Monday, September 7, 2009

The Buffs drop their first game

Last night was rough. The Colorado Buffaloes lost their first game of the season 23-17 in a game that was much less competitive than the final score appears.

Colorado made some plays, sure, and they even started the second half with a quick scoring drive. But they struggled to move the ball for most of the game. CU’s opponent moved the ball effortlessly in the first half, then faltered as the game went on, scoring only a field goal in the second half. They gave the Buffs enough of an opening to get back into the game, but CU couldn’t capitalize.

In Boulder right now, you can buy the jerseys of two active players and one legend. The No. 7 jersey belongs to Cody Hawkins, who threw forty passes yesterday. The No. 2 on sale is worn by running back Darrell Scott, who carried the ball once last night for one yard. Is it fair to suggest the coach is putting his son ahead of the team? No, but these are the kind of things that come up when you fall madly in love with airing it out. Rodney Stewart, the team’s leading rusher a year ago, carried a mere six times for thirty-eight yards. His 6.3-yard average carry was better than Hawkins’ 5.6 yards per attempt passing. Perhaps we could have run the ball more.

What felt like it would be a promising season got off to a pretty poor start yesterday. We’ll see how the Buffs respond in their next game, this Friday at Toledo (7 p.m. Mountain, ESPN).

2 comments:

blaine said...

After that game, it's hard to be very optimistic about the Buffs season. I actually thought Hawkins made some good plays but his receivers dropped a lot of balls.

I was expecting to see a whole lot more of Darrell Scott though. Wasn't he one of the top national recruits? Why isn't he running the ball more? Are they really just going to use him on special teams? I understand he came to camp a little out of shape, but I would sure like to see him get some more touches to see what he can do.

John said...

It is going to be a long season. Cody Hawkins has all of the arm strength of my toddler niece, our secondary is as accommodating to guests as a Marriott, and we panicked like the French the minute we got behind.

On the bright side, our kicker can hit it from anywhere on the field. I hope we have the good sense to go for the field goal on every offensive play.