Colorado’s bye week arrived at the perfect moment, because the Buffs are carrying far too much baggage into Week 6.
A three-game losing streak has stacked up injuries, frustration and another lopsided result, with No. 12 Texas Tech handing Colorado a 29-7 loss that may have been the breaking point. Deion Sanders didn’t sugarcoat it afterward.
“When it comes to you, you have to make it,” Deion Sanders said after the Buffs’ loss to Texas Tech. “But I’m upset that we’re not preparing them rightfully to make those type of plays that we have to make.”
The blunt truth is that Colorado’s problem isn’t talent. It’s been coaching and execution, over and over again, in every loss this season.
The clearest bright spot has been the defense, even with Colorado short-handed against Texas Tech. The Buffs were missing the Big 12 sack leader, Lamont Lester Jr., along with starting linebacker Tyler Martinez, starting cornerback Jason Stokes Jr. and several other rotational players.
None of that stopped defensive coordinator Chris Marve’s group from keeping the game within reach for a long stretch. With seven minutes left in the fourth quarter, Texas Tech had only 15 points.
The Red Raiders eventually finished with 29, but 19 of those came off Colorado turnovers, including a pick-six. Even with the damage, the Buffs’ defense did enough to beat the No. 12 team in the country if the other side of the ball had held up its end.
Texas Tech went just 3-for-12 on third down, and quarterback Will Hammond was limited to a season-low 134 passing yards. That followed another solid outing the week before, when Colorado held Baylor to 23 points. The week after that, DJ Lagway completed just 49% of his passes for 221 yards and a touchdown against the Buffs, then bounced back by completing 63% for 306 yards and four scores at Arizona State.
Through five games, Colorado’s defense has also piled up 43 tackles for loss, which leads the Big 12 and ranks third in FBS behind Virginia Tech’s 51 and SMU’s 46.
Still, Sanders wants more.
“I like many aspects of it,” Deion Sanders said of his defense after the Texas Tech game. “We still broke at the end and a good defense, a great defense, doesn’t break.”
The offensive side has been much harder to watch. Colorado is the lowest-scoring team in the Big 12 at 18.6 points per game, and the quarterback situation has become the season’s most glaring flaw.
Julian Lewis started games before being benched at halftime of the Big 12 opener against Baylor, after the Buffs managed just 24 points in 10 quarters against Power 4 opponents. Sanders then turned to Isaac Wilson, hoping the Utah transfer could spark something. Wilson did open the Texas Tech game with a nine-play, 75-yard touchdown drive, but Colorado went silent after that.
He was asked to drop back 55 times, attempted 44 passes, threw three costly interceptions and showed why he had been third string at Utah last season. Sanders didn’t hide the issue.
“We have one glaring problem,” Deion Sanders said postgame. “You guys know what that is.
Let’s stop the foolishness, man. We have one glaring problem.
“We have to play better at one position.”
The numbers around the red zone tell the same story. Colorado owns the worst red-zone conversion rate in the Big 12 at 64%. Only six of its 14 trips inside the 20 have ended in touchdowns, and only nine have produced points at all.
Over the course of the three-game losing streak, the offense has run 40 drives. Only five ended with points. Seventeen ended in turnovers.
That’s why Brennan Marion’s Go-Go offense is sitting in its worst form yet.
Then there’s the mess that keeps showing up in the details. Colorado is the most-penalized team in the Big 12 at 82.6 penalty yards per game, and the flags have repeatedly wiped out momentum, erased chunk plays and handed opponents extra chances.
Special teams has been even uglier. The Buffs have missed four field goals, the most in the Big 12, including two in the first half against Texas Tech. They’ve also allowed the most punt return yards in the conference at 150 and the most kick return yards at 265, while producing the fewest touchbacks with 10.
Sanders’ choice not to hire a special teams coach is becoming harder to defend, especially after a bizarre sequence against Texas Tech. Colorado had to use a timeout because it only had six players on the field to block a field goal attempt. After the timeout, only nine Buffs took the field for the block, leaving Sanders furious.
It all adds up to the same reality: this is a three-phase sport, and Colorado is failing at least two of them. The bye week gives Sanders and his staff a chance to clean up the mess before top-10 Utah comes to Boulder.
In Other News...
Colorado Fans Can Feel The Pressure Building Around Isaac Wilson
Colorados latest loss, a 29-7 setback to No. 12 Texas Tech, left the Buffaloes searching for answers as the losing streak kept growing and the offense again stalled at a frustrating pace. Isaac Wilson tried to shoulder the blame afterward, and the freshman quarterbacks day summed up the problem in one snapshot: 290 passing yards, one touchdown and three interceptions in a game where the scoreboard never really reflected enough consistent momentum.
Deion Sanders pointed to one position group as the biggest issue holding the team back, though he stopped short of naming it publicly, while also giving the defense credit for keeping the game from getting even further out of hand. For Colorado, the concern now is less about a single bad afternoon than the pressure building around Wilson and an offense that has yet to find a steady rhythm while the losses continue to pile up. [Read more 🡒]
Joseph Williams Is Giving Colorado Something It Desperately Needs
Joseph Williams has become one of the most encouraging parts of Colorados offense over the past month, giving the Buffaloes a reliable target just as the unit has continued to search for stability. Over the last four weeks, he has piled up 30 catches for 431 yards and five touchdowns, production that has helped keep the passing game moving even as the team has worked through a quarterback change with Isaac Wilson now in the starting role.
His latest outing against Texas Tech was another reminder of how important he has become, with 10 receptions for 93 yards and a touchdown in a loss. For Colorado, Williams emergence is more than just a hot streak - it is a sign that the offense may have found a dependable playmaker at a time when it badly needs one. [Read more 🡒]
Arizona State Has A Big 12 Problem Fans Can't Ignore
The Big 12 remains a week-to-week grind, and Colorados narrow miss against Texas Tech fit right into that theme. The Buffaloes were right there in a game that came down to the smallest margins, showing enough offensive spark and defensive fight to leave the impression that they can hang with a lot of the leagues better teams if they clean up a few key moments.
Around the conference, Week 5 brought the same mix of close finishes, steady defensive stretches and uneven offensive stretches that keep the race unsettled. Houstons defense held up well, and several other teams either built momentum or saw it slip away, but Colorados performance stood out because it suggested progress without delivering the payoff, leaving the bigger question of how often that kind of near upset can turn into a win. [Read more 🡒]