesn't surprise me that much
I don’t know how they lost ole miss at home though… I should win out and then I bet they’ll SMOKE bama in the SEC championship.
hard
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Doesn't look hard to me.
Competitors want to compete. If he wins a job at Florida, he’s playing top-level football for the next 4-5 years. If he wants to get double-teamed on a mediocre defensive line at his middle-of-the-road hometown team, I would love that. Realistically, I just don’t see how he can be convinced we’re still up and coming. Last year we were overachieving and playing hard for Hawk, and the recruits bought into that enthusiasm and wanted to be part of the rebuilding. This year…who would want to come into this mess?
The game
Well, this was an ugly one for both teams. CU certainly played a lot better than they did last week against Mizzou but the turnovers and stupid mistakes absolutely killed them. INT in the end zone, TWO hansen INTs on drives that could have sent it into OT at the end of the game. Hansen took a major step back in this game. His best throw was unfortunately not rewarded with Smith dropping a sure touchdown. So for as much as the offense had more good plays than last week, they had an equal amount of terrible plays to cancel all those out.
And the defense. Ugh. We played pretty awesome in the first half and really threw off Johnson, he had at least 4 or 5 debatable intentional grounding penalties (I think only one was called) due to our rush or coverage. But both of the passing touchdowns were absolutely the worst execution of pass defending I have ever seen in my life. We were in the corner where the first TD was thrown and the second he threw it you could see we had 2 dudes there (walters and someone) and I immediately thought to myself “nice, that will be intercepted”. No, our guys wildly flail at it when it gets there and it drops right over them for the TD. The receiver even looked surprised it got to him. I think at that point A&M realized they could just basically throw the ball up for grabs and no way were our guys going to be able to do anything with it. Pretty much the same thing happened on his other touchdown pass down the other sideline. We had it covered but its like our guys were physically incapable of stopping a pass thrown directly at them when they were in actually good coverage. Pathetic. Talent in the secondary is a gigantic issue and was really the main reason they jumped on us in the third. They pretty much just had 3 massive plays and other than that we held them in check mostly.
In some ways it was good that we had a good first half, certainly should have scored way more points in the first, but this was a game we should have won but between all the turnovers and the no talent secondary we just shot ourselves in the foot.
Oh and also...
The Hansen interceptions were two of the worst interceptions I have ever seen. The first one I can kind of give him since he clearly didn’t see the guy who picked it, but to go right back and basically do the exact same thing again on a potential game-tying drive? ARGGH!
good stuff...I wish we could have seen the game
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We had our moments
I don’t know that I’ve heard a bigger roar from us at a road game than when Jameson Davis hit that field goal. We were going bonkers in the stands, it was like we had won the super bowl or something. There wasn’t a lot of cheering in the second half obviously, but when we stopped them twice at the end to give us a chance to tie we were back into it and going crazy, but Hansen quickly shot that down with the INT. It was such an unfortunate ending since we really moved the ball the time before that when Sumler scored and I felt like we had a good chance to tie it.
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