PASADENA, Calif. — If Saturday’s performance at the Rose Bowl is any indication, the 2023 Colorado Buffaloes may have already peaked.
Unless the Buffs offense figures things out quickly, the drop-off could be steep.
CU’s offense no-showed in its Pac-12 showdown against No. 23 UCLA, garnering only three points off four first-half takeaways. The Buffs didn’t find the end zone until late in the fourth quarter of a 28-16 defeat to the Bruins, and only managed 255 total yards.
“Offensively, we’ve got to improve and you see that,” CU coach Deion Sanders said. “Our quarterback is taking a beating. (Shedeur Sanders) got an injection at halftime just to block some of the pain… We have to do a better job of protecting him. And running the football, we’ve had a couple lineman go down (with injuries), but that’s no excuse.”
In the loss, CU wasted two flashy interceptions by star cornerback Travis Hunter, demonstrated an inability to block UCLA’s defensive front, and fell to 4-4 on the year following a 3-0 start that had Coach Prime’s crew as the talk of the nation.
“(Our defense) did everything they were supposed to do, so that’s on us (as an offense) and that’s on me,” Shedeur Sanders said. “We can’t afford to not put up points like that (off takeaways), especially when the defense is doing their job and everything we’ve asked them to do. (As an offense) we have to take this one to the chin and move on to next week.”
The Buffs mustered only 38 rushing yards in the defeat, another one-dimensional performance that’s become a staple of play-caller Sean Lewis’ offense this year.
“It’s a struggle to run the ball, and we’ve got to figure that out because now we’re one-dimensional, and it’s easy to stop a team when you’re one-dimensional,” Deion Sanders said. “That’s who we are at this point in time.”
With four games left, CU still needs two wins to become bowl eligible — a mark that seemed much more like a sure thing back in mid-September. Now, it’ll be a climb.
But how do the Buffs rapidly fix the O-line?
“I’m not sure,” said Shedeur Sanders, who limped out of the postgame presser.
Coach Prime added that the O-line has “some guys who are going to be good with a little seasoning, but overall, we just don’t have the fight and the passion to do what we need to.”
He also said Saturday provided further evidence that the Buffs can hang with their conference counterparts, but that the team is “still seven-to-10 players away from really doing what we want to do in college football.”
“Unlike many other first-year coach-led teams, there’s a tremendous expectation for us,” Deion Sanders said. “We would love to meet those expectations… You can see what we have and what we’re building, but you can also see our needs.
“We’ve really only got our butts kicked once, and that was in Oregon (a 42-6 defeat on Sept. 23). All the other (losses), you could see how we could’ve won those games. That’s called hope in our book.”
The Buffs drew first blood on the game’s opening possession with Alejandro Mata’s 31-yard field goal on a kick that snuck through multiple Bruins who made their way into the backfield for the block.
Hunter then recorded his second interception of the season to snuff out UCLA’s first drive. Hunter came off his man near the line of scrimmage, reading Ethan Garbers’ throw as he dove for the pick to set the Buffs up in plus-territory. That led to another Mata field goal, this time from 39 yards, to make it 6-0.
But it was all UCLA from there.
The Bruins finally got something going late in the first quarter on a drive that featured Garbers’ 13-yard scramble to extend the drive on 4th-and-12. On the second play of the second quarter, UCLA took its first lead via Garbers’ 3-yard TD pass to Carson Steele.
The CU defense continued to rise to the task, garnering takeaways via Shiloh Sanders’ forced fumble and on another pick by Hunter, this one coming in zone coverage on a telegraphed pass from Colin Schlee.
But the Buffs quickly punted after each Bruins miscue, unable to cash in as Shedeur Sanders, sacked seven times, was often left picking himself up off the turf in the face of the UCLA rush. Amid the pressure and the Bruins’ secondary sitting back comfortably in zone, not once did Lewis’ unit commit to establishing the run.
Late in the second quarter, with both offenses still stalling, Shilo Sanders was ejected for targeting for a helmet-to-helmet hit on Bruins tight end Carsen Ryan. Sanders laid the boom on Ryan, then flexed as multiple flags were thrown around his feet. Replay review upheld his ejection. A few plays later, CU caught a break when R.J. Lopez doinked a 24-yard gimmie field goal off the left upright.
And the Bruins weren’t done with miscues to keep CU in the game. UCLA was driving at the end of the half before Roderick Ward forced Steele’s second fumble of the night and the Buffs recovered at their own 6-yard line. CU ran out the clock to get into the locker room down 7-6.
UCLA got the ball to open the second half and needed just two plays and 35 seconds to drive 75 yards down the field, capped by Garbers’ 26-yard TD pass to Moliki Matavao to push the score to 14-6.
CU responded with another Mata field goal as CU’s offense continued its season-long red zone struggles. Mata’s 34-yarder was set up by a 45-yard catch by Xavier Weaver, the Buffs’ lone explosive play, to cut their deficit to 14-9.
Less than a minute into the fourth quarter, UCLA put the game on ice with T.J. Harden’s 3-yard TD run. It capped a 13-play, 80-yard drive and deflated the CU sideline in front of of a crowd of 71,343. The Bruins poured it on with Schlee’s TD run with 6:34 left before CU got its lone TD via Shedeur Sanders’ 18-yard pass to Jimmy Horn Jr. with 3:53 to go.
The last time CU had UCLA on the ropes in first half in the Rose Bowl, the Buffs led 20-10 at halftime in 2021 in a game that, had CU hung on for the victory, might have cost Chip Kelly his job.
But just like this Saturday, UCLA owned the second half of that game. The Bruins proceeded to outscore CU 34-0 over the final couple quarters in 2021 en route to a decisive 44-20 victory, and UCLA has been rising ever since, while Kelly was rewarded with a contract extension prior to this season.
CU returns to Folsom Field the next two weeks for games against Oregon State (homecoming) and Arizona before finishing the season on the road at Washington State and Utah. The Buffs are likely to be Vegas underdogs in all of those games.
“I don’t give a damn about no bowl game,” Coach Prime said of the team’s mindset going forward. “We’re trying to win, period.”
