In a little over 24 hours, the Colorado Buffaloes will take to Folsom Field in the penultimate game of the 2017 season. A season which started with coaching staff promises of explosive offensive output and dominant offensive line and wide receiver play has instead turned out to be hugely disappointing as the Buffs have struggled to a 4-4 record thus far.
Even if the Buffaloes pull out a win, chances of a second consecutive bowl game are tenuous at best. That's shocking considering that Colorado won 10 games in the regular season last year. Since then, the Buffs have gone 4-6 after getting clobbered in the Pac-12 championship game and their bowl game. That's quite a fall.
Sadly, the head coach more often than not points the blame at his players. It's actually kind of shocking that the guy guaranteed to earn more than $13 MILLION over the next few years whether he stays or not is choosing to blame 18-22 year old kids for the team's shortcomings. It's hard to imagine Eisenhower or Patton blaming the loss of a battle on the privates in the infantry, but that is what MacIntyre does. Of course, Patton and Ike didn't lose many battles.
It stands out even more so this year after Oregon State head coach Gary Andersen walked away from $12 Million owed him because he thought he was under-performing. MacIntyre seems to think he's doing a great job... and that it's just those pesky players who are screwing it all up.
Talk to any sportswriter covering Colorado (or watch a press conference) and it's easy to see that coach Mickey Mac doesn't like to be criticized. Most people don't like to be criticized but MM should know that it comes with the job when you are by far the highest paid state employee.
And although Mac holds criticism of himself in great disdain, it doesn't keep him from publicly criticizing his own players. Who can forget MM saying one of his captains "Didn't know what he was talking about" for daring to point out that the team wasn't ready to play?
And who can forget Mickey Mac having an absolute meltdown on national television against Washington State. Sadly it wasn't even the first time. In 2014, he was fined by the Pac-12 for chasing the officials off the field in a loss to Oregon State. This time, he ignored his own team for several minutes while they had the ball and he was down the sideline frothing at the mouth yelling at the officials.
Already this season, MM has tried to make the case that his team was just a "couple of plays" from being 6-2. That's delusional if he believes it. The closer reality is that the Buffaloes are only a few plays away from being 2-6. Ask any CSU fan.
It's kind of fitting that the game tomorrow is Homecoming. Home is most likely where the team will be spending their holidays this year. Two of the final three games will be played on the road, and USC will be final home game. The Buffaloes have never beaten the Trojans in 11 tries.
It's been suggested that MacIntyre was hoping for another winning season so that he could be hired away by a team from Down South. He doesn't seem to like it here in Shangri-La (aka the Happiest City in America).
If that's indeed the case, he's praying for a couple more victories. Otherwise, he's stuck in Boulder and CU is stuck with him. Nobody wants a coach who follows up a 10 win season and National Coach of the Year awards with unfulfilled promises of glory and a losing season.
Colorado's administration is not about to force out a guy who's owed $13 million, and Mac's not about to walk away empty handed like Gary Andersen. It's purgatory for both sides.
If Colorado does pull out a win, going to a bowl is still a remote possibility. If they lose, however, chances are the team will end the season with only four victories.
Times are desperate for Mike MacIntyre and the Colorado Buffaloes.
Showing posts with label Gary Andersen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gary Andersen. Show all posts
Friday, October 27, 2017
Sunday, October 9, 2016
Colorado Buffaloes Thoroughly Outcoached in 21-17 Loss to USC
The Colorado Buffaloes forced FOUR turnovers against USC, and still managed to lose 21-17 to the Trojans. How did that come about? Let us count the ways.
1. Colorado gave up more than 500 yards to the Trojans.
Much has been made of the fact that the Buffaloes do not use their tight ends for anything other than blocking. It's certainly OK to not have tight ends be used for catching passes, but Colorado seems to think that nobody else uses their tight ends to catch passes either. In their two losses so far this season, the Buffs were lit up over and over by tight ends.
Against Michigan, All-American Jake Butt was wide open so often one would have thought he was wearing a stealth jersey that made him invisible to Colorado defenders. Butt caught seven passes for 87 yards, and was the only Wolverine player with more than two catches.
USC scored three touchdowns in their victory of Colorado. All three were scored by wide open tight ends. Daniel Imatorbhebhe and Tyler Petite only caught a total of four passes between them, but their 3 TD's provided all the scoring the Trojans would need to win their 11th straight against Colorado.
2. Colorado needs to work on their tackling.
One of the most frustrating things of watching the game was the sheer number of times that the Buffaloes hit a Trojan player behind the line of scrimmage or well short of a first down... only to have the SC player squirt away for positive yardage or gain another back-breaking first down.
Despite all the numerous times the Buffs hit the ball carrier behind the line of scrimmage, the Buffs ended the game with only ONE tackle for a loss on the day. The failure to wrap up Trojan ball carriers kept the Buffs D on their heels all day long.
3. The Colorado coaches failed to call long pass plays (The Buffs bread and butter) until too late in the game.
Colorado could not get their ground game going because the Trojans were crowding the line of scrimmage with up to SEVEN defenders. It made it nearly impossible to run on the Trojans and the Buffs play callers chose to have their QB's only throw short passes (until late in the game), allowing the USC defensive backs to have their men in front of them for most of the afternoon.
Even the TV announcers (not normally known for their insight) kept commenting that Colorado needed to spread the field in order to keep the Trojans from loading up the line of scrimmage. Unfortunately, the Buffs did not start doing it until late in the game. It allowed the Buffs to come back from a 14 point deficit, but it turned out to be too little too late.
Buffs QB's ended the game with a paltry 4.3 yards per attempt (less than half their average) and only 7.7 yards per completion. Their longest completion from the QB position was for 22 yards.
Worst of all, one of the "throwaway" deep passes was on the Buffs' last possession. Instead of working for a first down and eating the clock to send the game into overtime, the Buffs instead wasted a down to force third and long. They failed to convert and then chose to kick a field goal. It pulled them within four but they never got the ball back.
4. It was quite obvious that USC coaches came in with specific game plans both offensively and defensively designed to defeat Colorado.
USC crowded the box defensively from the the beginning of the game and dared Colorado's twin offensive coordinators to adjust. They didn't until too late in the game and by then it was too late.
Offensively, the Trojans were only stopped by turnovers. They only punted three times all day. Poor tackling by the Buffaloes let the Trojans hold on to the ball time and time again when they should have been forced to punt.
And when USC got close to pay dirt, they unleashed their tight ends and Colorado acted as if they did not know tight ends were eligible receivers.
5. Lastly, Pac-12 officials are, at best, horribly inconsistent. At worst, they are completely incompetent. #Pac-12OfficialsSuck
The entire USC team was penalized twice on the day (the same number of times the Colorado center was penalized for snap infractions).
The Colorado punter was hammered on one play, but the call was not a personal foul. It was only a 5 yard penalty and was ultimately declined.
On another punt, the official threw a flag for hitting the returner on a fair catch EVEN though the player that hit the returner was on his own team. Granted, after a referee conference they picked up the flag, but did so after inexplicably concluding that the Colorado player was blocked into the returner. The CU player was blocked toward the returner, but managed to avoid hitting him. It was the USC blocker who smashed into his own guy.
Normally, if any team was playing good clean football, one would point to their excellent coaching. In this case, however, the officiating was just awful. The holding being done by the USC offensive team was as blatant as it was uncalled by the refs.
Conclusions?
The Colorado coaches better get on this promptly. Pac-12 coaches adjust very quickly to fellow coaches who fail to adapt their play calling. Arizona State's Todd Graham is coming to town with his Sun Devils next Saturday and they are looking to take Colorado out of first place in the South division. And Graham is one of the best in the conference at attacking weaknesses in game planning.
Colorado coaches are not the only ones not adjusting. David Shaw at Stanford is learning this the hard way, and his Cardinal have given up 86 points in the last two weeks. It could be worse, however. He could be Mark Helfrich, whose Oregon Ducks have given up 162 points in the last three games.
Meanwhile, Washington State has come storming back after two losses to open the season to win three in a row. Even Oregon State's Gary Andersen seems to be turning the corner. His Beavers won their first conference game since 2014. They did it by shutting down Cal's Bear Raid offense in a game which featured 791 yards of RUSHING!
1. Colorado gave up more than 500 yards to the Trojans.
Much has been made of the fact that the Buffaloes do not use their tight ends for anything other than blocking. It's certainly OK to not have tight ends be used for catching passes, but Colorado seems to think that nobody else uses their tight ends to catch passes either. In their two losses so far this season, the Buffs were lit up over and over by tight ends.
Against Michigan, All-American Jake Butt was wide open so often one would have thought he was wearing a stealth jersey that made him invisible to Colorado defenders. Butt caught seven passes for 87 yards, and was the only Wolverine player with more than two catches.
USC scored three touchdowns in their victory of Colorado. All three were scored by wide open tight ends. Daniel Imatorbhebhe and Tyler Petite only caught a total of four passes between them, but their 3 TD's provided all the scoring the Trojans would need to win their 11th straight against Colorado.
2. Colorado needs to work on their tackling.
One of the most frustrating things of watching the game was the sheer number of times that the Buffaloes hit a Trojan player behind the line of scrimmage or well short of a first down... only to have the SC player squirt away for positive yardage or gain another back-breaking first down.
Despite all the numerous times the Buffs hit the ball carrier behind the line of scrimmage, the Buffs ended the game with only ONE tackle for a loss on the day. The failure to wrap up Trojan ball carriers kept the Buffs D on their heels all day long.
3. The Colorado coaches failed to call long pass plays (The Buffs bread and butter) until too late in the game.
Colorado could not get their ground game going because the Trojans were crowding the line of scrimmage with up to SEVEN defenders. It made it nearly impossible to run on the Trojans and the Buffs play callers chose to have their QB's only throw short passes (until late in the game), allowing the USC defensive backs to have their men in front of them for most of the afternoon.
Even the TV announcers (not normally known for their insight) kept commenting that Colorado needed to spread the field in order to keep the Trojans from loading up the line of scrimmage. Unfortunately, the Buffs did not start doing it until late in the game. It allowed the Buffs to come back from a 14 point deficit, but it turned out to be too little too late.
Buffs QB's ended the game with a paltry 4.3 yards per attempt (less than half their average) and only 7.7 yards per completion. Their longest completion from the QB position was for 22 yards.
Worst of all, one of the "throwaway" deep passes was on the Buffs' last possession. Instead of working for a first down and eating the clock to send the game into overtime, the Buffs instead wasted a down to force third and long. They failed to convert and then chose to kick a field goal. It pulled them within four but they never got the ball back.
4. It was quite obvious that USC coaches came in with specific game plans both offensively and defensively designed to defeat Colorado.
USC crowded the box defensively from the the beginning of the game and dared Colorado's twin offensive coordinators to adjust. They didn't until too late in the game and by then it was too late.
Offensively, the Trojans were only stopped by turnovers. They only punted three times all day. Poor tackling by the Buffaloes let the Trojans hold on to the ball time and time again when they should have been forced to punt.
And when USC got close to pay dirt, they unleashed their tight ends and Colorado acted as if they did not know tight ends were eligible receivers.
5. Lastly, Pac-12 officials are, at best, horribly inconsistent. At worst, they are completely incompetent. #Pac-12OfficialsSuck
The entire USC team was penalized twice on the day (the same number of times the Colorado center was penalized for snap infractions).
The Colorado punter was hammered on one play, but the call was not a personal foul. It was only a 5 yard penalty and was ultimately declined.
On another punt, the official threw a flag for hitting the returner on a fair catch EVEN though the player that hit the returner was on his own team. Granted, after a referee conference they picked up the flag, but did so after inexplicably concluding that the Colorado player was blocked into the returner. The CU player was blocked toward the returner, but managed to avoid hitting him. It was the USC blocker who smashed into his own guy.
Normally, if any team was playing good clean football, one would point to their excellent coaching. In this case, however, the officiating was just awful. The holding being done by the USC offensive team was as blatant as it was uncalled by the refs.
Conclusions?
The Colorado coaches better get on this promptly. Pac-12 coaches adjust very quickly to fellow coaches who fail to adapt their play calling. Arizona State's Todd Graham is coming to town with his Sun Devils next Saturday and they are looking to take Colorado out of first place in the South division. And Graham is one of the best in the conference at attacking weaknesses in game planning.
Colorado coaches are not the only ones not adjusting. David Shaw at Stanford is learning this the hard way, and his Cardinal have given up 86 points in the last two weeks. It could be worse, however. He could be Mark Helfrich, whose Oregon Ducks have given up 162 points in the last three games.
Meanwhile, Washington State has come storming back after two losses to open the season to win three in a row. Even Oregon State's Gary Andersen seems to be turning the corner. His Beavers won their first conference game since 2014. They did it by shutting down Cal's Bear Raid offense in a game which featured 791 yards of RUSHING!
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