Pat Rooney: No. 8 Oregon toys with CU Buffs in predictable rout
Nov. 6—Last week's home loss against Arizona State gave the Colorado football team a sense of the sizeable gap between the Buffaloes and even the other also-rans in the Pac-12 Conference.
Saturday's loss against No. 8 Oregon showed the Buffs are barely playing the same game as the top college football programs in the nation.
The penultimate home game of the season unfolded predictably, with the Ducks dominating all facets of the game while handing the Buffs a 49-10 defeat at Folsom Field. The result was no surprise. The Grand Canyon-like chasm between the Buffs and the nation's elite, however, was jarring.
Oregon was so confident in its status as 31.5-point favorites that the Ducks reached deep into the playbook to cap easy touchdown drives with trick plays, getting a touchdown catch from an offensive lineman, a running back-to-quarterback touchdown pass and handing off to a linebacker for another.
Colorado, meanwhile, couldn't even execute a snap consistently, putting the ball on the ground five times in the standard short-shotgun formation. Losing by 39 points probably was a result Buffs fans could stomach against the No. 8 team in the country, ugly as it was. Yet watching the team devolve into a comedy of Pee Wee-level mistakes isn't what anyone wants to see down the stretch of a lost season.
Even if the results haven't been there since the Buffs somehow managed to eke out a lone win against California three weeks ago, CU indeed had played better in general since firing former head coach Karl Dorrell on Oct. 2. The defense has hit harder and made more impact plays. The offense has functioned more efficiently, even if that comparison is from an incredibly low bar set during CU's 0-5 start.
Saturday's effort was a step backward.
A season-high total in yards (367) was offset by the snap miscues, three turnovers, and ill-timed penalties. CU racked up just 47 penalty yards but, in typical Buffs fashion, they managed to pick up almost half of that total at a critical juncture. Oregon led 28-7 at halftime, but CU put a march together to start the second half, getting a 27-yard run from Alex Fontenot to set up a first down on the Oregon 17-yard line.
However, a post-play personal foul on Gerad Christian-Lichtenhan, followed by a false start, pushed the Buffs back to the 37-yard line and left them lucky to salvage a field goal. CU's next two offensive possessions ended in interceptions by old friend Christian Gonzalez, and the rout quickly escalated.
Granted, in this case that sequence may not have been as consequential as a similar scenario would have been against, say, Cal. The Ducks had the feel of a team simply toying with the Buffs for most of the afternoon. Yet it illustrated the expansive gulf between the reeling Buffs and a team trying to play its way into consideration for the College Football Playoff.
Saturday's effort also showed the good vibes that briefly surrounded the Buffs when Mike Sanford took over as interim head coach quickly are dimming. Gonzalez showed the Buffs what they lost out on when he hit the transfer portal. To add insult to injury, freshman receiver Jordyn Tyson — a breakout star of the past few weeks — suffered what Sanford said was a significant left leg injury late in the second half.
That erosion certainly isn't the fault of Sanford, who has done a commendable job of keeping an overmatched football team together in downtrodden times. But those times only get tougher down the stretch, with the Buffs hitting the road the next two weeks to face No. 9 USC and Washington, which could be ranked this upcoming week as well, before finishing at home against No. 12 Utah.
Football traditionally is a copycat sport. But unless one of those marquee foes starts taking a page out of the Buffs' attack by consistently fumbling snaps, CU will keep inching closer to its second one-win campaign in the past 10 full seasons.
