Last year we heard the same thing after each game. Deion downplayed lack of performance by himself, his staff and the players. I heard the same verbiage in today's press conference.
Unless CU was holding something back, they were not able to run the ball. The OLine got tired and began to allow the pocket to shrink and collapse, despite Deion's praise for their conditioning. This, even though, CU's offense was on the field 13 minutes less than NDSU's offense. So far, CU has not shown itself to be a run up the middle team, partly because the Oline cannot move people and partly because the runs are poorly designed and timed. #44 Charlie Offerdahl did have a few good runs in the middle. Not sure why play after play, especially when they are more towards one side of the hash marks, that CU does not get the ball into the hands of their speedsters behind the line of scrimmage and let them outrun people to the wide side. They should be able to gain a couple of yards at least, but also a lot more. I do not see CU repeating the same play that works, except to Travis and Horn. When Horn dropped the flare pass but was wide open, why not run it again a few plays later? They never did. It's like, I got all these plays and I need to run them all, except when it comes to runs.
Coach Prime said the defense knew NDSU's plays, but he also said they didn't execute the scheme and be in the positions they needed to be, he then equivocated and said NDSU did some things well on offense (the kid was lighting it up, he did a great job of getting the ball to the necessary receivers, we got a lot of picks, a lot of rub routes, a lot of bunch, a lot of yo-yo, they did a lot of things that were effective for them) He then goes on to state how good they are. (Min 1:35) This is contradictory and also contrary to film evidence that shows the LB's didn't know where the ball was on several plays. In other words, even though CU knew what the offense was running, NDSU out-executed them in the first half, and obviously also in the last few minutes of the game.
In the running game he said they have to take what the defense gave them. This is an excuse for the lack of run production. Yet clearly the defense did not give them those last two Travis TD's, yet CU took it anyway. The third TD, if it had been any other player being blanketed like Travis was, Shedeur would not have thrown the ball to that receiver. And if the defense was not giving up the run, why run the ball three times straight and fail to get the first down then and at the end of the game?
I hear several on the team saying it was the first game. Although a win is a win, I also hear Shannon Sharpe when he says you don't accept anything in a win that you won't accept in a loss. Coach Prime said they played better in the 2nd half, which is true, based on number of point; however, on at least two occasions, long runs and a TD by NDSU were called back. Giving up the QB run for a TD to bring the score to 26 points is something that should have been fixed after the first QB run in the first half. There still seems to be a lack of discipline and each defensive player being responsible for an offensive player. Several times, the ends and LB's allowed players to run free. Nebraska ain't no joke. They will throw that rock and pound that rock. Even on the kicking team, Mata's kicks were low, yet he himself said he has improved his range to at least 50 yards.
I heard the TV announcers say the timekeeper started the clock early in the last minute of the game. So if NDSU had one more play, they very well could have beaten CU, mostly due to CU just giving away points, possessions and yardage on the same type of plays. Clearly NDSU players and coaches made mistakes, but this ain't about them.
Listen to what Buffs TV had to say.
It's not the Coaches job to air all the mistakes publicly or be too overly critical of the team, but it is their job to not repeat mistakes and not commit avoidable mistakes such as penalties and blown assignments. Until CU shows steady improvement and reach at least Game 6, there is reason for concern that every game will be a nail-bitter win or a self-inflicted loss. Even last year, if they had played cleaner games, they could have and should have won at least four more games. So this year, I don't want to hear any more reasons for poor or subpar performance or less than clean execution. You're supposed to be a lot better in all position areas, coaching areas and discipline areas. Go out and dominate with your mental focus. Until CU exceeds last year's win total, and do so in the first six games, and do so with outstanding full game play, they should not simply keep saying what amounts to, at least we won and that's what's most important.
I hope CU gets it together and win, win, win (as evidenced by my body of work regarding Deion and the larger spiritual aspect), yet they must be held accountable throughout this process and acknowledge and repair every crack. And never let the game hinge on how the officials call the game. Unless CU is up by 28 points with only three minutes left in the game, no supporter should be at ease.