Grading CU Performance

[boydbuff]

Offense: B
Showed tons of potential. Had some explosive plays. Connor is the bomb-he managed the game incredibly well, no turnovers, showed phenomenal poise, very efficient. As many of us have said he could easily be top 6 QBs in Pac 12 (and maybe better than that). When was the last time we felt we had a top 1/2 of our conference QB. Our running attack was not overly impressive. Personally I felt Powell looked more like a fullback than a RB which is not surprising but a little disappointing. And mostly Jones was unimpressive as well. OL was OK-didn't open many holes for the RB but didn't allow a sack?

Offensive coaching: B+Overall I felt Lindgren called a good game but got too cautious on a handful of occasions when he called simple run plays and I thought he should have been more aggressive. I am sure Mac will work with him on that. I saw one time Mac intervene and say get Abron in when you could tell he wasn't impressed with the way Jones was running.

Defense: A-
They really played a hell of a game and barely allowed a TD-mostly due to special teams. They had a few bend but not breaks but overall played pretty well and were flying to the ball. Very few examples of blatant missed tackles. Secondary played WAY better and our LBs played well. Gilliam was playing lights out and Awuzie also looked good. BIGGEST concern: lack of a consistent pass rush. I felt we gave Grayson too much time too often. Need someone to step up with CUD.

Defensive Coaching: A
Personally really liked Baer's defense. Good, aggressive play calling, WAY better tackling and pursuit to the ball, LBs flying around. Good stuff for the most part.

Special Teams: B-
I am sure many of you would like to go with an F, BUT punting was awesome except for the missed tackle. Kickoffs were actually pretty good for Oliver as several were touchbacks. Don't know WTF that squib kick was. Field goals were awesome. 3 for 3 if I am not mistaken including a 52 yarder. That is great. The only problem, and it is a big effin glaring problem, was kickoff coverage-which could have easily cost us the game. We have good players on those teams and some of them totally missed tackles b/c they were out of position, etc. which I blame on our ST coach.

Special Teams Coach: F
Despite good play from our kickers (which I attribute more to their own abilities although Neinas may have helped in some ways), our coverage was disgusting, and that has to blamed on whomever coaches them. In this case, we are one of how many BCS teams who has 1 dedicated coach only for ST. There is no F*g excuse for that kind of poor play from special teams units that have some starters on them when their coach is 100% dedicated to them and the head coach allows a significant amount of time dedicated to ST during practices. Neinas better get his sh*t together or HCMM is going to can him soon.

Head Coach: A+
I think you have to give HCMM tons of credit for the difference. This team, as the announcers said numerous times, does not resemble the Buffs of the past several years in any way. They were flying to the ball on D. Tackling way better. Had awesome QB play. Scored tons of points. Team rebounded after momentum swings went against them. They believe in themselves now and played as a unit.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think we are headed to a bowl game, but as the announcers said, we are going to surprise some people this year.

I am excited to be a Buff fan again!

 

[dio]

I thought Lindgren called a great game. He has some struggles, but he's still learning what and who can do what. You know why I give him an A? The game is still in doubt with 4 minutes lefts, Buffs with a 6 point lead, and CSU with all their timeouts.

Hawk throws a bunch of underneath passes that stop the clock

Embo tries to 'assert out will' with 3 runs into the guy - punt

Lindgren and HCMM go for the play that will WIN THE GAME. Home run ball to PRich - game over.

 

[boydbuff]

I thought Lindgren called a great game. He has some struggles, but he's still learning what and who can do what. You know why I give him an A? The game is still in doubt with 4 minutes lefts, Buffs with a 6 point lead, and CSU with all their timeouts.

Hawk throws a bunch of underneath passes that stop the clock

Embo tries to 'assert out will' with 3 runs into the guy - punt

Lindgren and HCMM go for the play that will WIN THE GAME. Home run ball to PRich - game over.

I hear you. Overall he did call a good game but there were a few stretches in there where got a bit Embree/EB like by being stubborn about going for runs up the middle when we were not moving the ball well there. All the while, Connor and his receivers were playing almost lights out and could have moved the chains. Also I put the blame on him for not getting Jones out earlier to get Abron or someone else in when Jones was not running that well. Again, liked the game plan and overall play calling but there is room for improvement still.

 

[White_Rabbit]

Offense: A-

Great game by Wood, Spruce, and Richardson. Some solid contributions from some other guys. Downside: no running game. Too much Tony Jones.

Defense: A-

Great game by the defense. Downside: didn't pick off two passes that they could have. Also, no pass rush.

Oliver & O'Neill: A+

Great game by these two.

ST - Oliver & O'Neill: F

They had more yards on ST than offense. Gave up 2 TDs pretty much. Inability to stop the great Joe Hemsley forced us to squib kicks and give them amazing field position. Awful. You better start earning your keep Neinas. Lockdown Mexico recruiting isn't enough to keep you around.

 

[SECOBuffsFan]

Offense - The running game has got to get going....B

Defense - That is what fundamentally sound defense looks like...B+

Special Teams - Horrible tonight but can be fixed...D-

Coaching - That is what a well coached team looks like...there will be ups and downs...but I think Mac Attack is the real deal....A

 

[aik]

Offense: B

Well called game by Lindgren. Wood showed he has matured and can now be counted on to keep his cool under pressure. His mistakes are mostly overthrows which are much safer than floating a ball into a defender's hands. It helps he has Goodson and a healthy Richardson this year. Spruce is a monster. Wood can also run a little when necessary. Concerned about Christian Powell's absence. Did they decide to just rest him or is there a legitimate injury concern? Tony Jones makes some things work in the passing game as a blocker or receiver from the backfield but can't run straight ahead and CSU was stopping him from running outside too. Need more options here. I think we see Adkins get carries by Pac-12 play. TEs didn't do anything to hurt us. Offensive line needs time to develop but they gave Wood more time than I was expecting. I still see Nembot's skill set as very raw. His pass blocking technique needs much work.

Defense: B+

I realize this is only one game and we didn't play Washington or Oregon but it's looking smart to give Kent Baer a multi-year contract. The defensive linemen were having a lot of trouble getting to the quarterback which makes me worry immensely about the fits Pac-12 offensive lines will give us. The tackles still look slow and while initial run stopping was looking good, later on when they found a rhythm with Bibbs the front seven didn't have much in the way of stopping him from getting decent chunks of yardage each time. The high grade is mostly related to the improvement and discipline I saw over last year but there is quite a ways to go. Catching potential interceptions is key. Gillam had a breakout game for a true freshman debut. Very impressed with him. Don't remember seeing much Paul Vigo aside from the starting lineup announcement. The forced fumble was awesome. Orms lived up to the hype being everywhere and hitting people.

Special Teams: C-

O'Neill is a special punter. Can boom the ball but also has gotten that rugby style working. Loved seeing Iverson run down and recover the muffed punt. Oliver was great being perfect at field goals and PATs but his kickoff game has never gotten better since freshman year. Losing Castor really hurts as does not having Gonzalez able to play because we need someone who can kick to the endzone or beyond every time. It's clear we can't cover or tackle properly. At least our strategy changed to rugby style punts to cover for our lack of tackling prowess. That adjustment worked. The squib kick one was just a surrender. I'd trust our defense more than kick coverage unit too, but it shouldn't have to be that way. Coach them up, Neinas!

 

[rolandftw]

Offense A-

Hard to complain when you have two bombs go for touchdowns... but if there was something negative, it would be the rushing attack. Our HB's carried it 30 times for only 75 yards, which certainly will have to improve against better teams if we are to finish drives.

Defense

No complaints here. Other then 1 drive at the end of the 1st half, they were lights out all game long.

Special Teams F

Know that our kicker did well, but when you basically give the opposing team 14 points, you really can't earn a passing grade. Game would have been a laugher, if we could have limited the big play

 

[Alfred91]

Passing offense: A+ Wood was great. Outside of a few odd overthrown balls, he was perfect. PRich is back - hopefully he can do that against teams better than CSU. Nice to see DD and Spruce have good games, too.

Rushing offense: C If I have a gripe about Lindgren, it's why Powell saw so few touches and why Jones saw so much action. Obviously the o-line has work to do on opening holes, and the coaches need to find out a better way of getting the various RBs in situations where they can succeed. However, the run game wasn't completely terrible, picked key first downs, and rushed for over 100 yards.

Passing defense: B Pretty damn good. I was impressed how much improvement we saw in the defensive backfield from last year to tonight. There were still a couple of breakdowns, and a few piss-poor tackling attempts, but way less than last year. I appreciated the way Grayson was turned into Captain Checkdown.

Rushing defense: A- Gillam is legit. He was all over the place tonight. Our d-line was tenacious, too. CSU's fabled o-line didn't look special at all to me.

Special Teams: D Positives first: Oliver was better than I anticipated on FGs. O'Neill had some great punts, especially the coffin corner kick in the third qtr. The negatives are obvious. I was waiting for CSU to break one the entire first half, and wasn't surprised at all when they broke them in the second. Lane assignment was terrible and the tackling was worse. CSU's entire 2nd half comeback was on the kick coverage teams.

Overall: A- It's hard to overlook the special teams mistakes, or even have them overshadow the rest of the game, but putting them into perspective (that they were aberrations from the way the game actually went), this was a resounding success for the first game of a new coach's tenure, entirely new staff, and new systems. CSU is not a good team, and they're not going to win many games, so this game should be taken with that grain of salt, but you can't discount what last year was like, nor can you discount the fact that this was the first game for this staff and this team. MacIntyre has won me over already.


PS - regardless of whether or not it would have booted James or not, that new targeting rule is bull****. What a joke.

 

[BuffClass90]

Offense: B+
We have lots of weapons, but the run game was lame.

Defense: A
If it weren't for 2 scores directly attributable to the special teams, the score would have been 41-13.

Special Team: D
I was going to give them a C-, but the coverage was so atrocious, it took away from the 52 yard FG.

Coaching: A
This staff seems to be the real deal. To take what looked like a piece of **** team and turn them into a strong passing team with a great defense, showed how good they are and how low the bar was set by the previous staff.

Overall: B
Lots of big plays. Finally got a turnover...and scored on it. Defense was lights out. But...special teams coverage was worse than last year and too many penalties again. BTW...it was one of the worst officiated games I've ever seen.

 

[Buffenuf]

Offense: A. They took what CSU gave them and ate up the field. The lambs were determined to shut down the running game and they did at their peril, as the shot passes, slants and outs were there all night.

Defense: A. Stopped CSU cold most of the time. Forced them into a short passing game with almost no yards after catch. Nicely countered CSU's strength at the running the ball. Well-disciplined and good communications. Pass rush will come, they were close on several occasions against a bunch of whales.

Coaching: A++. Great organization, excellent game plan, good adjustments, play calling was imaginative and aggressive.

Special teams: B. To all you Neinas bashers---I love you guys! NOT! You'll give O'Neill and Oliver credit for their "individual talent", but then blame Neinas for the bad tackling on returns? What about those "individual talents" who missed those tackles? Go back and watch the TD punt return. The coverage was great: two CU players right on the guy. But one was pushed from behind and the other, Henderson, whiffed on the tackle. When you watch that return over a few times, you're actually surprised the kid didn't fair catch it! If he had been popped and lost the ball, he'd be running wind sprints for a week for his stupid decision! He got lucky! On CUU's side the Spruce had no fumbles and t returned it when he could---bet he's close to last year's total yardage already.

So, overall, the STs were perfect on their offensive responsibilites and responsible for 16 points. Neinas is to be commended for his his teams: no holding, no missed snaps, no blocking FUBARS and pacing the leg work on the kickers so they were ready, without being leg-weary.

 

[BuffClass90]

Offense: A. They took what CSU gave them and ate up the field. The lambs were determined to shut down the running game and they did at their peril, as the shot passes, slants and outs were there all night.

Defense: A. Stopped CSU cold most of the time. Forced them into a short passing game with almost no yards after catch. Nicely countered CSU's strength at the running the ball. Well-disciplined and good communications. Pass rush will come, they were close on several occasions against a bunch of whales.

Coaching: A++. Great organization, excellent game plan, good adjustments, play calling was imaginative and aggressive.

Special teams: B. To all you Neinas bashers---I love you guys! NOT! You'll give O'Neill and Oliver credit for their "individual talent", but then blame Neinas for the bad tackling on returns? What about those "individual talents" who missed those tackles? Go back and watch the TD punt return. The coverage was great: two CU players right on the guy. But one was pushed from behind and the other, Henderson, whiffed on the tackle. When you watch that return over a few times, you're actually surprised the kid didn't fair catch it! If he had been popped and lost the ball, he'd be running wind sprints for a week for his stupid decision! He got lucky! On CUU's side the Spruce had no fumbles and t returned it when he could---bet he's close to last year's total yardage already.

So, overall, the STs were perfect on their offensive responsibilites and responsible for 16 points. Neinas is to be commended for his his teams: no holding, no missed snaps, no blocking FUBARS and pacing the leg work on the kickers so they were ready, without being leg-weary.

I get where you're coming from with ST, but to me missed tackles etc happen, but not this frequently. I'm not bashing Neinas, I just think the scheme and execution were very bad. The game wouldn't have been this close if it weren't for the ST errors, which I credit the coaches and players equally. But like I said, I get what you are saying.

 

[FlatironsBuff]

Those were screwups..a mistake by inevor two players and or blocks in the back that were not called (I saw a few of those during the game). That said.....the fear I had watching special teams last year was abated and was suprised the CSU kid was able to do what he did.

One game does not a season make. That goes for all facets of the game, not just special teams. The bad won't always be bad, and the good won't always be good.

 

[Lt.Col.FrankSlade]

Coverage issues on special teams can be corrected with coaching and film studies.

Oliver's perfect kicking performance was great to see.

 

[boboss]

I'm new to the site. I have been a buff fan since I was a kid which puts that in the mid 55 year category. I have had to move to Nebraska to be close to my grown kids. I had to come on here and say some things as I was so excited at what I saw last night. I as many others have had very little to cheer about in the last few years with the buffs but watching that well coached team last night gave me tremendous hope for the future of Colorado football. I haven't seen Colorado boys play like that in years. Kudos to the new coaching staff for doing their jobs the way things should be done. I viewed Nebraska's game on Saturday night and by observing their pourous defense was thinking how Colorado could actually compete with this team. Nebraska was terrible and could barely beat a Wyoming team who also had good coaching. Our new coach and staff at CU will turn this program around and I am so proud of what I viewed last night. I have to give the entire program an A for where they are coming from and what was accomplished, although just one game. If you would have played the so called #18 team in the country with the way you played last night, you would have beat them. Go buffs.

 

[CarolinaBuff]

Offense: B
Wood looked sharp for the most part and was poised and moved well within the pocket. It's hard not to get excited about Goodson and Spruce had a good night. And of course there was PRich. The running game is a concern with less than 3 yards per carry. Powell was running well early but then he wasn't as effective later on. I haven't heard how much was due to the injury and if he was hurt some while still playing. Tony Jones is not someone you give the ball to on short yardage. He's going to be at his best when they get the ball on swing passes or run him to the outside because he's better in the open field. As a whole, finishing off drives was also a concern. That long drive in the 1st quarter was a thing of beauty because it also keeps out defense off the field, but you have to finish those off. Over 500 yards of offense and 34 points scored is a good night.

Defense: B
The long drive in the 2nd quarter they gave up wasn't good but those are gonna happen now and then even to the best defenses. There wasn't nearly enough pressure on Grayson but they limited his effectiveness even though CSU had a few drops. Overall the defense did a very good job and had the fumble return for a TD. Need to start catching some of those potential interceptions.

ST: D
We all know about the returns but the only thing that saved this area from being a completed disaster is O'Neill's and Oliver's kicking. You simply can't give up long returns like that in a relatively close game like that, especially 2 of them.

Coaching: A+
Not necessarily from a play-calling perspective, but just overall how much this looked like a real team. The discipline on both sides of the ball and lack of stupid mistakes was clearly evident.

 

[cnbuff410]

I have had to move to Nebraska to be close to my grown kids.

Sorry to hear that:lol:

 

[CUAviator]

Observations:
- Jones...WTF? Not only was his running subpar (too much dancing, not enough power), but his blocking was atrocious - on one play, he totally whiffed on his block, on another he got absolutely steam rolled. Then, toward the end of the game, when he was in (??) while CU was running out the clock, he let himself get tackled out of bounds.

- ST. I know, I know; but like others have mentioned, the coverage was there on the punt. The players just totally failed in tackling.

- where was the "up tempo"? I saw the "no huddle", but i wouldnt call it fast-paced. There were a few times that CSU was absolutely gassed and if we would have just run a couple plays up-tempo while they were out of position, we could have stuck a dagger in their throats. Instead, we gave them time to line up, run Jones into a pile, and end up punting.

- What happens when we play a team with actual speed at running back, a mobile QB, and/or more than ONE receiver who can catch a football?

- What happens when we play a team with an actual pass rush?

- Running game (in general): not sure what to think. Maybe it was the perfect compliment for what the coaches wanted for this particular game...get a few short yardage first downs. Maybe its what this staff wants from our running game in general. Maybe it's strategic, knowing that other teams will watch film of us displaying absolute air supremacy which will cause them to back out of the box....and BOOM! PowPow/Abron/Crowder/fill in the blank. And maybe it's just not that good

- Oliver showed he can kick out of the end zone. Why not just keep doing that?!

 

[CUAviator]

User error. Disregard post

 

[Duff Man]

The two long returns concern me, but CSU starting three other possessions beyond the 35 after kickoffs concern me just as much. It was not a good day for the coverage units.