Same song, different verse. Colorado still has many of the same undisciplined tendencies they did in 2023. After his team’s first loss of the season and second-lowest scoring output of his tenure, Colorado coach Deion Sanders was left with more questions than answers, and wondering how to get his offense back on track.
The Buffaloes were exposed and taken to the cleaners by Nebraska’s elite defense on Saturday night as the Cornhuskers rolled to a blowout 28-10 victory in Lincoln. Nebraska controlled the game from start to finish and jumped out to an insurmountable 4-touchdown lead, 28-0, at halftime.
Those four touchdowns included two methodical drives of 70 or more yards, a pick-six and a wild touchdown catch by Nebraska running back Rahmir Johnson.
After the Cornhuskers took a 7-0 lead, Tommi Hill intercepted quarterback Shedeur Sanders for a 7-yard pick-six when Sanders, who never turns the ball over, made an ill-advised far sideline throw into zone coverage.
Johnson then capped off the first-half scoring with his spectacular touchdown catch off a pass that was deflected by Colorado linebacker LaVonta Bentley.
Embed from Getty Images“The way we started is just not indicative of who we are,” coach Sanders said, “and we just never got it together.”
As Nebraska was pulling away putting up points in droves, Colorado was unable to establish a substantial running game which meant all the pressure was on the thin shoulders of their signal caller and Shedeur Sanders was running for his life and getting sacked. Doesn’t that sound like a repeat from last year? Sanders, who was sacked over 52 times in 2023, was sacked four times in the first half and the Buffaloes finished with minus-17 rushing yards over the first two quarters.
Sanders told the media afterward in his post-game press conference that he was “a little banged up” but OK and praised Nebraska’s defensive line for its performance.
“Protections were a problem,” Deion Sanders said. “You know, I’m trying to be polite and say it, because you know I can say the same thing you’re thinking, but if I say it, you’d say I’m throwing my guys up under the bus. I’m not doing that whatsoever. Protections were a problem. We gotta figure out a way to prevent that and do a better job with that.”
When Sanders was not getting taken to the turf, he was getting hit frequently. As Shedeur was having to get up off the turf more often than he would like, his brother Shilo was in the locker room. At halftime, Colorado coach Sanders said that Shilo had suffered a possible broken forearm.
It does not take a rocket scientist to see that this version of Matt Rhule’s team is ten times better than previous Nebraska teams. This should be a group that breaks a once abysmal eight-season bowl drought.
Nebraska has not won more than five games in a season since 2016 when they posted a record of 9-4 under Mike Riley. That is also the last time Nebraska started a season 2-0. Believe it or not, Nebraska has had at least one loss by the end of Week 2 in each of the last eight seasons.
A second-year vault would also coincide with the jumps that previous college teams coached by Matt Rhule have made in their second seasons. The Temple Owls improved by four wins in Rhule’s second season and Baylor improved from 1-11 in Rhule’s first year to 7-6 in year two.
A six-win leap for this Nebraska team would be an 11-win campaign. That is probably a bit unrealistic. But you cannot blame die hard Husker fans for being optimistic. Especially after beating a Colorado team that moved its way up the ladder to supernova status in Week 2 a year ago with its 36-14 win over Nebraska.
Freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola, who resembles and patterns his game after Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs. was much better in the first half than he was in the second, but he has shown flashes of brilliance in the first two weeks of the season to prove why he was a five-star recruit. There will be more than a few growing pains in conference play, but the schedule does not present any pitfalls or get really tough until the second half of the season.
After an offseason of adding players to improve the roster, this Colorado performance looked a lot like 2023 Colorado.
One small bright spot was the defense. Nebraska’s offense had its moments in the first half, but the defense was much better over the third and fourth quarter, even though linebacker Trevor Woods had been ejected for targeting and defensive lineman Chidozie Nwankwo also suffered a forearm injury.
The offense, however, is in shambles and is still incredibly one-dimensional. It relies way too heavily on Shedeur Sanders’ ability to make a play and Travis Hunter’s unquestioned greatness. Sanders did come back into the game for the final four minutes after he took a massive blow to the head earlier in the final frame. He also left the field entirely at the two-minute timeout.
It is certainly going to be another long season if the Buffaloes cannot figure out their offensive line woes. Colorado finished the game with 244 passing yards and just 16 rushing yards.
The line added several transfers in the offseason and a new offensive line coach in former NFL lineman Phil Loadholt. To this point, the group has not found any cohesion. It was overwhelmed consistently by Nebraska’s defensive line.
Without a functioning line and an ability to run the ball, Colorado’s winding road to bowl eligibility is again extremely steep. Especially in the Big 12.
