Quick Hits: Colorado Buffaloes vs. Stanford Cardinal

Oy...

Losing 48-7... That isn't a pretty score. Well, I certainly hope Jon Embree and his Coaching Staff are able the rebuilding of the Stanford program, because they looked really good in the Second Half against our Buffs.

It was tough to watch, but it wasn't totally unexpected. And actually, I'm not so unhappy about how it went, either. We did a better job against the run than most teams have vs the Tree, and we moved the ball better than I expected.

First, the positives:

That is exactly how I want to see us start games! We recover the opening kickoff, one of the best Special Teams plays we've had all season. And on our first drive, we actually are able to get a first down! Of course, we have yet another ST breakdown to end the possession without any points, but I'm trying to focus on the positives first.

Despite the fact that teams know it's coming, our Screen Game remains effective.

We cut way down on our penalties, which was nice. Still too many for us to be happy about it, but it's an improvement!

Follow the jump to see me do a standing backflip!

And some more positives:

Paulay Asiata got took over for Ethan Adkins a few minutes into the fourth quarter, and upon first glance, he looked pretty good. He got good push on some running plays and seemed to be able to move pretty well. Kaiwi Crabb also played, but I'll have to wait until I watch it again to tell how he played.

Also, we can no longer say that Nick Hirschman hasn't taken a college snap! Welcome to the big leagues, sir. He didn't really get a chance to do anything, but at least he's felt the pace of a real, live game. It's not the way you want it to happen, but it's a good thing that it happened.

Also, Keenan Canty looked solid the few times they threw his way. For a guy his size, he sure isn't afraid of going out there and playing hard.

We forced more turnovers than you would've thought, including just Luck's second interception of the season.

There were also negatives:

Our blocking up the middle on placekicks is still terrible. This time it was the left side of the line. What is going on there?!?

And then Will Oliver had his first true miss of the year. Hopefully he comes back strong next week. He hasn't had a miss yet. He seems really cool and collected, so hopefully he'll stay that way.

We really have trouble running the ball up the middle. I have no idea how we fix this.

We got absolutely stomped. Yes, by one of the top teams in the nation, but we still got absolutely stomped.

More to come!